//------------------------------// // New goals // Story: The New Life of Shadow Ironsword // by ShadowIronsword //------------------------------//  As I pulled up, barely managing to do so with the shadow trying to ram into me, I turned over so that my back was facing the ground and kicked out, catching the shadow in the stomach and sending it flying backwards. But I also got kicked back a bit, causing me to skid along the ground for a few seconds. I pulled up, trying to get the vantage point and dive down, but when I turned around to scan the airspace below me it was gone. I shook my head and breathed a sigh of relief. What in tartarus was that? It moved almost as fast as me, but was about the size of a normal pegasus. I turned and made to take off flying again only to be blocked off by another shadow, this one a massive gryphon, at least two heads taller than me. I blinked and gulped, looking up and trying to look the gryphon in the eye, but it was seemingly made of shadow. It reached out grabbed me and threw me at least fifty feet. Spreading my wings I broke and came to a stop before hitting a tree that was directly behind me. “What in tartarus do you want!?” I screamed. The massive figure reared its head back, seemingly in surprise. I caught the faint sign of movement in the corner of my vision, and turned towards it. There was the original shadow and two more pegasi shaped ones. One of the new arrivals was as big as me and carried what looked to be a club. The other was much smaller, at least three heads below me. It seemed to carry no weapons, but there was a glint of metal near her hooves from the moonlight coming from behind a band of clouds. A markedly feminine voice came from the middle pegasus as she said, “Well, well, well Shadow. You’ve put up far more fight than I’d thought was possible from a mutt, but hey I’ve known other half-breeds with skill to match yours.” She laughed and threw her head up, starting to full on cackle. She stopped and centered her head back on me. Even though I couldn’t see her eyes I could feel her eyes burrowing through me, scoping me out. The massive gryphon appeared in my peripheral and I felt a massive talon land on my wither. A thick russian accent came out as he said, “Land, now. I do not vant to hurt you, little mutt, but I vill, if I have to.” I gulped and backed off, putting some distance between me and the group of four mysterious individuals.   I felt my face harden, and my eyes sharpen into a glare. “I hate repeating myself, what in tartarus do you want? Did Smokey send you? What the hell are you gonna do?” A much higher  feminine voice came from the smaller pegasus as she said, “Look, hun, we don’t wanna hurt you. But we’ve got a contract to fulfill. I’d hate to see something happen to ya, but it comes with the job sometimes.” She had a coat of silver and a black mane. My eyes widened slightly and then I squinted and glared at the supposed ring leader. The one who was in the middle of the three pegasi. “So, you’re just mercs then? I’ve dealt with my fair share of them before. What makes you so special? And you still didn’t answer if Smokey sent you.” I felt my hackles rise and my expression turned seething. What are you? You move like a group, so unlike the mercs i’ve run into the past.  The middle one gave two simple flaps of her wings and came into the direct moonlight, where I could see her. She wore a uniform not unlike that of the wonderbolts, except this had purple and black as the main colors, with yellow lightning bolts running throughout the fabric. Beyond that she had a yellow coat and purple mane. “We are the shadowbolts, and we haven’t been sent by anyone. We have recognized that you have skill as a fighter and have potential as a mercenary.” I felt a cold shiver run through me as she spoke. She had a powerful sort of presence about her, as if she could take anything on and win. I gave a smirk, trying to cover the fact that this mare truly intimidated me. “So, you’re just wonderbolt wannabes? You couldn’t get in there so you go around killing and kidnapping for bits?” I sneered, lifting my lip up and exposing my teeth. “That’s despicable.” The pegasus who was about my size spoke then, his deep gravely voice sending shivers through me. “I told you, Night. He’s not the type to do mercenary work. He’s got too much of hero complex to do our kind of work.” His dark grey coat shifted as he landed on the ground below us and sat down, seemingly waiting on my response. The middle one, I guess named Night, sighed and said, “I guess you’re