The New Life of Shadow Ironsword

by ShadowIronsword

The kids and Emergencies

One of the pegasi, with a brown coat and orange mane, stepped forward. He gave a cocky grin. “That was a nice little performance for the mare. But, come on, there’s no way you’re taking on six armed opponents, especially when you don’t have one yourself.”

“Really? You think this is anything I haven’t trained against? That I didn’t see this situation happening at any point? I knew you were all cowards, so I’ve been training for something like this since that very first time I got attacked by Smokey.” My expression shifted to one of stone, giving away no emotion. The only thing that gave away were my eyes, and the pegasus that had made the mistake of making eye contact with me backed up a step and dropped his weapon.

I dashed forward and performed my wing takedown. After he was sprawled out on the ground the other five backed up a step, suddenly wary of me. They damn well should be. The mountain of a pony, named Butch, stepped forward. “The real reason we came here was to tell you of Smokey’s demand. If you aren’t out of Cloudsdale in a week he can’t guarantee the safety of your family and friends.”

I felt my anger rise to a whole new level, my face contorting to one of pure fury and a deep-throated, wolf-like, growl eminatted from the back of my throat. “Oh? I’d love to see him TRY!” I felt my upper lip curl up into a snarl, fully exposing my wolven teeth. And I took a snap in his general direction, making him back up a step with an expression of fear, for a moment.

“Even you can’t be everywhere at once, Shadow.” His expression sobered slightly. “If you want my advice-”

“Why would I want the advice of a pony who's been persecuting me since I first moved Cloudsdale? Ever since I showed up here you and Smokey have been trying to chase me out!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I felt the beginnings of tears at the corners of my eyes, and my vision was starting to haze over slightly. I heard a mumble from the giant, but I couldn’t quite make it out. I opened my mouth to speak, but I was cut off by the hardened expression I was met with when Butch raised his head.

“Smokey’s not gonna stop trying to chase you out until you leave Cloudsdale, maybe even Equestria as a whole. If it were me, I’d leave immediately. Because I care more about my family and friends than anything to do with myself.” He turned around back to the alley. “Come on, we’re leaving.”

They disappeared into the shadows of the alley, the only sound that emitted from it was the steadily quieting clop of hooves. What did that mean? I mean I know the whole thing with Smokey, but Butch… He’s got more going on than I thought. I turned back to the direction Page had run off to, and began to walk. I ran into something soft. I looked up slowly, afraid I had run into another pegasus, only to see Page standing there with a few tears in her eyes. “I knew you said you were persecuted, but I’d never imagined that.” She said quietly.

I took a deep breath and let my shoulders slump slightly. “So you saw that, huh? How much of it?”

“All of it.”

I looked back to the ground and felt my teeth grind together again. I can’t believe I didn’t check to see if she had actually left. “Well I guess this is goodbye then.” I felt a tentative hoof on my withers stop me from moving any further. “Hmm?” A hopeful sound made it into my voice.

“Where are you going? You’ve still got to finish guiding me, and taking me to Amber’s house.” She gave a ghost of a smirk. “Did you really think my opinion would change because of that? I watched the whole free-for-all in the tournament, remember?”

I felt my cheeks burn for a moment and puffed them out to stop a blush from forming. “I guess. It’s just most ponies would want nothing to do with me after seeing something like that.”

Page smiled at that, “Well I’m not most ponies, as you can tell, Shadow.” I felt my ears pin to the back of my head and nodded. I made a head motion to the road where we were headed before the encounter with Butch and his gang of ponies.

I walked with my head down, staring intently at the path ahead of me, deep in thought. How can she just disregard the fear she must have felt when she saw me snarl and snap out like that? Every other pony, besides my dad and Val who’ve seen that side of me has run screaming. A light nudge to my side shook me from my thoughts. “Well we’re here, Shadow.” She looked away and bit her lip for a second, seemingly debating with herself over something. Finally she turned to me and asked, “Do you want to come inside and meet my fillies?”

I gave an honest, happy, smile and nodded. “It would be my honor, if you’ll have me.”

We walked inside and I was met with the acrid scent of hospitals. I hate hospitals, too clean, too white, and too damned bright. I tried to put on a mask of happiness, and moved forward. Following Page through a maze of hallways that looked identical. The only difference was the occasional gurney or IV bag holder being here of there. While I was looking around the hallway the steady clop of Page’s hooves came to an abrupt stop, and I bumped into her backside. Expecting a slap and a few harsh words I flinched away. Only to not receive any. Page only turned to me and offered an apologetic smile. “Sorry I was so lost in thought I realized that this was where I left them.” She turned, opened the door and walked in.

