//------------------------------// // Shadow Boxing // Story: My New Life // by Ark125 //------------------------------// My New Life Chapter 16 – Shadow Boxing 10 Hours Later I walked into the patient's room and saw a nurse looking over his charts and readings. “How is he?” I asked. The nurse was so consumed in her work that I startled her. She turned around and bowed. “Oh, Princess Luna. He is doing well. He has responded well to our treatments and his two wounds have been stitched up.” “That is good.” “You're telling me.” A voice said. I turned to the nurse, “Did you say something?” She shook her head. “Strange. I thought I heard somepony speak.” After another minute of silence, I shrugged, “Guess I am just hearing things.” “Princess Luna.” A doctor said, poking his head into the room. I turned around, “Yes?” “There is something you should see. Your husband is already in the viewing room.” I nodded and walked out of the room. Once in the viewing room, I saw my husband, the doctor from before, and another mare I did not recognize. “Hello Pure Heart.” I kissed him on the lips. “Who is this?” I gestured towards the mare. “Crap. You two haven't meet yet. Luna, this is Vapor Sky, our new head of security. Vapor, this is my wife, Princess Luna.” Vapor Sky stepped forward and bowed. “It's a pleasure to finally meet the spouse of my role model.” I looked at her, then looked at Pure Heart. I quickly gave him the 'we will talk about this later' look, the turned back to Vapor Sky. “It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Ms. Sky. I look forward to your service.” The doctor coughed for attention. “Now then, the reason I have asked you here.” His horn sparked and a panel lit up. On the right of the panel was an image of a pony's skeleton. More precisely, a unicorn. “As you can see, this a what a unicorn's skeleton looks like. Notice the horn, confirming this is indeed a unicorn.” He then gestured to the far left of the panel. His horn sparked and another pony skeleton image appeared. “Notice here the absence of a horn, but the presence of wings. This confirms that this is a pegasus.” He then gestured towards the center of the panel. “Now here is the point. This is an image of the patient's skeleton.” His horn sparked one last time and the third image lit up. “This is very peculiar. Never in my years as a medical professional have I seen anything like this. It seems that our mystery pony is not a unicorn, or at least, he didn't used to be.” “He's an alien!” Pure Heart said as he pounded his hoof into the other. We all rolled our eyes. “Um, no. He isn't.” “Are you sure?” The doctor sighed. “I'm 99.99% positive he is not an alien.” “So you don't know.” Pure Heart said righteously indignant. I facehoofed. “Anyways, if you look here, you can see the two points where his wounds were. There are pieces of bone in these places. This suggests that our unicorn used to have wings.” “Meaning he was an alicorn.” Vapor said. The doctor nodded his head. “Indeed. You said that you found him next to a dismembered hydra. I think his wings must have been ripped off in a fight with said hydra.” “That is terrible.” I said. “Doctor!” The nurse from before ran into the room. “The patient is awake!” “Oh. Well then, let us go meet our former alicorn.” We all nodded and filed out of the room. As we walked into the room, I noticed that the patient was having a conversation with somepony. Though it was a strange thing to see, for there was nopony else in the room. Yet, I distinctly heard a familiar voice responding. “I said no. You can't do that here.” The pony said to his right side. “Oh come on! I won't kill anypony. Just harm them a little.” The voice pleaded. “No means no.” “But I am so bored. This place has too much lighting. I can barely stretch my wings.” “And whose fault is that?” “Hey, you are the one who fell into the swamp.” “And you are the one who got bored and decided to piss off a hydra.” “Yeah, but it was fun.” “Getting my wings ripped off by an enraged hydra is not what I would call 'fun'.” The pony air quoted that last part. “Wow, this sounds a lot like a conversation I would have with Ark. I wonder if it was this weird to look at.” Pure said out loud. The pony turned, showing his soulless black eyes. I saw absolutely nothing in them, not even my own reflection. His coat was completely black and it lacked any sheen or luster. His mane was perhaps the strangest part, it was gold with pink bands here and there. “Hey look, two more alicorns. We should kill them.” Said the voice. Vapor stepped forward, blade drawn and at the pony's throat. “You will have to go through me first.” “Ooh. I am so scared.” The voice said in a mock tone. “Dude, she isn't kidding. You should really shut up.” Pure Heart suggested. Something was bothering me about this situation. It was the fact that somepony was talking, yet it wasn't the one with a knife at his throat. “Cut it.” The pony muttered. There was a sudden rush of wind and a sound like a solid object falling to the floor. I looked at the pony and saw that the blade of the knife was no where in sight. Vapor Sky was holding an empty hilt. She was just as astonished and the voice laughed at this. I looked at Pure Heart who looked back at me and shrugged. Turning back to the pony, I spoke, “Who are you?” “My name is ShadowBane. I am from another world.” “I freakin' knew it! He's an alien! I told you! ALIEN!” Pure Heart yelled. “No. I am from Earth. My real name is Drew.” “Oh, you're a human, too.” I said. He nodded. “Yes. I somehow appeared here in Equestria around a week ago.” “He is still technically an alien.” Pure Heard said. I turned to him. “By that logic, you are too. So please, hush.” I turned back towards ShadowBane. “And you were an alicorn?” Vapor asked. Again, he nodded. After that, he stretched and began to get out of the hospital bed. “Don't stress yourself.” The nurse said, reaching out to help. “STEP BACK!” The voice commanded. The nurse quickly retreated back into the hall. “Chill out Maim.” ShadowBane said. The voice grumbled. “Excuse me, who are you talking to ShadowBane?” I asked. “My shadow, Maim.” He gestured to the floor. We all gasped. His shadow had wings and even stranger, it was waving at us and I think it might have been smiling as well. “Hi, I'm Maim, Shadow's better half.” “If by 'better half' you mean 'annoying and evil', then yes. Yes you are.” ShadowBane said. ShadowBane was slapped across the face by his shadow. “Hey, that's not nice. Be he's right. About the evil part I mean.” “Don't worry, I can control him, most of the time.” ShadowBane said to us. I spoke again, “Then the question is: are you evil?” This time he shook his head. “Then you are good?” Pure Heart asked. Curiously, again he shook his head. “I'm more of 'I don't give a crap'. I really don't have a preference.” “Hmm. Well I suppose as long as you keep Maim out of trouble, you are free to go about your business.” I said. “Free to go? Hah! We would have left anyways!” Maim retorted. “Listen here buddy. No one talks that way to my wife.” Pure Heart said to the floor. “Oh my gosh. What are you going to do, step on me?” “HECK YES!” Pure screamed at the floor and started stomping on Maim. Everypony else in the room, including Maim and myself, facehoofed and I decided I needed to be the one to tell him. “Pure Heart, he's a shadow. You can't hurt him by physical means.” “But you can bug him like this.” ShadowBane grabbed a floor lamp and shined it on Maim, who screeched in terror. “The light! It burns!” ShadowBane offered a chuckle in response and set the lamp back down. “Yeah, take that!” Pure scoffed, only to also be slapped in the face. We all laughed as they went at it again. “So what do you plan to do now?” Vapor asked ShadowBane. “Pranking! Fighting! Killing spree!” Maim suggested. ShadowBane thought for a moment. “Bird watching.” Maim groaned in response. “You are so boring.” “Too bad.” He replied to Maim. He turned back to us. “I thank you for your hospitality. See you around.” He saluted in an awkward fashion and then melted into shadows that then dissipated. I looked at Pure Heart. “Well, I am really tired. Shall we go to bed?” “Luna, the sun is setting. We have to go on shift again.” “Darn it!”