The New Life of Shadow Ironsword

by ShadowIronsword

You win some...

A week later...

"Wow Rarity I never would have imagined that you could make my simple request look so good!" I gave a turn for what felt like the hundredth time since I'd received the trench coat from Rarity.

As I spun in front of the full-length mirror, I took a second to admire myself in the mare’s works. She had made me a black trench coat that went down to the middle of my long, furry tail. It had silver thread along all the seams. The coat fell over my flank, covering my cutie mark of two swords clashing. The trench coat draped over my body so that I could fit my sword under the coat. Rarity had insisted that I shouldn’t, saying that a gentlestallion such as myself shouldn’t be carrying a sword, but I had pleaded with her to account for it anyway, and she had agreed.

The sword itself was a challenge to hide. It was nearly as long as I was. Although it was thin, it had intricate designs down the length of the blade with a wide guard where the blade met the hilt. I always carried it on me because it was a gift from my father, though he always said it was my great-grandfather’s. The very same one who had made the Ironsword name known in Equus as some of the best smithies.

The hood was large enough to cover most of my ears and eyes. The sleeves came up down to just above my ankle joint. Best of all it covered most of my wolven features, namely my pointy ears and wolf-like eyes. It also did a good job in covering most of my dark navy-blue coat, and my brown mane, though I still had an issue with the red fleck of hair just behind my eye occasionally falling into my vision.

I looked down to Rarity, thanks to my unusually large build from my wolven blood, I stood nearly two heads taller than her. Damn, she really did put her all into this, didn’t she?

"Well, it was a bit tricky trying to keep it as simple as you requested. But I just simply had to add a bit of artistic flair to it, I do hope you like it, Mr. Ironsword?" She gave me a hopeful, but slightly nervous smile.

"As I've said before, Rarity, I don't think anything you make could be bad. That being said… I love it! This should help me look impressive, without sticking out like a sore hoof. And, we've gone over the whole Mr. Ironsword thing, Rarity. I don't want anyone to call me that, let alone a friend. Or at least I hope that's what we are?" I gave her a hopeful smile.

"Well yes, anyone who‘s a friend of Twilight's is a friend of mine. Especially if they’re as dashing as yourself."

I don't think she meant for me to hear that last bit. "Well it's good to hear that you consider me a friend Rarity! I'll have to make it up to you one day for this coat."I gave an enthusiastic wave and a sly wink over my shoulder as I went out the door, leaving behind a flustered Rarity.

A carefree laugh escaped my lips as I jumped into the air and began to speed through the sky. Celestia how I've missed this. It had been well over a week since I was able to simply go for a flight. The air flowing over my face and wings. Watching the ground speed by, full of lush greens trees and grassy hills, they were the real reasons I flew. It just felt... amazing. There wasn't anything I could find to compare it to. Well, other than the thrill of fighting, but that was for entirely different reasons. I noticed that I had started to leave behind a trail of blue and brown behind me. Crap that's sure to attract unwanted attention! I'd better slow it down before— My thoughts were abruptly cut off when a cyan-coated mare with a rainbow mane zoomed towards me and came to a stop just ten feet away.

"You seem like a pretty fast pony, who are you exactly?" She spoke with a confidence I wish I had.

"Me? My name is Shadow Ironsword." I had learned that sharing all of the information I had with Rarity was not commonplace for most first greetings.

"How come I haven't seen you around Ponyville. If you're as fast as I think you are, I should've noticed you before now." She eyed me suspiciously. "Hope you don't claim to be the fastest around, because that title belongs to me!"

Yup, she might as well be a carbon copy of Val, but in mare form. I gave a slight chuckle at that. Rainbow hadn’t interpreted my laugh for what it was, instead she thought I was laughing at her and her previous proclamation. "What, you don't think I'm telling the truth!?" She gave me an angry glare. I responded with a blank stare of shock.

"No, I'm no—"

"Well, come on then, a race, right here, right now. Whoever wins is the fastest in Ponyville!"

"Miss Dash, I'm not trying to take your title, I was laughing at a thought of my own."

"Aw, what's the matter? Now that somepony calls you out on your crabapples you’re gonna back out? What are ya, chicken?" I felt myself become flustered, then angry. No, no stop. If she is really as similar to Val as I think, it'd be smarter to humor her than to try and argue with her. I closed my eyes, breathed and counted to three in my head. One..Two...Three.

"Alright, we'll race to see who's faster." There was no doubt in my mind she was, but I wasn't slow myself. I'm not gonna make it easy for her. I gave a grin of my own at that thought.