right, D.” She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head in a confused and exasperated sort of movement. “I don’t know what we’re gonna do now.” I lifted my eyebrow and frowned slightly. “So that’s it then, was all that really necessary for just asking me to join your little group.” The little one, who I still hadn’t caught the name of spoke up. “Oh, no, we can’t have you go around telling everyone about us, now can we? No, we’ll have to wipe your memory.” My eyes went wide with shock and I flapped my wings once to try and get away, only to hit the massive wall that was the gryphon. Two massive arms closed around me, locking me in place. “Good work Valk, ya positioned yourself just right, as always.” I struggled in the grip of the massive gryphon, but couldn’t go anywhere. I was stuck with no way to get out. Crap, what in tartarus am I gonna do now? What are they gonna do to me? I started to panic and I opened my jaw wide and bit down on Valk’s arm in a desperate attempt to get out. All it did was piss him off and I felt the gryphon tighten his grip around my neck. My vision started to slowly fade to black and I made a weak call for help. I felt a rumbling of the gryphon’s chest, but couldn’t make out what he was saying. “Valk, let him go, wouldn’t do to kill him now. He’ll play a part in our plans, whether he wants to or not.” I felt a thud as the gryphon hit the ground and released me. I landed with an ‘oof’ and started to gasp for air, grasping at my chest and throat. Before I could properly recover I felt the tingle of magic and felt my vision start to go again, but not from suffocation. It was almost like I was going to sleep. I blinked a few times as I woke up. Rolling over and sitting up on my haunches I yawned, the blanket that was on me sliding off me. I blinked a few times and looked around. I was in my room? I looked around again, moving my head towards the door. I lifted my head and yawned again. That must have been a harder flight than I thought. I don’t remember a bit of it. I felt something tugging at the back of my head, like an odd loose string of fabric in a sweater. Why can’t I remember the flight? I pushed it out of my head and got up shook myself out. I jumped down and went over to the door to the hallway. I opened and headed down to the living room. I found dad sitting there on the couch, sipping a cup of coffee and reading the morning paper. He looked up and saw me standing there. He smiled and waved at me. “Morning, Shadow. You really slept in this morning.” I yawned and made my way over to the kitchen door. “Shadow, you realize you’re already late for your training with Scripts filly?” I gasped and looked at the clock, it read ten O’clock. I felt my eye twitch and I turned around to look at the shit eating grin my dad was wearing. “Oh, haha, very funny.” I stuck my tongue out at him and started walking backwards into the kitchen. Once in there I closed the door and heard my dad laughing his plot off and grinned myself. “He did get me, didn’t he?” I sighed and walked over to the coffee pot. Finding it still on and the liquid energy still hot I poured myself a cup. I guess I’ll just have to get back at him somehow. I looked at the clock and sighed again. He was right about one thing though. I did sleep in really late, which isn’t unusual after a night flight. But I don’t think I’ve slept this late in forever. I sipped at the now full mug and smiled. “Oh, well, I guess. I’ll just have to make due.” I made my way out of the kitchen and found dad wiping a tear from his eye. “Come on, old timer, time to head to the forge.” “No, you get some breakfast, I’ll head down there now and open it up.” He waved a hoof at me and got up from the couch and headed to the front door. I smiled and went back into the kitchen, made up a bowl of oatmeal, and dug in. Noticing the pile of mail on the counter I brought my bowl over, and set it down. Picking up the pile, I began to leaf through it and pick out what was junk and what was important. “Trash, trash, keep, keep, keep, tra-” I felt my eyes go wide. It was a letter from Page. I set the rest down and opened the letter with a claw. Inside it read: Dear, Shadow Ironsword,         Hey, Shadow! I was going to get together with some of my friends here in Canterlot tonight-I know it’s a bit short notice- and I was curious if you’d be willing to come and hang out with us? I’d understand if you can’t make it and would like to know if you and the others are planning anything soon. I blinked, and felt a giddy grin starting to spread