The New Life of Shadow Ironsword

by ShadowIronsword

New rivals and reunions

Silver gave a low growl and his face devolved into a look of rage. “You think you’re going to beat me? How do you plan to do that? I’ve always been a step above of you.”

I gave a smirk. “Thing about being old, Silver, is that eventually you start to slow down. You stop improving as quickly, or entirely.” Silver set his face into a hard glare and gave a single hard flap of his wings, closing the distance between us in less than a second. We locked forelegs and began trying to kick one another with our hind legs, but that proved ineffective, because there was no room for any wind up. So any blow that did land did little to no damage. Finally Silver got tired of the grapple and reared his head back and brought it forward in a hard headbutt. Damn, no I remember why they call him the ‘iron horse’. His head’s as hard as a chunk of metal! He dashed forwards again, trying to catch me off guard, but I put my forelegs up in a sloppy block.

Silver backpedaled again trying to increase the distance between us again. Oh no you don’t! I’m not playing this game. I charged after him but once I was within distance of striking I gave one more hard flap of my wings, making me fly head-first into his stomach in a full-body headbutt. Silver gasped and tried to swing at me, but it had no power behind it. His blow glancing off of my neck and putting me inside his guard I started swiping furiously with my forelegs. Several long gashes made their presence known by the red stains starting appear in the pegasus’ fur around them. I backed up and let him slowly fall to the ground. With a thump he fell down, but when I looked in his eyes there was still determination. This pegasus isn’t giving up, he’s going to go until he physically can’t anymore. I dashed forwards trying to finish him before he could catch his breath and keep going. Before I could even fully reach him Silver started to get up and sat up on his haunches, his eyes closed and his wings fully extended. What the hell is that? That doesn’t look like any of his moves! I shook it off and kept charging I stopped and started to draw my hoof back to swipe it across his throat, but before I could even start bring it forward I was hit in the chest and gut simultaneously by Silver’s forelegs. I stumbled backward, gasping for breath, but Silver didn’t press the advantage.

I charged forward again and tried to get to his flank and hit him where he wouldn’t be able to retaliate as well. Before I could even start to draw back to strike him he jumped away from me. What, how? There’s no way he can see, his eyes are glued shut. But, he can still somehow know my location? This makes no sense! Is this what it takes to be a higher tier fighter? Or is it some magic I don’t know about? I took a deep breath and exhaled drooping my shoulders slightly. No, there has to be some trick to this that I’m missing. I slowly started to approach him and stalked around his back, where I gave a tentative flap of my wings in his direction. His wings had several feathers give a noticeable twitch, he reared up and bucked out, then went back to his starting position. Gotcha, old Silver. I started slowly walking up, making sure not to make an air current that was detectable. Then, when I was directly in front of him, I reared up onto my hind legs and prepped a full-motion punch. It almost worked, in fact it might have if Silver hadn’t squeaked one of his eyes open just as I was finishing the wind-up. He ducked down, almost laying flat to the ground as my paw went right over his head. He turned on the ground so his belly was up and kicked out with his hind legs, making me fall over onto my back. Silver hopped up and tried to press his advantage But I shifted my weight to my withers, then pushed with my forelegs and kicked out simultaneously. I caught him full in the jaw, making his head fly back and his body start falling backwards. Now’s a chance to take him out! I tried to jump up, but when I stood up my vision started to swim. Crap, too many blows to the head. No! I refuse to go out because of some stupid thing like this. I closed my eyes and tried to recenter my weight. Breath, breath and recenter yourself. This was a trick I’d learned from my time fighting, if you can close your eyes and recenter your balance, you can stop something like swimming vision. I felt my balance recenter and I opened my eyes to see Silver recover enough to drop down to all four hooves. But, he seemed to be struggling with dizziness. He was stumbling back and forth, barely staying on his hooves. Looks like I’ve still got a chance to press an advantage! I took two steps forward and planted my left foreleg onto the ground. Jumping my hips to the left slightly I planted my other foreleg. Feeling secure in the position I pushed off my hind legs off to the right, swinging them out and around my body and shifting all my weight to my left foreleg and lifting my right off and using all the momentum to hit Silver full on in the head again. His head reeled back again and his eyes began to fly around, trying to track me while his body was reeling from the massive hit.

“Alright, Silver, here’s the end move. Checkmate!” I slipped up close, raised my right foreleg and, swung my paw and claws across his neck. Silver fell back on his haunches grasping at his throat and gasping. He fell over spasming for a moment, before stopping and laying still before shattering and disappearing. I felt my body start to dissolve itself and I closed my eyes, letting myself slip into unconsciousness again.

