“Shadow Shroud!” Fire Fight ran after his friend, picking up the kunai she’d dropped. He knew that even tracing her would likely be quite the task, but he couldn’t leave her to wallow in her blatant emotional distress. Without even having to command them, his band of Battle Foals fanned out to help search for their comrade.
“Where do you think you are all going!?” Knight’s Soul demanded.
Air Slash turned to face his father, looking him right in the eye. “To find our friend, father.” He then went to catch up with his friends.
The adults in the room and the CMC were too befuddled by the sudden happenings to respond right away and just watched as the Battle Foals left. “We should go too.” Film Noir said.
They all looked at her. “Are you crazy? I saw the devil in that filly’s eyes!” Sky Strike said.
“She is the devil, darling!” Rarity declared.
Film Noir shook her head. “Devil or not, she needs her friends.”
“She’s right.” Twilight said. “Even if she appears like a threat, friends may be the thing she’s needed the most.” With some reluctance, the adults followed the foals.
Turf War, Spiral Galaxy, Crazylocks, and Bullseye futily searched around and above storage crates; the second of whom sniffed around like a bloodhound. Air Slash, Valkyrie, and Frostbite took the skies and searched around the masts and crows nest, but to no avail. Zebota tried to divine her location while Quantum Tech tracked heat signatures with her glasses, but it seemed that Shadow Shroud could evade even eyes like that. Greensprout and Kickback asked around the ship if any of its passengers had seen a shadowy filly, but nopony has seen her. Tidal Wave jumped overboard to search around the hull of the ship on the off-chance that Shroud had decided to hang on to it, but even the smallest divots where she could theoretically hide were empty.
All the adults could do was follow the foals’ example, and all Fire Fight could do was all of the above. He stopped where he was and gathered his thoughts. “Where would she hide?”.
“I think you know where.” Said a voice behind him. It was Luna. “You know your friend well, Fire Fight. You need only think of her plight to know where she would take refuge.”
“I do?” Fire Fight asked. He then remembered what he was holding in his hoof: her kunai, a signature weapon of hers and her clan. It was then that he remembered something she had told him recently. ‘I hate being a Shadewalker’. He looked at the small but deadly blade. She was so proficient with it, and yet so scornful if her confession was to be believed. Two twos that shouldn’t go together went together in his head, and he found his answer. “Guys!” he called out. “I think I know where she is! C’mon!” And everyone followed him, Luna included, who smiled fondly at the fiery colt.
They came to a door with a bold label on it saying, ‘Armory’.
“I could swear I searched around here.” Quantum Tech said.
“This is Shadow Shroud we’re talking about. We can’t just scan around. We have to understand her.” Fire Fight said. Without a moment’s hesitation, he opened the door and entered.
The ship’s armory wasn’t very well lit, but there plenty of visible racks of weapons, worn and new alike. It was the perfect hiding spot for a shadow-cloaked killer. “Shroud, I know you’re in here. Please come out!”
“Shroud, we’re sorry if we upset you. Let’s talk this out like friends. Don’t just abandon us like this.” Spiral said.
All was silent as they group slowly advanced further into the dim room. The air was tense enough for any of the stored blades to cut it at any second. A moment later, they heard loud sniffle in the far, dark corner. “Shadow Shroud?” Twilight said.
“Don’t come any closer…” a familiar voice whimpered from the shadows. “I’m… I’m nopony’s friend!” Her voice struggled between aggressive assertion and deep sobbing.
“The hell you talkin’ about, ‘I’m nopony’s friend’? You’re the reason Fire Fight brought us all together!” Turf War said.
“‘Together’!?” Shroud growled. She slowly walked out of the dark corner and into the dim light of a wall torch. The flame burned in her eyes as she glared at the entourage, particularly Fire Fight, but her tears glistened in the light as they fell down her face. “You’re ones to talk about abandonment! The second it seems everything will be ok without me, you drop everything and leave like nothing ever happened!”