across my face, and I began to laugh. “Hay yeah, I’m coming tonight!” I quickly scribbled out a return letter and prepped it for mailing. “Alright, now I’ll just have to stop by the mail post before I head to the forge. I walked into the forge with a giddy smile still on my face and a spring in my step. He gave start and put down the hammer he’d had in his magic, took off his goggles and looked at me. “Hey, Shadow.” He raised one of his eyebrows at me. “Weird of you to be back here. You normally stay up in the training rooms. What’s up?” I gave a little chuckle. “Get this, Val: I just got a letter from Page, and she basically just asked me if I’d want to go out on a night on the town with her!” I grinned excitedly. I shook my head and said, “Anyways, I was looking for dad to see if he’d need me after hours today.” He nodded and gave a grin of his own, then clapped me on the withers and said, “Well, sounds like you’ve got a hot date!” I exhaled loudly and blinked. “Val, I don’t think it’s like that! Even if we did kinda add to our little clique, I’m not sure I’d want to do that yet.” Val gave me an unimpressed look, frowned and shook his head. “Whatever you say dude. Just keep it in the back of your head, okay? She starts making moves, and ya might just have a good time tonight. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. And don’t think I didn’t miss that ‘yet’, Shadow” He wagled his eyebrows and I felt my face get warm. I shook it and blew out my cheeks, trying to rid myself of the blooming blush. I frowned and looked at the ground. “I dunno, Val. I don’t think I’m ready for that kind of thing with anyone, let alone a mare I basically just met.” He waggled his eyebrows and laughed again, before dropping into a more normal expression. “Though seriously, Shadow, keep an open mind, will ya? And as to your dad’s whereabouts, I don’t know. Haven’t really seen him all day, in fact.” He brought his hoof up to his chin and tapped it a few times. “Now that I think about it he mentioned something about sorting stuff out at the warehouse, since it’s been a while.” He moved towards me and put his hoof on my withers. “Hey take the night, I’ll do whatever your dad thinks he needs done around here, okay?” I felt my lips lift upward into a smile and hugged Val. “Thanks, Val. I’ll talk to ya before I head out okay?” He nodded and threw back on his goggles and picked up the hammer in his magic once again. I smiled, a bit brighter this time, and headed out into the lobby. I spotted the receptionist and waved her over. She walked up with a happy smile on her face. “Can you give my dad a note when he gets back to the forge? I’d really appreciate it.” She nodded and grabbed a pad of paper from her desk, and walked back over. I cleared my throat. “Dad, sorry I couldn’t get this info to you on a longer notice, but I’d hoped to take tonight off to head to Canterlot. Page sent me a letter inviting me to hang out, and I’d like to go. However, if you have something for me to do, I’ll do it. Again sorry about the short notice.” I nodded and brought a paw over my throat, signaling I was done with the note. “Thanks, Rec, have a nice day.” She nodded happily again, and went to sit at her desk, and began scribbling away at some kind of paper. I smiled again and headed for the first training room. “Okay time to get down for some training of my own.” I looked in the corner and spotted a new set of wingblades, looking much sleeker and cleaner than the previous design. There was a note that read: Hey, Shadow, I made a new design for the wingblades, can ya give them a try and see how they feel? I tried to slim it down, so it wasn’t so hard to fly with. Thanks! I looked at the wingblades again. They were indeed slimed down, the outer casing that surrounded the blade itself was barely as thick as an inch. I tapped the casing and found it was still just as hard as before. “Oh, you didn’t use the dragon scales on a prototype, did you, Val?” I shook my head, but got the blades on. It took quite a bit more effort than I had thought it would. “Aargh! Come on, just gotta reach for the strap!” I saw a field of amber colored magic surround the strap I was currently trying to reach and saw it snap into place and tighten. The distinct sound of chuckling followed. “Having fun, Shadow? Seems like you were having a bit of difficulty with that strap.” I grumbled good naturedly and said, “Yeah, yeah. I’m not used to getting these things on yet. First time I’m really putting them on.” I shook my head and looked up to Amber. “What are you