The day to leave for the upcoming summit in the Crystal Empire had arrived and Shadow had mixed feelings.

Part of him was uncomfortable with disobeying a direct order from Princess Celestia even though he was no longer part of her guard. Going with that was the gnawing feeling that she was up to something trying to keep him from the summit.

Shadow gave a sigh as he finished checking his armor and inventory before he donned it. He knew it was necessary but it didn't change the fact it was boring.

He pulled the plates out and checked for damage, deformity, and corrosion before putting them on the floor next to him. When all the plates were pulled, inspected, and set aside he began the inspection of the heavy cloth.

With another sigh he made a mental note to look into getting a record playing down here to help break up the monotonous task.

While he conducted his inspections he thought of reasons Celestia would try to keep him from attending the summit but was unable to formulate anything plausible.

Happy with how the cloth looked he put the plates back in and put it all on.

Declaring it was break time he got up and headed upstairs.

As he got a glass of water an a leftover roll he heard Spike and Twilight going through their own packing list, Shadow paused when he heard Twilight tell Spike to pack her crown.

At first Shadow though it was weird to be bringing it but remembered it was a Princess summit so he dropped it.

Heading back downstairs with his snack he went over the inventory he should bring. As he went through his light snack he checked his supplies.

Overall satisfied with what he had on hoof Shadow packed everything into his saddlebags before dropping them near the stairs as he left the basement.

“Princess, I've finished my preps. How are yours coming?” Shadow asked as he put his glass in the sink. Turning around he expected an answer from Spike or Twilight but got none.

Looking around he found a note on the table letting him know Twilight had taken Spike and gone to the market to pick up snacks for the train.

Leaving the note on the table Shadow headed for the door. He'd already spent a chunk of the day in the basement and was going to spend another stuck in a train so he was going to lounge out on a cloud.

After closing the door Shadow looked around the sky for a cloud.

“Dammit Rainbow, you cleared all the clouds again.” Shadow spoke to himself after failing to find a cloud.

“Why can't you leave just a few? I'm to lazy to make my own.” Shadow added as he went to lean again the library. After spending several seconds getting comfortable Shadow leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

After several minutes he felt himself start to fall asleep and decided he should probably save that for the train.

While he continued his wait Shadow watched the locals go about their boring rural day and was reminded it was to be awhile before he made it back to a city outside of work.

Soon he saw Spike sitting on Twilight's back heading back with a two small boxes. As they approached Shadow pushed himself to his hooves and opened the door.

“You get everything you wanted Princess?” Shadow asked holding the door.

“Shadow, I've been asking you for the last week to not call me Princess. I'm not comfortable with the title.” Twilight answered as Spike hopped off her back with the boxes.

Shadow shrugged with his wings as he spoke.

“And I've been telling you it's really hard to break over a decade's worth of brainwashing and indoctrination.” Shadow reminded Twilight closing the door.

“Ah, don't you mean training dude?” Spike asked from near the table.

“Isn't that what I said?” Shadow asked heading over to the dragon but it was Twilight that spoke.

“No, you clearly said brainwashing and indoctrination.” Twilight answered from near the stairs to upstairs.

“Eh, tomato, tomato.” Shadow returned giving Spike a smile without changing his pronunciation of the word.

“Actually, it's either tomato or to...” Twilight started to lecture trailing off and stopping and then gave a frustrated groan before quickly walking upstairs realizing what Shadow was doing leaving Shadow and Spike chuckled at her response.

“You do know she's like one of the most powerful ponies in Equestria right?” Spike asked finally putting the boxes on the table.

“Yeah, but it's so much fun and easy to mess with her. Besides I like she needs to loosen up a little, she always seems so serious.” Shadow explained to Spike as he tried to figure out what was in the boxes.

“Well, yeah but you shouldn't. Okay, not as often, I wouldn't be surprised if you caused her to go full meltdown one day and no it wouldn't be awesome. It's going to be terrifying I bet.” Spike let Shadow know as he headed back to the main room and stopped Shadow from commenting.

“Also, we should be leaving in a few minutes so you should get ready.” Spike informed Shadow as he moved to the stairs.

“Gotta little dude, oh, quick question. Did I get any mail today, either normal or magical?” Shadow acknowledge and asked moving himself to his own set of stairs.

“Nope!” Was the quick response from the top of the stairs as Shadow moved to go downstairs. As he did he grumbled to himself at the lack of speed on his request.

Unfolding his wings just as he walked of the edge of the stairs Shadow stopped himself from hitting the floor and hovered as he picked up his saddlebags before flying back up to the entrance before landing.

With a quick turn and toss he got the bags on and decided to not tighten them down since he'd be taking them off soon enough.

When Shadow didn't see Spike or Twilight he decided to peek in the boxes Spike had left on the table.