"Cool, we'll start in front of the steps, then go two miles south of town to Ghastly Gorge and back. Can you handle that at least?" While she had been talking we'd flown over to the town hall and landed. In response, I flared my wings to their full span, they were easily bigger than any normal pegasi’s wing span. Then again, Rainbow Dash was no normal pony, she flared her wings out as well, and had to hold back a gasp when I saw that they were nearly as long as my own. She scanned the crowd. "Hey Derpy!" She called out to a gray mare with a blonde mane and tail and a wall-eyed stare. "Can you do a countdown for our race?"

"E-yes ma'am!" She gave a mock salute and began giggling madly, half of the ponies gathered around joined in with her, including Rainbow and myself. We looked at one another, and then looked away.

"Alright Derpy, start counting down," Rainbow said with a firm voice that spoke of no more funny business.

"Okey! Three." We both dropped down into a ready stance. "Two." We flared out our wing, once again to their full length and positioned them into a running take-off position. "One." I looked to my right quickly to see Rainbow focused squarely on our mutual destination. I stared back forward as well. "Go!"

At the signal we both took of like rocks out of a sling-shot. Although I had a faster take-off she was quickly gaining on me. Like hell I'll make this easy on her! I began to really strain my wings as hard as I could. As I put a small amount of distance between us. I looked back in front of me just in time to see a gorge fly right underneath me. I saw the cyan mare flash me a grin before turning on a dime and flying back towards the town hall. Oh that tricky mare. I began to—as quickly as possible—backpedal and fly full tilt towards the town hall. Just as the building came into sight I saw Rainbow come to a stop at the same point at which we had started.

When I finally landed next to her I was winded and panting like one of my pack-mates on a hot day. "How," I huffed, "are you not even out of breath?" She was standing there as if they hadn't just raced four miles at near his top speed. "Damn, you weren't kidding when you said you were the fastest."

"Well yeah, I don't go around saying things with my mouth that I can't back up." She gave me a cock-sure smile and held out a hoof to me. "Though I’ll say you put up a pretty good fight at the start there." I took her hoof and she pulled me up.

"I was going full speed, wasn't paying attention and I lost for it. I'm pretty sure that I would've lost even if I'd made that turn, right?" She gave me an imitation of an innocent look.

"What? You shouldn't sell yourself short! You did a good job for a first race against me! That being said, yes." She struck a pose. "Anyways, I've got to get back to weather duty. See ya 'round, Shadow!" With that she took off like a bullet towards what I assumed was the rest of the weather patrol.

"Wait, why are you being nice to me? You just beat me, right?" I spoke aloud. In the shocked silence I felt a huge goofy smile form on my face. I took off and began flying towards the castle. How can today go bad? If what Twilight says is true, I might have just made two new friends.

When I arrived I noticed Twilight sitting in her library, reading, or I assume reading. She seemed to be really spaced out. "Hey Twilight, what's up?" That seemed to shake her out of her funk. She looked up at me as if surprised to see me.

"Hey Shadow. Back so soon from Rarity's?"

I gave a worried look."Twilight, I left for Rarity's almost three hours ago. Is… is everything alright?"

"Oh, just dandy," she responded sarcastically, her look turned to one of regret with her next statement. "I'm sorry, I'm just a bit upset, and I took it out on you." She looked away dejectedly. I heard her mumble something to herself that I couldn't quite catch.

I looked down at my hooves before I looked back up with a friendly smile on my face. "Well then, talk to me."

"What?" She looked up to me with a confused look on her face.

"That's what friends do, right? They confide and comfort each other."

"Heh, when did you get so good at friendships?" She gave me a genuine smile.

"Well a week around you and your friends certainly did help quite a bit. Come on, Ponyville does have a bar, right?"

"Well, not a bar, but we do have a pub."

"Oh..."

"Oh?"

"I honestly thought you might not know. You don't seem the type to go out drinking, Twilight." I felt my cheeks heat up out of embarrassment.

"Well, I can see where you would’ve gotten that impression. While I'm not one to go out and get drunk, I have had my fair share of alcohol. Come on, we'll head to the pub."

After I picked my jaw up off the floor of the library I began following Twilight.

When we were both seated in a booth in the back corner I looked over to Twilight. "Okay, so while we're waiting for our drinks, spill. What's got you so spacey and aggressive?" I gave her a concerned look.

She paused before responding. "I guess I just wanted to be sent somewhere by the map. I know it's foalish, but I just wanted to go with my friends." Hmm she does have a point, she is the Princess of Friendship. One would think that she’d go with her friends.

A thought struck me. "Hey, I don't want to sound self absorbed but, maybe you aren't being called away is because you're needed here?"