doing here anyways, Amber?” “Oh, I was just checking up on Valor. He said he’d meet me for lunch today, and I just want to make sure he doesn’t lose track of time, again.” She got a kind of annoyed expression on her face. She shook her head and tried to bring her face back to it’s usual happy smile. I narrowed my eyes and sighed. “Val didn’t come home last night, did he?” Her ears folded back and she shook her head. “No, he didn’t. He’d had reservations to a restaurant, but since he was working on these I guess he didn’t have time for our date.” She sighed in exasperation. “Sometimes I swear I’m second to his work.” I winced and nodded. “Yeah, it can seem that way sometimes. Especially when he’s caught up in a big project from dad. He is a bit of a hermit, as I’m sure you’ve noticed by now.” She looked shocked. “Wait, so he’s put you off in the past? I thought you two were like the best of friends.” I nodded my head to the left and right and said, “Yeah, we are. But he’s got his work, and I respect that. He’s always been passionate about his work. Especially when he’s working on an invention of his, or something for someone he cares about.” I shrugged my shoulders and tugged my lips downward slightly. “I dunno if he’s got something for you, but I’ve barely seen any of him lately. He’s normally at least around to talk to.” She looked downcast. I raised a paw up to her chin. “Which means he’s got more than these two projects going on.” She smiled sadly. “Okay, I guess I can accept that. I mean if you’ve put up with it for years I’m sure it can’t happen that often.” I smiled and said, “Well yeah, and knowing how to get him out of his little funk usually helps too.” She chuckled and said, “And how does one do that?” I raised my paw and gave a cheeky grin. “Ah, my young grasshopper, I do not share my secrets so easily!” She gave me a weird look. “Okay how do I earn the right, oh great and powerful Shadow?” I smiled impishly and looked down. “By helping me get the rest of these straps on.” She threw back her head and laughed loudly. “I’m serious! I can’t get these last three. I raised my wing and pointed to the last three along the device. She continued chuckling and lit her horn. I felt the last three straps snap and tighten and gave an experimental flick of wings. The blade clicked out and snapped into place, making it perfectly viewable. I whistled when I saw the black edge running all the way up the blade. “Damn, he did a better job than I thought he would. He used so little of one scale for this.” I backed up a bit and began to give the wingblades experimental swings. “Hey, Amber, can you launch a spell at me. I don’t care, as long as it’s not gonna do any serious damage.” She nodded, lowered her horn and blasted a spell at me. I crossed the blades in front of me and the spell fizzled the instant it hit the blade. I heard a whistle and saw my dad walk in behind Amber. “Looks like Valor did it. The crazy son of a gun did it.” He shook his head ruefully and said, ”I guess I owe him two hundred bits.” He turned and started to leave before snapping his head around and gently hitting his head with a hoof. “Duh, hold on, Shadow.  About the whole thing of you taking off. It’s fine, anything I could ask you to do, I can ask Valor to do. Go have some fun with her. Heck, why don’t you take Amber here? I’m sure you could all have a ton of fun.” Amber sputtered and began to wave her hooves in front of her. “I can’t go with him! I wasn’t invited, Vanguard. It would be rude to assume that I would be allowed to go, just because she invited Shadow.” Dad gave her an annoyed look and waved his hoof towards himself. “Come over here.” Amber did so, and dad leaned down and whispered in her ear. At first her face was shocked, then turned to a sort of devious grin. She backed up and glanced at me quickly. “I don’t know, Vanguard, do you think…?” He nodded a calm expression on his face. “I do.” I growled and stomped a paw. “Okay, what’s going on here? I don’t like secrets. I’m all for pranks, but this doesn’t sound like a prank.” Dad faced me and gave a grin. “You’d be right, Shadow, It’s not a prank, but you’re not finding out. I, unfortunately for you, do like secrets. Especially those involving this specific topic.” He turned to Amber and nodded, then turned and exited the room. I sputtered and waved my paws in front of me, my mouth wide open. “What in tartarus was that!?” I turned to Amber who was trying desperately not to giggle. “And I suppose you’re not going to share?” She waved a hoof in front of her and