“Sister, you know that’s not true.” Greensprout said.
“Oh, really!? It sure seemed true after our uninvited guests gave their motivational speech!” Shroud hissed, staring daggers at the quivering CMC.
“Ms. Shadow Shroud, now we never said we were gonna heed their advice right then and there.” Kickback said.
“You never said anything besides, ‘oh, that’s true’, ‘interesting’, etc.!” Shroud said.
Ms. Fight took a step towards the angered assassin. “I think you need to leave our kids-”
“Mom, don’t!” Fire Fight interjected, startling his mother. “I need to handle this.” He then turned to his friend. “Shroud… you feel trapped, don’t you?”
The ninja affixed her glare onto her friend. “What do mean ‘trapped’?”
Fire Fight showed her the kunai she’d dropped, and she seemed to look upon with disgust. “You want to let go of this, don’t you?” he said. “Right before we fought the giant ice turtle, you told me… that you hated being a Shadewalker.”
All the other Battle Foals were as stunned as Shadow Shroud was agitated. “You kidding me?” Bullseye asked.
“You… renounce your clan’s honor?” Air Slash asked.
“‘Honor’? Ha! A bunch of savage killers like us?” Shroud exclaimed
“You’re not a killer, Shroud, not even a savage. You’re kind, helpful filly. You helped me get my mission started and brought all of us together.” Fire Fight said.
Shadow Shroud’s glare seemed to lighten, but her eyes were still piercing. “D-Don’t… Don’t be stupid.”
“What’s stupid?” Fire Fight asked.
“You… You!...” Any weak foundation trying to uphold Shroud’s composure came crumbling, and she snapped. “I HAVE TO KILL YOU! ALL OF YOU!!!”
Air Slash, Valkyrie, and Knight’s Soul instinctively drew their swords while the CMC cowered behind a sword rack, and the adults ran the sides of the Battle Foals, who all were ready to fight themselves… except for Fire Fight, who remained calm and stoic in the face of a ninja’s wrath.
“Then do it.” Fire Fight handed Shroud her kunai, practically shoving it into her hoof. “Start with me.” he dared her.
“WHAT!?” Cheerilee exclaimed, defining the overall shock in the atmosphere
Shroud instinctively clutched her small blade, but she was dumbfounded at the hand dealt to her, and her face turned to total confusion. She couldn’t believe what had just came out of his mouth.
Flabbergasted as her son’s bold move, Ms. Fight took a fast step towards him. “FIRE FIGHT! WHAT ARE YOU-”
Fire Fight cut her off by manipulating the flame of a nearby torch into her path, careful not to burn her. “No, mom!” he said confidently.
Stunned at his brashness, she anxiously backed off. “Fist, do something!!” she pled. But her husband was as flustered as she was.
The tension couldn’t have been thinner. Shadow Shroud, blade in her shaking hoof, was forced to stare down the fiery colt that had befriended her so long ago. His expression was stern, stalwart even. He wasn’t backing down. “Well?” he said.
Shroud’s hoof trembled violently as she frantically eyed between him and her knife. Her breaths were short and heavy, and her sobbing was beginning to overpower her speech. “N-No…”
“C’mon, Shroud!” Fire Fight said. He held the blade closer to his neck. “You’re a Shadewalker, right? A heartless killer of the night. I’ve exposed you, so I need to die, don’t I? Well, go on! Slit my throat! Take. My. Life!” A hint of sorrow then caused his face to lighten. “Our mission was a failure anyway, wasn’t it?”
Shadow Shroud’s thoughts were going a mile a minute. Her kunai, Fire Fight, the other Battle Foals who all looked on in horror, anxiously anticipating her next move. She could no longer try to keep up the act. She ripped her hoof away from Fire Fight and went into an aggressive, desperate stabbing motion.
“AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!”
“FIRE FIGHT!!!” Ms. Fight exclaimed.