I awoke to the sounds of gasping and wheezing. I jolted up and knocked my head against the unicorn who was looking me over. I rubbed the top of my head and swiveled my head around to see the source of gasping was Silver. Damn, that’s gotta be a scary experience dying like that. I turned to the unicorn again, who was still rubbing her chin and looking at me with a look of both wonder and anger. The later probably from me hitting her chin. “I’m sorry, miss, I didn’t mean to hit your chin like that, but when I woke up to that.” I motioned my paw to Silver, who was just starting to realize what was going on. And that he was, indeed, fine. “I kind of just reacted instinctually.”

She gave a nod of her head and went back to checking me over. Finding nothing wrong with me in any of her scans, she started to walk away to the door of the arena. I turned back to Silver who had, by now, fully recovered and was sitting there just staring at me with wide eyes. I felt a twinge of guilt run through me, and I twitched visably. Damn, what I did was kind of cold-blooded. But we were told no-holds-barred. No, that’s no excuse. They’re not used to that kind of fighting, for life and death. Neither am I, to be perfectly honest. I looked back to Silver again with sorrow in my expression. He won’t want my pity, but he will accept praise from another warrior. If I know him as well as I think.

My expression switched into a stoney one, stoic and hiding my true emotions. I started to walk towards Silver. He started to shift backwards slightly a look of fear in his eyes. I kept stepping forward, my face remaining stoic, but my heart ached each time he made a move to back away. When the unicorn stallion who was tending him stepped in between us I gave him a harsh glare. “I mean no harm to Silver; The battle’s over I’m not going to try and kill him.” He gave a slight nod of his head, stepping aside and letting me pass him. I broke eye contact with him and looked back at Silver, who had settled for trying to look me in the eye and quivering slightly. I held my paw out in a gesture for a shake. “It was a pleasure and honor to fight you, Silver. I know you’ll still be ahead of me in the rankings, but I look forward to our next fight. Hopefully they don’t continue this spell in future, official, fights.”

Silver sat there, dumbfounded for a moment, before giving a shake of his head and reaching up his hoof to meet my paw. We both gave a firm shake up and down. “Same here, Shadow. I honestly didn’t expect you to be so fierce, but I guess doubting you was my greatest downfall.” He gave a regretful shake of his head before looking back up at me with determined eyes. “It definitely won’t happen again.”

I gave a nervous swallow at that. You mean he was holding back during that? I gave a shake of my head to clear it. “Glad to hear it, Silver. Go get some rest, I’m sure we’re gonna have more than a few fights coming up soon.” With that I turned and started walking towards the official of the match. “So, what is the deal with this whole thing? Are they just testing something, or is this gonna be a regular thing now?” The grey stallion looked up at me from where he was sitting on the floor.

“Well, first of all, let me just say, that was some of the best fighting I’ve ever seen. Especially considering you’re outside of the top ten.” I gave a nod of thanks before he continued, “And, honestly? I don’t know, they don’t pay me near enough to know stuff like that. You’d have to go to the top committee to find out something like that.”

I grimaced at that, normally they’d tell the officials if something like this was going to be continued or not. Meaning they were trying to keep some secret, in hopes that no one would ask questions. “Alright, well thanks anyways.” I gave a wave over my withers and started walking towards the exit of the arena. I was stopped as a tall, black, figure stepped in front of me. I scowled and looked up at him.

Fraener looked down at me with an unreadable expression. He began to open his mouth, before closing it again and looking off to the side. He got a distant look in his eyes before shaking his head and looking back to me. “It was an honor fighting with you. I made the same mistake with Silver that he did with you. I underestimated him, and you still managed to kill him.” He gave a ghost of a smile. “By all rights and standards, if this was an official duel, you’d be taking number one in the world right now.”

I smirked a bit at him. “How does that make you feel, Fraener, that a small wolven mutt can take the spot of number one out from underneath your nose so easily?”

“It definitely makes me weary of your skill with a sword, if you can do that without weapons.” He bowed slightly to me, bending at his waist to bring his head almost at an even level with my own. “In my culture, there is a tradition that two duelists who become rivals butt heads, to signify said rivalry. I would like it if you could indulge me in this tradition of mine.”

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. The world’s top fighter wanted to become rivals with me? I wasn’t even in the top ten of the world’s rankings! I gave a hasty nod of my head, my heart pounding in my chest as I leaned forward. Fraener pointed his snout downward and pushed forward, hard enough to alarm me, at first. I pushed back with just as much force, if not more. By the time the whole exchange was done there was an audience watching us. “Heh, looks like we’ve got an audience, Fraener.” When I noticed the lack of a response I looked back up to see the exit door swinging shut. I rolled my eyes and huffed. “Jeez.” I suddenly had a shock of realization. Did I just huff at the number one duelist? I just stood there shocked for a moment with a blank expression on my face. One of the unicorns, who had set up the circle walked in front of me and pouted.

“Page! Are you sure you checked this one out properly? He seems like he’s broken!” She yelled down at the unicorn who had checked me over.