said, “Nope! It’s a top secret secret.” She paused and giggled again. “Okay, kind of redundant, but no less true.” I huffed and crossed my forelegs over my chest and pouted, my ears folding back. “You’re no fun.” She giggled again and raised an eyebrow at me. “Well, Shadow? You told me you’d tell me how to snap Valor out of his funk.” I huffed and looked away from her, then a thought occurred to me. “I’ll tell you if you tell me what dad told you.” A wicked grin crossed my face. She raised her eyebrow even higher. “That wasn’t the agreement, Shadow. But, I guess I could give you a hint. It has to do with Page.” I blinked and got a blank expression on my face. “Hahahaha! That’s the best expression I could hope for.” She collapsed on the ground and started to giggle uncontrollably. I gave a flat look and huffed. “So was that a real hint, or not?” She took a deep breath and tried to collect herself. “Yup, that was a real hint.” I rolled my eyes. “I kinda already guessed something along those lines, but okay. All you need to do to get Val out of his funk is to offer free food. Any kind ‘ll do, but it usually is best to take him somewhere fast food.” She raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?” I nodded. “Okay then, I guess I’m already doing that, so that’s good.” She gave me a grin and started to walk out of the room. “Wait, Amber!” She stopped and turned around, a curious look on her face. “Are you actually gonna be coming with me?” She nodded. “Okay, well before you go, could you make me a puppet to practice on?” “Sure, Shadow.” She closed her eyes and her horn began to glow a bright amber color. A sigil started to form on the ground and spin slowly. She scrunched up her eyes, in concentration and a sign of effort. The sigil flashed brightly as it finished and was spinning much faster. A pegasus figure spawned out of it. Amber huffed and panted, several beads of sweat dripping from her brow. “There, that should last the rest of the day. And when you defeat one, it should break apart, then reform on the sigil.” She pointed to the sigil at two specific smaller circles near the edge. “These will change the speed and strength of the summon.” I felt my jaw drop. “And when did you learn to do all that? That seems like weird magic for a med to know.” She smirked and lifted her head a bit higher. “You know I originally trained to be a combat medic, right?” I blinked twice and my expression went blank. She looked left and then back to me, then brought a hoof up to the back of her neck and rubbed. “Yeah, I was trained in these kinds of spells, as well as healing spells. They help me determine whether a soldier was fit for battle.” “Well then, I honestly didn’t know that. Is that why you’re taking care of the vets down at the center, then?” “Yep.” “Okay then, I guess I’ll let you get to doing whatever it was you were doing. I’m gonna try to get some training in before Script’s filly comes by later.” She nodded and headed out the door, closing it behind her. I shook my head to try and clear it. Gotta focus on this. I turned back to the sigil and set the two dials to about halfway and tapped the sigil. Immediately the summon jumped forward and tackled me, sending me to the ground. I pushed up with my wings and kicked out with my hind legs, getting it off me. In the air it twisted, making it land on it’s hooves. Huh, this might actually be a challenge. I charged forward and flicked out my wings on either side of me, making the only two possible escape routes up or back. Being a pegasus, it’ll be up. It took off and tried to make a dive onto my head. I rolled to the left and when I landed on my paws flicked out my right wing, causing the summon to lose it’s balance, and making it crash into the ground. I jumped onto it’s back and brought both blades up to it’s throat in a finishing hold. It didn’t disappear making me realize I needed to actually go through a killing motion. I slid both wingblades across the neck of the summon and pulled them back to my sides. Just as promised it shattered into a million pieces and reformed in the circle again. I looked at the sigil and spotted another circled, this one closer to the center of it. “Hmm, I wonder.” I reached out and turned, it clicked, slotting into a preset. The figure of the summon changed to that of an earth pony. Again, and it was a unicorn. Every time I turned the dial, it changed to that of another species of Equus. I finally reached the wolven setting and paused there. Why? Why do they have all of these? Some of them I understand, like the