A wave crashed into the ship as the shadow of Shroud’s kunai flew towards Fire Fight…… But he was safe, for the distressed filly had flung her weapon clear across the room far from anypony.
Shadow Shroud broke down completely, sobbing and wailing loudly on the floor as Fire Fight tightly embraced her. “I DON’T WANNA KILL YOU!”
Fire Fight gently stroked her bluish grey mane as he hugged her. “I didn’t think you did.” He wiped away some of her tears.
Everyone in the room was left speechless, namely the Battle Foals, who were watching one of the fiercest, most level-headed creatures they’d ever known be reduced to a pitiable flood of tears. Every adult in the room and the CMC observed her and felt a great deal of sympathy. Knight’s Soul solemnly sheathed his sword along with his son, and Fire Fight’s parents breathed a huge sigh of relief, as did they all.
The Battle Foals all surrounded their friend. “Sister…” Greensprout warmly hugged her, which the crying ninja quickly reciprocated, all of the fillies did while the colts looked on at her sympathetically
“Please… Please don’t leave me!” Shroud pled.
“Leave you?” Frostbite asked. “We did say we’d come back, right?”
“Doesn’t seem as simple as that, dude.” Tidal Wave said.
Twilight then intervened. “I think it’s time we let Shadow Shroud speak from her heart.” She said. She gazed gently upon the distressed filly before her. “Would you, Shadow Shroud?”
Shroud took a big sniffle and nodded. “I was born and raised a Shadewalker, a silent pony of the night ready to take any action necessary to protect Equestria.” She said. “I was a natural at it, always have been, even at birth. I loved it at first; it was all I knew. I was the envy of the whole clan.” She took a deep breath to further calm her nerves. “It wasn’t until field training that I got to see what Equestria was really like. Joyful, colorful, everypony having so much fun just living and playing together.”
“Sounds like that’s where the trouble started.” Valkyrie said.
Shroud nodded. “I loved the idea of being friends with the ponies I was protecting, but then came the day that I witnessed a clan-sister kill a crazed mare intent on blowing up a mining town after she’d been fired from working there. She was as unstable as… a certain somepony.” Shroud took a pause as the troubling vision reared from her memory. “How could I be friends with ponies who normally baulk at the very idea of violence and death when that’s what my life revolves around? And my superiors were always so strict about not making outside contact lest any friends I try to make might have to be… silenced.”
“Whoa…” Sky Strike said. “What made you take the leap that led you here?”
“I was a prodigy from birth, which… caused most of my family to look upon me enviously, especially the other fledglings. I never felt quite like I belonged.” Shroud answered. “So when all my training was completed early and I was thrust out into the world, I isolated myself even from other Shadewalkers. I eventually found myself in the Sister’s Castle near Ponyville where I decided to stay. I’d heard that a student of Her Highness had recently moved there, so I thought it’d be a good idea to keep an eye on her.” She looked at Twilight, barely managing a smile.
Twilight smiled back. “Well, thank you, Shadow Shroud.” She said. “What next?”
“A year had passed of nothing happening that wasn’t out of anypony’s control, so I just survived and observed.” Shroud answered. She then faced the red colt embracing and smiled. “And then Fire Fight came along.”
“You took a shine to him, didn’t you, darling?” Quantum Tech asked.
Shroud nodded. “A pony who liked to fight, somepony who wasn’t afraid of violence or having to hurt somepony else, even if it meant hurting himself. Truly a rare breed amongst our kind… just like me. I finally had somepony I could connect with, so I tried getting his attention; and when he decided to run away, I seized my chance to make friends with him.”
Fire Fight chuckled. “By challenging me to a fight.” He fondly remembered the startling encounter.
“I honestly thought it was a good ice breaker. We both like to fight, so it’d be common ground. I really didn’t know any better.” Shroud said. “When he had the idea to find other foals that needed our help, I was ecstatic. I was going to have so many friends just like me! And I didn’t have to necessarily expose myself in the process. I was going to have freedom from my isolation.” She deeply sighed. “I know that sounds incredibly selfish of me, but… I always meant the best, I promise.”