She huffed and walked over to me. “Yes I’m sure I checked him properly, Rain. You are aware that that drake he just talked to was the number one duelist, right?” Recognition crossed Rain’s face as she stared ahead. “Yeah, now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got more important things to do.” With that she turned and briskly walked away.

I blinked a few times. Wow that’s a complete one eighty from when she was taking care of me. “Oh, don’t worry about her. She’s just that way when her job runs long. She’s got two little fillies of her own, who she’s taking care of on her own.”

I looked back towards where the Page was cleaning up the last bits of the circle I had used. “What’s her name?”

“She’s Starry Page. She’s one of the nurses from Canterlot medical.”

“You mean they pulled ponies from other cities to do this little meeting?” She gave a shrug and walked away to the exit. I looked back to Starry Page. She had a midnight black coat, purple mane and tail with a single white stripe running through both, and orange eyes. I hadn’t paid her much attention before, thinking she was just another unicorn. Makes ya think how much each individual has their own story, just as important as my own. I walked over to Starry Page and sat down on my haunches. “You okay? You seem a bit stressed out.”

She gave a huff, looked away and mumbled, “What do you care? You seemed all too happy to walk out a few moments ago.”

I flinched. “I had intended to, but your friend, Rain I think you said her name was, said you always get this way when work runs late. Can I ask why?”

An angry glint came into her eyes and her lip curled upward in a sneer. She said, with angry sarcasm, “Oh look, its a knight in shining armor! Let me fall into your arms and fall for you!” She finished her clean up and got up with a flick of her mane, which hit me in the face. “Sorry, not interested.” She started walking away towards the exit.

A storm of emotions hit me all at once. Worry, fear, anger, and many more. What the hell was that? How does she have any right to just do that? I was just concerned, I wasn’t even interested in her like that! A realization hit me when I thought ‘wasn’t’. I mean she isn’t that bad looking. She’s definitely got a strong backbone. I gave another look over my shoulder at her, as the exit doors swung closed. “Screw it.” I turned and ran to the doors at a full-tilt sprint. “Hey! Wait a minute!” She turned to me with a shocked expression, which turned to one of anger just as fast. She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off. “What the hell was that!? A guy shows some concern for you when you seem stressed, and you immediately think he wants some action? That’s not what I was after at all!” A kind of weird expression covered face, I couldn’t read it, then it kind of hit me that I’d just basically just insulted her. “I-I mean that’s not to say you’re not a pretty mare, but I wasn’t after that!”

She looked down to the ground, a kind of embarrassed expression on her face. She mumbled out a sorry and started turning back down the hallway. I felt a knot start forming in my stomach. Oh now you’ve done it, Shadow. “Hey, look, I’m sorry. I was just concerned about you. I heard you’ve got two fillies? Where are they?”

A flash of anger crossed her face before fading as quick as it came. “They’re here in Cloudsdale, at the hospital I was moved to for this,” She waved back at the arena doors, “event.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. That didn’t mess anything up with your stallion, did it?” She gave a bitter laugh and looked away again, a pained expression on her face. “Oh, sorry, bad topic?”

“You could say that. Look, I’m sorry about the whole blowing up at you thing, but I’ve got to get back to my fillies.” I nodded my head back and forth a couple times.

“Well at least let me tag along, then. After all, the cities not exactly the best place for a lone mare to be wondering.”

“You seem awfully eager to stay with me, you sure you didn’t approach me looking for something?”

I gave a firm shake of my head. “Like I said, you’re definitely not a bad looking mare, but I’m not after anything. And I don’t think you’d want anything to do with me, once you knew what I really was.”

She gave me a, faint, quirked smile. “You mean the fact that you’re part wolven? I have no problem with any of that.”

I immediately stopped, a look of shock on my face. I felt my eyes start to water up a bit. “Ya know, you’re one of the only ponies to actually say that out loud, outside of family, and really close friends. You have no idea what that kind of thing means to me.”

She got a sort of sad smile on her face. “Oh, I think I do. Let’s just say I’ve had experience with other species, besides ponies.” I raised an eyebrow, but she didn’t continue the point. So I let it drop.

“Okay, so my offer still stands. Would you like me to guide you back to the hospital, where your fillies are?” I offered my best confident smile and bowed my head slightly.

“I think I can handle myself just fine, thank you.” She started heading off, and I felt my face fall slightly. I started to get up and turn. She stopped and turned back to me. “Though I guess it couldn’t hurt to have a world-class fighter guide me back to the hospital.” Her face turned serious again, “Though, no further. I’m not looking to have you near my place of living.” Her expression lightened slightly, and I thought I saw her lips move. But I couldn’t quite catch what she’d said. Though the ghost of a smile that played on her lips gave me a bit of hope.

I jumped up and ran up to her side. “So, which hospital we headed to? There is more than one in Cloudsdale, after all.”