Just before he was reaching to open the top box there was a flash of purple light and loud pop behind him.

Shadow was startled and whipped his body around as quick as he could causing his flank to hit the side of the table as his wings snapped out to their full extent.

By the time he realized it was just Twilight teleporting into the room he was in a defensive posture.

He had no problem seeing that both Twilight and Spike were as surprised as himself. It took another second for Shadow to gather himself back together.

“Woah, you okay Shadow?” Spike asked as he walked over to the table. Shadow took a deep breath and gulp to steady his voice.

“Yep, really not a fan of teleporting.” Shadow gave the dragon with a voice that still wasn't steady and a little shaky as he moved to a normal stance.

“Hehe, sorry! I'm sorry! I'm not really use to living with other ponies that don't use magic for everything.” Twilight apologized with a nervous and embarrassed laugh and tone as she shuffled her wings over her saddlebags.

“It's alright I'll get use to it, or have a heart attack or something like that.” Shadow gave accepting the apology as he felt and heard his heart pounding in his chest powering his muscles.

Twilight gave another shuffle of her wings as she nodded to Shadow before giving a annoyed groan.

“Why don't they stay down?!”

Shadow took a dry shallow as he leaned and tilted his head to look at the Princess's problem. He instantly saw what was the issue.

“I see your problem Princess. Do you want me to fix it?” Shadow asked moving his eyes to look at her.

“Please!” Shadow gave a simply nod before he walked over to Twilight's side.

“The problem is you're still wearing your saddlebags like you don't have wings,” Shadow began to explain pointing with a wingtip, “You've got to move them closer to your flanks.” Shadow added moving to adjust them before stopping himself.

“Why did you stop? I thought you where going to help?!” Twilight nearly demanded after several seconds passed looking at Shadow.

“Wow, you're really eager for me to touch your flank, that could explain why you're so wound up.” Shadow blurted out and as he started to groan he was slapped in the face with a wing as Twilight shirked.

“I don't get it.” Spike flatly stated from near the table.

After Shadow's latest incident involving an alicorn, the group moved quickly an in silence towards the train station.

As Twilight greeted her friends Shadow inspected the car Twilight would be using and decided it passed. Standing next to the entrance he stood by to let the Elements of Harmony board.

Both Twilight and Fluttershy avoided looking at Shadow as he stood at attention. With the seven members of the group on board Shadow boarded the train.

Shadow moved to sit near the entrance so he could look down the length of the car.

Almost as soon as he was seated he was nearly overwhelmed with physical and mental exhaustion. Shadow struggled to keep his eyes open and stay awake.

He was able to do so until after the train started to move down the tracks. The movement of the train pushed him over the edge and Shadow didn't realize he'd fallen asleep.

From Shadow's point of view he was suddenly being yelled out by a female voice about having to wake up.

“Five...teen more mikes. Then waken Serg.” Shadow mumbled out as he turned his head from the voice.

Shadow wasn't expecting laughter there was usually more yelling and threats. Rolling his head towards this voice he cracked open his eyes to find the laughing.

He saw several mares and a really small dragon were the source of the laughing, quickly the fog of sleep lifted from his mind.

“How long was I out and when did I pass out?” Shadow asked after covering up a yawn with a wing.

“Like five minutes after we left Ponyville.” Rainbow spoke up answering the second part of Shadow's question.

“Ay reckon you've been sleeping for five hours or so.” Applejack told Shadow to give the answer to his first question as Shadow leaned forward.

“Thanks for the wake up but why?” Shadow asked as he rolled and flexed his wings looking at the group that quickly gave him strange looks.

“Well darling we will be arriving in the Crystal Kingdom in about a hour.” Rarity informed Shadow as she looked up from her sketching.

Now it was Shadow's turn to be confused and it showed through his exhaustion.

“Ah, how? Isn't it like a couple hundred miles from Ponyville?” He asked as he turned to look out the window next to him and saw the white powder of death.

“Of course it is dear but we have taken the train.” Rarity responded with a matter of fact tone looking over her glasses.

“I know that but the time and distance don't match. Last time I traveled this much distance it took a like two weeks. So again, how?” Shadow added to his question pouring hate into his gaze out over the doom fields.

“OH! I can explain! You see when a magi-,” Twilight peeped up and started to explain prepared to go full professor mode.

“Ah, magic got it. Guess the Guard doesn't use the good magic stuff on us.” Shadow quickly cut of his Princess not wanting to go through another lecture which he saw deflated her enthusiasm as he stood up.

“When we get close enough I'm going to step outside and fly around. I need to wake up some more and I've been stuck inside to much today, I want wind under my wings.” Shadow told the group as he walked down the aisle.

“Yeah, I can understand that but I'm going to wait until we're inside the Crystal Kingdom. It's wway to cold outside for me.” Rainbow agreed as she hovered above her seat.