I paused for a moment, before following her in. I walked into what appeared to be a children’s play-room. Fitting. I looked towards where Page was walking and spotted two little fillies. Well, one was a normal looking filly, the other was a hippogriff. Woah, that answers one of my questions. The hippogriff was midnight black, just like her mother, except for a few purple feathers on her chest that formed a V shape. Her crest feathers were purple as well. Her eyes were a brilliant, bright, red. When she noticed me staring she turned and tried to glare me down, staring down her beak, despite being several feet shorter than me. I gave a light chuckle at that.

The filly was far different from her mother. She was a pegasus, for one. She had a cream coat, white mane, and deep purple eyes. She was fixated on Page completely, not even noticing me.
The hippogriff seemed notice that her stare was doing nothing to stop me, and instead turned to Page. “Mom, who’s this pegasus, and why does he look weird?” She asked with no shortage of anger in her voice. She’s afraid, but of what? Me taking Page away?

Page turned away from her filly and ran up to the hippogriff, giving her a tackle hug. I heard a hushed conversation pass between the two and when they both stood up and faced me I was met with a smile from Page and a full death-glare from her daughter. “This, Nalia, is Shadow Ironsword. He’s one of the world’s best fighters, and he’s my new friend, so stop giving him that death-glare.” Nalia seemed to start for a second, before becoming fixated in the rooms tiling.The way she had said fried though, it struck a chord within me. It was good to hear that she already considered me a friend, more than good in fact, but it also saddened me somewhat.

Page turned to her other daughter, who had decided to hide behind Page. A very poor job, but the effort was there. “Come on, Ela. He’s not gonna hurt you.” When she had Page’s vote of confidence she stepped out, only to duck back behind when she saw the pure size of me. I’d gotten used to it, I was a very imposing figure to most. Page shook her head and looked down to both of her daughters. “Well this,” She waved a hoof to the hippogriff, “is Naliana. And this little scaredy pegasus behind me is Elearise.”

I gave a bit of a bow. “Both of those are very pretty names.” This caused Naliana to huff and turn her head further away from me. I tried to look past it and continued. “As Page has said, I’m Shadow Ironsword. I hope I get to know you both from now on.” I’d never really been good with foals, so it probably sounded very forced. Which it kind of was, but I honestly was kind of curious to meet them.

Page gave a nod of her head. “Alright, girls. Pack everything up, we’re headed out. But we’re not going home right away. We’re going to stop by an old friend's house and say hi, okay?”

Naliana gave a noncommittal grunt, while Elearise hopped up and gave a happy shout, before remembering who else was in the room and ducking behind her mother. That has to be one of the cutest things I’ve seen in a long time. I gave a hearty chuckle and brought my paw up to try and stifle the oncoming giggles. It took me almost thirty seconds to try and stop them, but I did. I looked back up to see Page giving me a strange look, and Naliana looking at me without trying to incinerate me with her eyes. “Well, should we head out now? I’m not sure she’ll still be up tonight, but we can try.” I gave a hesitant step towards the door and the other three started to follow me. Well, I guess this night could be going a whole lot worse so far.

---

We arrived at Val’s house without any further incident, and only the occasional attempt of me trying to talk to Naliana and Elearise. Page was stuck in her own thoughts, seemingly. She’s probably really nervous about this meetup. I heard the gruff mumbling of Naliana next to me, but didn’t quite catch what she’d said. I turned to her, a friendly smile on my face. “What’s up Naliana?”

She turned her head away and for a moment I thought she wouldn’t talk, so I started to look back to where we were headed. We were just down the street, afterall. But she spoke out a little louder, just loud enough for me to hear, “Thank you… for doing this for mom.” My expression changed to one of shock. Not only had Naliana spoken to me, but she’d given me thanks? From the short time I’d known her it seemed like a rare thing.

“You’re welcome, Naliana. I’m happy to reunite two old friends.”

She grimaced slightly. “That’s not what I meant, but it is awfully nice of you too. I meant thanks for giving her a friend. She’s not really had good luck with stallions in the past.” She suddenly got a very dangerous air around her. “So let me be clear, that if you hurt her I will hurt you right back. I don’t care if you’re one of the world's best fighters, I’ll find a way.” With that she went back to staring at the ground, but occasionally glancing back up at me, and Page.

“You have my word Naliana, I won’t try to hurt Page, if I can help it.” She gave a grunt of acknowledgement, but kept walking. Seems I’ve made some progress with her. I looked over to Elearise and noticed she’d been looking at me from behind her mother’s leg. But when she noticed me looking she ducked back behind again. What’s up with Elearise, though? It seems a bit weird for her to be the shy one. We got to Val’s door and stopped. “Alright, Page here we are. This is where Val and Amber live. I won’t promise anything tonight, but-” I was cut off as I heard the frantic clop of hooves down the road. I looked down it to see Val running full tilt down the street. His head was down and he was gasping for breath. He hadn’t even noticed me until he’d bowled me over. “Hey to you too, Val. What are you doing?”