“Cloudsdale General. It’s actually pretty far, I’m glad to have some company.” I gave a smile at that.

“I haven’t got anything better to do for the rest of the day, since I wasn’t sure how long thing thing would run.”

She gave a light chuckle. “Well I’m glad to hear that, considering it’s like ten at night.”

“What? How is that possible!? That fight couldn’t have lasted more than twenty minutes, if that!” I practically shouted.

“Well, that’s how dreaming works. I mean I had explained it to you that it was going to be like going to sleep when you went in.”

“Wait, so what exactly was that giant circle in the middle? I mean I get it helped us fight each other on a whole new level, but I don’t quite understand how.” After a split second I added, “And you don’t have to go into too much detail, since it’ll probably fly right over my head.”

She gave a light laugh at that. “Well, basically, how it works is that we forced your consciousness together into a kind of shared dream. It was a spell-form that was developed by Princess Luna herself, and we’ve been trying to make it work for ourselves. Basically we’ve been trying to make it castable by normal ponies.”

“Hmm, why’s that?” I asked curiously.

“Mostly to avoid as many injuries as possible. Contrary to popular belief, we at the hospital don’t want to see anyone come back.”

I looked back to her cutie mark, it was a heart surrounded by a wreath. Hmm, that seems familiar. I looked back to Page, only to get a face full of hoof as she slapped me. “Ow, what was that for?”

“You were staring at my flank! I knew it! You were just after some action!” She began to angrily stomp away.

I quickly got up and chased after her. “Wait, no that’s not what I was doing! I was just looking at your cutie mark. It seemed familiar, which is why it might have seemed like I was staring; But I wasn’t.” She continued to stomp forward, not even casting a glance back at me. Dammit, Shadow. What the hell were you thinking? Then ,it hit me; It was the same cutie mark from the story Amber had told me earlier. “Hey, do you know a pony named Amber Joy?”

She froze on the spot and slowly turned her head around to me. “You know Amber? How, she went to Griffonia right out of med school.”

“She’s my best friend’s fillyfriend. I just met her a few days ago. Why, were you two friends? The way she talked about you, at least I think it was you, sounded like you were.”

She looked downcast. “Yeah, we were the best of friends, basically grew up on the streets together. Then our careers took us in different directions and we eventually stopped talking.”

I gave a hopeful smile, “Do you want to talk to her?”

She jolted up and looked at me with an almost terrified expression. “What? Of course I do! Why wouldn’t I?”

I sighed and shook my head. “Sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself, not me. If you don’t that’s fine, but I’m still gonna take you to the hospital to get your fillies.” With that I got up and moved to stand beside her. She made no move to stop me, though. I motioned with my head that I was ready to go, but she just stared at the ground, seemingly stuck in her own little world. She’s thinking it over. Okay, I’ll give her all the time she needs. I sat down on my haunches and waited. After about five minutes I unfurled my right wing and started looking it over, and fixing any out of place feathers.

Finally Page looked up with a set of determined orange eyes. “Do you know where she lives? I want to see her as soon as possible.”

I felt my face split into a wide smile. “I do, in fact, know where she lives. I can take you there.” She gave a determined nod and got up, starting to move in the direction of the hospital.

I heard the clank of something hollow and metal hitting the ground. A pipe, probably. I turned to the noise and turned to the noise. I spotted a large pegasus who looked oddly familiar hiding in an alleyway off of the road we were on. My face suddenly took on an expression of shock as I recognized the face of Butch. I felt my teeth clench together. And I dug my claws into the cracks of the cobble road we were on. “Page, get behind me.”

“Hmm?” She turned to see Butch and five other ponies come out of the alleyway, all carrying some sort of weapon. “What the hell, this isn’t a bad part of town is it?”

“No, but these are definitely bad ponies and they have persecuted me from a pretty young age, just for being part wolven. I’ve had enough of this.” I fully turned to the six new opponents and drew my body into a combat stance. Page walked up next to me and did the same, though her’s was noticeably sloppier than mine. “Page, run.” She turned to me with an argument on her lips. It died when she saw my face. “I’ve seen first hand what these thugs can do, I refuse to let that happen to you. Get to the hospital, stay there. I’ll be along in a bit.” I gave a bit of a cocky smile, and lifted my head slightly. “After all If I can take on the same pony who took out the world’s best in a death match I can take a few thugs right?”

She nodded hesitantly before turning and taking off down the street. I turned back to the six ponies standing in the alley entrance. “Alright you six, what do you want? Because if you just interrupted that just to try and kick my ass I’m going to give you a flank-whooping so hard you’ll be feeling it in a week.” With that they started to approach, and surround me. “Alright, looks like you’ve taken the flank-whooping option. Heh, more fun for me anyways.”

Author's Note:

Five brownie points if you can find the reference I put in this chapter!