She gave me a mixture of a curious and confused look. "What? How would tha—" Her look changed instantly to one of recognition. She gave a laugh. "Well, with how much progress you're showing you won't need me for too much longer." She teased.

"Well maybe, I don't know. It seems like Rarity and I are friends. Though I'm not sure about Rainbow." I gave a moment of pause. Should I tell her we raced? She'll understand, right?

Twilight noticed my pause. "Are you alright, Shadow?"

"Hmm? Yea, I'm fine, I was thinking what you'd think if I told you me and Rainbow raced earlier today."

"What? Why’d you do that?"

Stupid, stupid, stupid. "Look, it was just a misunderstanding between me and Rainbow. She mentioned that she was the best flier in all of Equestria and I thought of how similar she was to Val, so I laughed. Well… she thought I was laughing at her statement. It was just a good old fashioned race."

"Well alright, I’m actually amazed she didn’t race you earlier. Rainbow is the type of mare that likes to test her skills out on everypony she can. I don’t think she means anything by it, she just likes to see how she stacks up. If you ask me I think she’s looking for someone faster than her so she’ll have a goal. Anyways, let's change the subject. What else did you end up doing over the past few days? I haven't seen much of you lately."

The next Two hours were spent in idle chit chat about the past three days. During this time the waiter at the bar had given us three ciders each. I noticed that Twilight was looking a bit droopy.

"Hey, Twilight, you alright? You're not lookin' so good."

"Yea I'm fine, but I think I'd better call it a night." She got up and started towards the door. When she noticed I wasn't following she stopped. "You coming?"

"Nah. I think I'm gonna hang out here for a bit. See ya back at the castle?"

"Sure, Shadow. Have a nice night."

"Yeah, I will."

When she was fully out the door I headed towards the bar itself and sat in a stool. Thank my luck, they still have one open. I looked around and noticed that the pub had filled up quite a lot since the Twilight and I had arrived.

I looked down the bar to see the bartender,a stallion with white and brown-spotted coat, brown mane and eyes, talking with another stallion with a brown coat and slicked back black mane. “Hey, want your regular, Filthy?”

“Yeah thanks, Pip.” The bartender went to pull out a glass and filled it with apple cider. The bartender looked up and noticed me, he gave me an inquisitive look. I noded and waved him down.

"Hello, what can I get you?"

"Hey, can I get an apple cider?"

"Sure thing, coming right up." While he prepared the drink he said, "So, you seem new here. At least I haven't seen you in the pub." He handed me a chilled mug of cider. I took a healthy swig before responding.

"Yea, I'm new in town, only been here about a week." I looked down the bar, every stool was filled. "Looks like you get plenty of business. I'll never know how you bartenders do it."

He gave me a puzzled look. "Do what?"

"Remember every ponies 'regular'. After a while it would seem to get hard to remember every regular customer's normal drink. By the way, my name is Shadow Ironsword." I held out my dark navy-blue paw to him for a shake.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Shadow, my name's Pipsqueak. You can call me Pip for short. And to answer your question. It's pretty easy for me. I just match a name to a face, then a drink to the name." He gave me a short, friendly shake.

"Hmm well that seems simple enough." I looked back down the bar.

A short earth pony mare, with a pink coat, lime green mane, and sea green eyes, was sitting at the bar with a unicorn stallion just behind her talking into her ear. "I told you, I don't want anything from you tonight."

The stallion responded, "Aw, come on, Daisy, don't be like that." I saw his white hoof wander down to her flank where he grabbed lightly. The mare hit his hoof away.

"What part of 'no' don't you understand!?" She said forcefully, then pushed him away.

"You bitch! You can't just tell me no! Do you know who I am? I’m the best dubstep musician in canterlot! I’m Black Marble!" The unicorn stallion’s teal eyes dilated and he raised his hoof to hit her. Before he could I jumped out of my stool and diverted his would-be punch.

"Are we gonna have a problem here?" I asked with a cool tone that spoke none of the rage I felt. Damn, I hate guys like this. Always so arrogant and pompous. They think they can get whatever they want just because of who they are.

The stallion glared at me and blew his electric blue mane out of his eyes "And who exactly are you?" If looks could kill I'd be on the floor.

"Me? I'm nopony. Just somepony who doesn't put up with a stallion pushing himself onto a mare when she's already said no. So, if you don't want trouble I'd either sit your flank down, or walk away."

"Like hell I will!" He raised his hoof to throw another punch. It never landed. Before it could I dodged to the side and landed two blows to his midsection. "Argh!" He cried out in pain and backed up a couple of feet.

"Now, if I were you, I'd walk out before your pride is damaged anymore, that is."