gryphons, since we are constantly on and off in war with them, but the wolven? Equestria and wolvenguard haven’t fought in almost three centuries. I scoffed and turned it back to the unicron setting. “Might as well get some practice with these things while deflecting spells.” I tapped the circle and the whole routine set over again. Blade walked into the main lobby tentatively, sporting a black eye, and a cut above the other. I hardened my face and walked briskly up to her. I growled out, “What in tartarus did I say about brawling?” My voice was cold as ice, and fae as hard as stone. She winced but looked at me with pleading eyes. “I didn’t! I got these from some punks that came after me when I didn’t show for the fight I was supposed to be at after our training yesterday.” She looked down and to the left. “I didn’t even fight back when they started hitting me, I just tried to fly away as fast as I could.” I sighed and let my shoulders sag. I pulled her into a light hug. “It’s okay.” I pulled back and looked her in the eyes, a caring expression on my face. “It’s okay to fight back when someone pushes a fight onto you. And if you ever start a fight, you’d better finish it. There is no half assing a fight. You either finish it or get finished. Now, if it’s a matter of life or death, get out of there and find the nearest guard. That’s not a situation you ever want to be in.” She continued to look away but nodded her head. “I know.” She said with a voice devoid of emotion. My expression turned to one of shock. “You haven’t been forced into that kind of fight yet, have you?” She shook her head and said, “No, but I was forced to watch an underground match. Those are always life or death.” My eyes sharpened to a glare. What in tartarus? I’ve never heard of an underground in Cloudsdale before. “Blade, who runs it?” She looked up at me with a fearful expression. “I can’t, if I do I’ll get hurt again. They’ll find out and hurt not just me, but my mom too.” I put a paw on her withers and smiled. “Look around, Blade. There’s only friends in this place. Who ever it is isn’t going to find out you told.” She grimaced, but nodded. “It’s somepony named Smokey. He’s the king of the Cloudsdale underground.” I bit back a growl and scoffed. “Figures. That’s how he’s gotten so many thugs to come after me with.” I looked back to Blade and saw she was quivering. “Listen, Blade, I need you to do something for me. I need you to go talk to my dad. Tell him you and your mother need a place to stay, and that I offered. Then go find your mother and bring her here.” She looked at me with a fearful expression. “W-w-what are you gonna do?” “I’m going to take care of something that should have been done years ago. I’m going to knock Smokey off his pedestal and take him out.” I turned and started to walk to the rec rooms. I will finally finish this. I grabbed the wingblades and started fitting them. Once all but the last few I walked back out into the lobby. I spotted Rec at her desk. “I need you to clasp and tighten these, Rec.” She nodded solemnly and did so. Once she was done I set my face into a determined look. I heard Val come out from the forge door. “If what I heard is right, I think you’ll need this more than I thought.” He was carrying a sword in a sheath, My new sword. I nodded and motioned my head to put it on. Before he did he unsheathed it and swung it around a few times. It was quite a bit shorter than my last one. It’s fuller was missing, instead a section of cross beams were in the center of the blade. Along the edge of it ran a dark line, presumably the dragon scale. A bit further in and closer to the hilt was three runes on either side of the fuller space. The read strength, speed, intellect. He resheathed it and then clicked the sheath into the spot under my cloak. I nodded and a ghost of a smile appeared on my face. “Thanks, Val, expert at your craft as always.” I turned around and started to walk towards the doors of the forge. “Good luck, Shadow. And know I’m here for you, always. I’ll always have your back.” I stopped for a moment and felt my mask of determination crack for a moment and a tear slip down my face. “Thanks, Val.” I fixed my face into a determined look again. “Now, I’ve gotta do this. For you, for dad, for Amber, for everypony. I will kill Smokey, if that’s what it takes.” I heard Val start to walk towards me, but then stop. “I’m sorry, Val, I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but that’s the truth.” With that I opened to doors and walked out onto the streets of Cloudsdale.