" GET YOUR LAZY ASSES UP!" yelled the captain's temporary replacement. Dark Shadow open his eyes, and hopped out of bed, stretching his limbs. He looked around and saw that the other guards were waking. " 10 LAPS AROUND THE TRACK! MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!!!" Dark Shadow walked out of the door into the fresh, night air.
Dark Shadow passed many guards on his way to the track, but was stop by a fellow night guard. " Hey, rumor has it that you defeated the captain. Is that true?" Dark Shadow looked down at the guard and nodded his head before continuing his walk to the running track. He reached the track and got into a running position, while waiting for the replacement captain to give the word to start.
" READY ... SET ... GO!" Dark Shadow gave a small amount of his true speed to find himself in front of the running team. After about a minute, sompony pulled up beside him. The other guard, thinking he was funny, stuck out a hoof, intending on tripping Dark Shadow. When the hoof was stuck out, the only thing there was air, and not a pony. Instead, Dark Shadow was running backwards in front of him. The night guard had a combined emotions of awe, confusion, and anger on his face. Before the guard could do another thing, Dark Shadow spun around, and applied massive pressure to the ground under his hooves, which made him rocket three time as fast as before.
In a few minutes Dark Shadow had run all his laps and walked up to a awe struck captain. " Damn soldier! Your sure as hell fast, and your breathing hasn't changed at all." Dark Shadow nodded before standing beside the captain.
Dark Shadow waited several minutes for the rest of the guards to finish there laps, before gaining the next order. Group fighting. Dark Shadow was paired with two muscular stallions, that came to about the middle of Dark Shadow's neck.
It was eventually decided that they would both team up on Dark Shadow, because of his size, and rumored skills. Dark Shadow stood on his hind legs, while getting into a defensive position. The two stallions charged at the awaiting Dark Shadow. They both turned around, and bucked there back legs to try to over power Dark Shadow, but did not find the satisfying physical contact of bucking him. Their hooves found nothing but air, but their faces were meet with a powerful punch, that made them slide back several feet. Before either could react, one of them had there hind leg grappled, and was sent flying from being heaved upwards. The grounded guard looked at Dark Shadow, but his face was meet with a hoof, which made his body turn 180 digress. He grabbed the now turned stallions hind leg with a hoof, then swung his body in a arc, which connected with air born stallion. There was the sound of bones cracking and armor clashing together when the connected, but there was twice as many cracks and clashes when they were both smashed into the ground.
Luckily for the guards, they both fell into unconsciousness when they first made contact into each other, but they were most likely not going to be on guard duty for awhile. Dark Shadow looked over to a awed captain. He jumped down from the stone ring, landing on all fours, and walked towards the captain. " Sir, I believe the duel is over." Before a word left the replacement captain mouth, a white hoof was put on his shoulder.
" Its time for my duel, captain." The voice and hoof belonged to Shining Armor. Shining armor was dressed in his normal violet armor, but had a helmet, matching his armor, and a broadsword strapped to his side. " Are you ready to duel me, Dark Shadow?", Dark Shadow nodded and stepped back onto the stone platform. Upon reaching the stone arena, the two he had beaten before were just now pulled of the stone platform by medical units. He walked over to the far side of the ring, and stood on his hind legs, while unsheathing his spear and sword.
" GO SHINING ARMOR!" Screamed a lavender mare, and a pink mare. Dark Shadow looked in there direction to find Twilight Sparkle, and Pinkie Pie yelling, while the rest of the Element Bearers were waiting for the duel to began. Celestia was behind them with a motherly smile on her face. Cadence was also spectating, but had a worried look on her face.
He brought his attention back to a glowing Shining Armor. He had a small amount of magic flowing off his eyes. With out warning, Shining Armor teleported next to Dark Shadow, while swinging his, now unsheathed, broadsword with a magic grip. Dark Shadow move his head aside just in the nick of time, for the tip of the blade hardly missed Dark Shadow's face. While moving his head, he spun his spear, and shot the tip of the spear forward, but only to have Shining Armor teleport away.
Dark Shadow felt his magic move behind him, so he jumped a few feet away, before throwing his spear at the collecting magic. The magic formed into Shining Armor, who moved his head to the side, but earned a deep gash across the check. Now that Shining Armor was distracted, Dark Shadow shot forwards like a bolt of lightning. He jumped a foot in the air, while spinning around once , but not before sticking out one of his hind hooves, which made contact with the side of Shining Armor's head. Luckily for Shining Armor, he had put a body shield on, which shatter, but only moved him back a couple of inches.
While Shining Armor recovered the attack, Dark Shadow swung downwards, but Shining Armor recovered fast enough to defend himself. Shining Armor brought his sword up to bat away Dark Shadow's, but Dark Shadow's blade stayed stationary against his blade. Shining Armor focused all his magic to his sword, attempting to push away Dark Shadow, but failed. Shining Armor was growing tiered, and his broadsword was constantly wobbling against Dark Shadow's , unmoving, sword. Before anypony realized it, Dark Shadow had a grip on the handle of Shining Armor's sword. Dark Shadow pulled with little of his strength, which tore it away from its magical grip.
Dark Shadow struck out a hind hoof, which made contact with Shining Armor's breastplate. The contact with the breastplate both made it shatter like glass, and made the wearer fly backwards a few feet.
Shining Armor was laying on his back, right next to the edge of the stone ring. He looked down at his chest, only to find it impaled with hundreds of tiny shards of metal. His view was interrupted with a hoof grabbing him by the neck. He was lifted to eye level of Dark Shadow. There was painful pressure in his lungs as he looked into the eyes of Dark Shadow. In Dark Shadow's eyes, were filled with sorrow, pain, and anger, but not with out massive amounts of power. There was no love, friendship, or remorse behind the stone like, yellow eyes. Before any more thought could be put into the matter, a hoof smashed into Shining Armor's face, which rendered him unconscious.
Dark Shadow tossed the unconscious stallion off the ring before looking at a shocked group of ponies. Dark Shadow jumped of the platform with his sword, and Shining Armor's sword crossed across his back. When he landed, he dropped to all fours, and walked over to the spectating ponies. Upon reaching the group, there was a huge magic spick coming from Cadence. Gritting her teeth, she shot a bolt of electricity at Dark Shadow, which was deflected by Dark Shadow pulling out his sword, and swiping it sideways. The blade was glowing red from the intensity of the electricity. " YOU WILL PAY FOR HARMING HIM!!!" Cadence said before spreading her wings, and shooting towards Dark Shadow.