Kickback’s dad fixed his hat. “Well, have mercy…”
Shroud’s tears started to overtake her again. “Please… I know I can’t force you to come or go anywhere, but… I don’t want to be alone again.” She rested her head on the crook of Fire Fight’s neck.
“Oh… you poor, poor darling.” Rarity said.
“You don’t have to be alone.” Said a voice from the other side of the room. In came Princess Luna, who no one noticed wasn’t even with them up until now.
“Hey! Don’t you know it’s rude to walk in on somepony’s character development?” Crazylocks said.
Luna giggled. “Apologies. I had to let The Battle Foals help their friend heal her heart.”
“All is understood, O Royal One.” Zebota said. “But is there not a complication of Shadow Shroud’s oath to secrecy? Surely there will be consequences.”
“That’s what I’m most afraid of right now.” Cheerilee said.
Shroud deeply sighed once more. “Honestly… I can’t say.”
The CMC mustered the courage to approach. “Well, whatever happens, we’re your friends too!” Scootaloo declared.
“Yeah. You might be kinda scary, but Ah know a good heart when Ah hear one!” Applebloom said.
“Besides, you had enough faith in us with those cannons, didn’t you? You can be friends with anyone!” Sweetie Belle said.
Shroud smiled as her tears subsided. “Thank you… all of you.” She said. “But I really do have Fire Fight and the Battle Foals to thank for introducing me to what real friendship is.”
“Man! Don’t sweat it! We all homies in the end.” Turf War said.
“I could not have said that better myself!” Quantum said. “Well… maybe.” Turf War rolled his eyes at her.
Shadow Shroud’s tears seemed to dry completely, and she giggled heartily. She then let go of Fire Fight and stood up.
“I hope you’ll forgive my prior hostility… all of it, even before today.”
“All in the past, young filly.” Knight’s Soul said.
“You mean that, father?” Air Slash asked.
Knight’s Soul nodded. “Yes. In turn, I would ask you pardon my own. I was foolish to jump to conclusions.”
“All of us were, darling.” Rarity said.
Looking around, it seemed everypony was content with the dangerous filly that had threatened their lives. “Thank you.” Shroud said. She took a deep breath, and her confidence returned to her. “Then I suppose the next thing to worry about is the snow day fanatic and their unneighborly blizzard.”
“Yeah. The best thing we can do right now is recuperate and think up a strategy.” Tidal Wave said.
“I think that’s a great idea. I can’t wait to formally meet you all anyway!” Twilight said.
“The feeling is mutual, Royal One.” Zebota said, humbly bowing his head.
Fire Fight’s parents then suddenly, and very tightly embraced him. “Oh, honey! Don’t you ever scare us like that again!” his mom pled.
“I couldn’t believe you actually went through with that. I’m… honestly kinda proud of you.” Fist said. “Even though…”
“I know, dad. And… sorry about that. Drastic times call for drastic measures.” Fire Fight said. His mother kissed him before the two of them let go, and everypony walked out of the room.
“Hey…” Before Fire Fight could make his way out with everyone else, Shadow Shroud grabbed him by the shoulder, so he turned to see her smiling face. She threw her arms around his neck before anything else could be said. “Thanks so much.”
Fire Fight hugged her right back. “Of course.” The two ended up sitting down and hugging for a little longer than expected. “You’re more than just some Shadewalker. You’re Shadow Shroud above all else.”
“I just hope nothing happens…” Shroud said.
Fire Fight leaned his head back so he could look at her. “If anything does, well… Promise you won’t stab me for this, okay?”
“For what?” Shroud asked. The next thing she knew, Fire Fight had pressed his lips onto hers. Though initially startled, the little ninja excitedly pulled him closer and enjoyed the blissful moment that felt like it could go on forever…