“I'll meet up with you in the castle, that okay Princess?” Shadow asked as he headed back towards the other end of the car. As Twilight responded he heard Rarity and Pinkie giggle.

“That works for me Shadow and please remember not to call me Princess.”

“Gotcha Princess.” Shadow replied with humor in his voice causing the others in the car to give a small laugh.

After Shadow determined that the train was close enough to its stop he informed Twilight he would be out and about flying and reminded her he'd meet up with her in the castle before heading to get off the train.

Shadow hesitated before opening the door knowing he would be blasted by gust if cold wind. Clenching his jaw he lowered his goggles and jerked the door opened.

As expected the wind hit him causing him to turn his head away.

“Damn it's cold.” Shadow muttered as he turned his head back before jumping out of the car.

With cold air rushing by him Shadow twisted his body so he was parallel with the train. Before gravity took hold Shadow moved his wings.

With a single powerful movement he got them into a position that would catch the air flowing around him to jerk him backwards in an upward movement.

After his wings got to to the desired position and filled with wind Shadow began the instinctive unconscious movements needed to carry out his desire as the fight against wind and gravity began.

The expected jerk hit Shadow and his body strained to fight the forces assaulting it but gave the results.

Shadow was suddenly behind and above the train with the wind howling in his ears. Making large movements with his wings he leveled his flight and then looked around the surrounding area.

He followed the tracks finding they lead directly towards a circle of green fields surrounding a city on the horizon with the sun near setting.

With slow powerful flaps of his wings he gained altitude and moved to position himself above the train.

The guard remained above the train and followed it to the train station. Once there he surveyed the crowd as he waited for his boss to get off the train.

Watching the locals carefully for signs of danger he followed Twilight and her group from the air as they moved through the city.

As they did Shadow would scan the skies around him looking for any challengers and like the ground below found none.

After Twilight and her friends entered the castle Shadow waited several seconds before landing and following.

After passing into the castle Shadow lowered his goggles and let them hang off his neck as he moved into his namesake.

From there he was able to follow the group all the way to the entrance of the Throne Room.

While the Elements and Spike entered the room Shadow waited for them to pass through the door before moving into a doorway nearby.

He wasn't able to see inside the room without being seen and was expecting to have to wait for sometime before everypony exited.

Shadow wasn't able to hear them speak with anypony but did hear some stallion announce Twilight's arrival shortly after entering.

However in less then a minute they all walked back out of the Throne Room surprising Shadow.

Taking a slow quite deep breath he moved in a matching manner.

Just after Twilight walked past him Shadow moved.

Using both his legs and wings the guard launched himself towards the Element of Magic.

Reaching out with his fore hoof he tapped Twilight in the shoulder.

“Princess I'm back.” Shadow let her know with a humorous tone as his hooves touched the floor.

Twilight let out a small scream as she jumped into the air causing her friends to turn around to see what had scared her.

When Twilight landed Pinkie and Rainbow were laughing when they saw Shadow had been the cause of the jump.

“Oh dear, that really scared me! Don't do that Shadow! You could have let me know you were back in a manner that didn't scare me.” Twilight scolded Shadow after turning to face the pegasus.

“I did it to specifically scare you for a reason Princess.” Shadow began to explain to Twilight and her friends as he shifted his wings.

“Why are you here Shadow Walker? You're suppose to be in Cantorlot.” Came the voice of Princess Celestia from behind Shadow that was clearly not pleased.
----
Shadow shut his eyes when he heard Celestia's voice as he dropped his head as to look at the floor.

"I'm here because Princess Twilight is." Shadow let Celestia know with an edge to his voice as he lifted his head.

"Yes, while that is true you were given orders to report to Cantorlot Sergeant." Celestia retorted as she and the other Princesses walked closer to the group.

"You are required to follow the orders of your Princess." Celestia added looking at Shadow as he turned to face the approaching alicorns.

"Duh, I know that." Shadow quipped giving a face that matched.

"Then why did you ignore the orders I sent you Sergeant Walker?" Celestia wanted to know as she came to a stopped a few steps from the Guard.

Shadow felt a flash of anger wash over him and he decided to go with it, angrily snapping at his former Princess pointing a wing at her and giving a small twirl of the wingtip near the end.

"You know what , Celestia? It isn't you anymore, so piss off."

Author's Notes:

Holy Harmony I posted on time!
I know I said this chapter and maybe the next might be late but I resolved what I needed in like thirty minutes, not the week I was expecting. So, !

Thanks once again for the time and attention you decided to spend here.
Ya'll take it easy.

Addendum, 01Nov15

Huge shout out and thanks to Iron Sky. He pointed out a huge mistake on my part.
I system crashed towards the end of this chapter and the auto-save didn't save everything like I thought it did. I had to redo the ending and upload again.

Thanks again to Iron Sky.