He got up and shook his head out, but had a bit of a panicked look on his face. “Smokey, forge, Vanguard, hurt. Help!” My eyes went wide with shock and I felt like my paws had been frozen to the ground. My heart started to beat furiously against my chest. I got snapped back to reality as Val collapsed to the ground in a heap.

“What happened, Val? Is dad okay?”

Val gave a short nod. “He’ll live, I think. I’m sorry, Shadow! He was protecting me. Smokey came to the forge looking for trouble. When he tried to sucker punch me from behind your dad jumped in and started taking him on. At first your dad had the upper hand, but then he started slowing down and Smokey really put the hurt on him. I came straight here after chasing Smokey out of the forge and asking the receptionist to lock the doors and call the guard.” He stopped to gasp for breath. I felt my teeth clench again and I got up from the ground.

“Val, get Amber and get her to the forge.” I turned to Page. “Sorry this hasn’t gone too well tonight, but I need to take care of this, once and for all. It might be a good idea for you to stick with Val and Amber right now.”

“What are you doing, Shadow? You’re not going to try and go after him alone are you?” Page asked, concern heavy in her voice.

I grimaced. “Yeah, there’s been too much crap going on between me and Smokey.” My mind went back to our encounter in Ponyville, and more specifically what he’d said. “I need to face him down.” I saw Val start to get up, but I waved him down. “I need to this alone, Val. This apparently was all started from an event from back when we were both younger.” I grit my teeth and looked out onto the city of Cloudsdale. I will finally conquer this city, and make it my home! “I’ve lived here for years, but I’m still hated by everypony here. I’m sick of it. The pony spearheading this giant gang after me is Smokey. If I can stop him…” A few scenarios flashed through my head, even killing him. “Anyway possible, I might be able to finally live here in peace. He’s gone after my family now. He’s incited my wrath, and nothing’s gonna stop me now.”

I looked off to the side and back towards the forge. “There’s a quote my dad loves saying: ‘If you don’t stand for something, you might fall for anything.’ Now I don’t think it quite applies here, but at the same time it does. Go get ‘em, Shadow!” Val gave me a pat on the back and a cheeky grin. “I, for one, am rooting for ya.”

My grimace deepened slightly. If only you knew what I had just considered, then maybe you wouldn’t be saying that, Val. You’ve been with me, through thick and thin, but I’m not sure you’ll be okay with this. I nodded and spread my wings wide. Pushing them down and propelling myself off the ground and breakneck speeds. A determined look overcame my features as I took off and headed towards the forge. I landed and looked around. Knowing you, you’ve left a convenient little trail for me to follow straight into a trap. I don’t care, I’ll follow it and take you on. I spotted a set of hoof-print tracks. Though, they didn’t look intentional. Each print was incomplete and was made because of one hastily running on clouds. A few feet away from where they had started they ended. Two of the prints seemed to be far deeper than the rest, meaning they’d taken off.

I took off again, slowly scanning the ground in the direction the short track had pointed in. Down the street a few blocks I spotted a set of skid marks where somepony had landed and dived into the alley there. Gotcha, and it seems like you don’t have a trap ready for me. I landed outside the alley and approached slowly, still on guard, just in case. When I didn’t spot any kind of trap lying in wait I went fully into the alley and waited a few minutes, till my vision adjusted to the new level of light. I saw… nothing. There was nothing in this alley I immediately jumped around expecting to be jumped from behind, but there was nothing. Nopony was in the alley. "Smokey! Come out here and face me." I screamed out down the alley and waited for something to come out, but nothing came.

Crap he did this to distract me, right? A look of dread and shock came over my face. The only reason he’d want to distract me is so that I’d be out of the way of Val, and everyone else. I dashed out of the alley jumped into the air with every bit of force that I could. Pumping my wings, as hard as I could, I accelerated to full speed in times that would make Rainbow Dash jealous.

I won’t let him, or anyone else hurt my friends or family. That is the one thing I will not stand for! I came to a skidding stop several miles later and busted down the forge doors, casing everyone in the lobby to look at me. But they were all fine, and no sign of Smokey. A breath of relief overcame me and I collapsed to the ground, exhausted. I heard the muffled sounds of conversation and I had to suppress a bit of chuckle as I though. Well I guess I’ll add to the tally of times I’ve seen Amber and collapsed.