He gave a wicked smile. "You will be." With that he lit up his horn and launched a telekinetic blast to my midsection, sending me flying into the nearest wall with enough force to knock the air from my lungs. Ow! Dammit, that hurts like hell. I gotta be more careful.

I picked myself up off the ground and wheezed. After a long second I said, "Okay, Somepony’s just begging for an flank kicking. I hope you're happy." With that I pulled out my sword form underneath my black trench coat with my mouth. I mumble around my sword, "Still wanna fight, coward?"

"Hell yes I do! When I'm done with you the guard isn't going to be identify the body!" With that he powered up his horn and sent another blast my way. I flared my wings and dodged to the side, just to be hit with a much weaker blast. I hit the wall and crumpled to the floor. The stallion started to breath hard. He started to charge up another blast.

Okay getting real sick of that. I stood up, wheezing. Damn I think I might have sprained something there. The stallion pulled his horn down to aim another blast at me. Yeah, like hell I’m letting him do that again. I rolled to the left and ducked behind a table that had been flipped by his missed blast. After the blast hit the table I jumped back out and charged up to him.

In a last ditch effort he tried to cast another blast, only for it to strike slightly to my left, burning a gouge down my flank in the process. It was a minor pain though, I could ignore it for later. I jumped, and with a flap of my wings, landed behind him. I pulled my sword up his throat and locked his hind legs in place by wrapping my own around his. Balancing with my wings I wrapped my forelegs around his midsection, pinning his forelegs to his sides, and held him in place. With my sword still firmly held to his throat I mumbled around the handle, "Wanna repeat that?"

I felt something wet run down my left hind leg. Great he's pissed himself. "N-no I'm sorry. I'll leave, I'll leave!" he yelled out.

"I'm not the one you should be saying you're sorry to." I looked back up to the mare that he had been talking to. "It's her."

"Okay, Okay! I'm sorry."

I let him go, dropped all fours back to the ground, and sheathed my sword while the stallion scuttled away towards the door. The next moment I found multiple spears pointed at me. Great, somepony called the guard. I recalled my Dad’s advice: If you haven’t done anything wrong, then you haven’t got anything to fear from guards. I held up my paws and sat down on my flank with my hooves held up. "I have one weapon on me. It's on my left side, under my cloak. Should I lift it so you can have better access?"

The white pegasus guard directly in front of me looked surprised. Had he been expecting me to fight back? "No, I don't think that will be necessary." He looked over to Pip. "What happened here?"

Pip gave me a quick glance before answering. "Well, from what I can tell Shadow here was defending that young mare there, he pointed to the pink-coated mare, from that stallion over there." He pointed to the brown-coated stallion who was being held down by three separate unicorn guards.

"Get your hooves off of me! Don't you know who I am? I’m Black Marble! I have connections that could get you all fired!" I gave a slight step towards him, it was all it took for him to shut up. One of the guards not holding him down slipped a small ring over his horn. Probably a magic inhibitor.

"Well thank you for your cooperation, Pip." The guard looked back to me before saying, "And yours as well, was it Shadow?"

I gave a respectful nod towards the guard. "Yes my name is Shadow Ironsword. I'm here visiting Twilight." The guard's jaw dropped to the floor.

"You mean Twilight Sparkle?" He asked me incredulously.

"Well yea. There's not another Twilight in Ponyville, right?"

He attempted to regain his composure before responding. "Not to my knowledge, no." He looked back to Pip. "Okay, so Pip, do you wanna press charges against either of these stallions?"

"Not Shadow, but I think I will against Black Marble who laid his hooves on this mare here."

"I guess so." He looked back to the two cracked spots on the wall and grimaced. "Somepony's gonna have to pay for the damages, though."

“I'll pay for the damages, I technically started the fight." Pip looked at me in shock.

"But you only started it because he was being pushy."

"I did say I started the fight, not the situation." I gave slight smile to her before turning back to the guard. "I assume you’ll be taking me in too?"

The guard shook his head solemnly. " Not if Pip doesn't want to, there is no reason to. that being said, we could use your official statement down at the precinct."

"Sure, I’ll give it to you, anything that helps keep that SOB in jail is a good thing in my book."

"Alright then, let's go." The guard motioned towards the door. He turned back to the three guards surrounding the unicorn who had fought me. "Come on, we have to take them in for the night."

"Hey Shadow?" I looked back to Pip. "You come back tomorrow, alright?"

"Yeah, will do Pip." With that I headed out to the precinct with the guards.

Author's Note:

A huge to Twidashforever for all the help with this chapter. I couldn't have done it without him. Go give his stories a look if you are a fan of the twidash ship.