A few days after the reunion with his clone...

After having any stressful day, I like to unwind by going down by the barracks, where I hone my skills. I had the guards put up numerous targets designed to test each one of my abilities. First was my endurance and hoof/blade-combat, then magic, then flying. It's quite exhausting, but helps me in the long run.

I first put on my Night-guard armor. It was like any another armor, but black. It was flexible and breathable, yet strong enough to repel strong spells and provide protection from blades. It also made normal physical attacks feel like light pushes. The only pony who could really hurt me physically with my armor on was Applejack, for obvious reasons. I didn't wear a helmet, they always impaired my vision, but leave my head and neck vulnerable. I'd have to be quick to avoid any fatal hits there. I had also been racing Rainbow Dash for a few weeks now. Raziele would join from time to time, but would always end up losing. Thanks to Rainbow, I was able to match her speed, which could help for certain situations. However, I could still be easily irritated if something didn't go my way, or easily distracted if someone on the side did something. My stamina is also cut short. While I was quite the athlete in the human world (Take Kwon Do experience and a track runner), my asthma always impeded me from reaching my true potential. Twilight had also been practicing with me, teaching me how to teleport. It was like Nightcrawler from X-Men, I have to see and know where I'm landing to teleport properly. So far, I only use teleportation to go behind enemies and escape being trapped, not travel.

As I entered the center of my training area, 5 wooden dummies appeared around me, trapping me in a circle, on the ground was a single sword. Then, they started to move quickly towards me; I had to think quickly as well. I bucked the two dummies behind me with enough force to break ribs (I estimated and measured for my targets to go down with a certain amount of pressure/damage). Then, I picked the sword off the ground into my mouth and decapitated the one dummy in front of me. The last two dummies backed off. I put the sword from my mouth and into my hoof, and threw it at the farthest dummy. It hit the dead center of its head, and it went down. I then pounced on the last dummy and began a wild barrage of punches and kicks that resulted in a headbutt to the dummy's chest, sending it flying and breaking upon impact against a castle wall.

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Luna looked out her window to see Shadow training his heart out. He was getting a quick rest from his combat trials, a bit our of breath. The Moon Princess watched with concern; his asthma and short stamina could cost him in battles, but he was still very strong. There was no doubt that he could fight, she watched him every time he practiced, and he would gradually improve each session. She could only hope he would be prepared for what lay for him and his friends in the near future.

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Damn, I thought. My asthma's gonna get me killed someday. I shook off the last of my exhaustion and stood ready for the next part of my test: Magic. As if on cue, several targets were launched into the air. My started to glow its normal grayish glow and fired magic bolts at each target I saw. I didn't miss a single one. Then, debris began throwing itself at me. I instinctively threw up a shield, and managed to repel the random debris from all angles.

Then, a lightning rod rose from the ground about 25 yards from where I stood. I thought about what Luna told me that one night, when she taught me how to charge my phone with magic. It was a similar concept. I made my horn glow with magic, but this time, it crackled with electricity that made the air smell like ozone in the high atmosphere.And so, I fired it with no problem like a normal magic bolt towards the rod. It hit the middle, and I could see the electricity race up and down the lightning rod. At this, 4 more rods rose from the ground, and 4 more were struck with my electricity.

And so, began the flying portion of my training. I extended my wings and took to the air, where an obstacle course composed of clouds met me. I saw many agility circles and targets and dummies for me to hit on my way through it. I took my spot at the start of the course. I smiled wondering if Rainbow could also try this course at some point.

"LET'S DO THIS!" I hyped myself up and took off quickly through the clouds. Upon my first turn in the course, I met several agility rings. I effortlessly flew threw each of them, not losing my speed. I then came up to the part with dummies and targets. I played a pinball game against the dummies, flying to each of them and bucking them to get to the other target, blasting each target that was in my line of sight. Next was my least favorite part: the fire rings. I hate fire, it's scary, end of story. I know that Fire Storm has an ability that's fire-related, but I grew to be fine with that, seeing as she can control it and only I can start it. But when it happens to be a sort of obstacle, I tend to freak out a bit. I carefully went through each ring, having slowed down my pace. The smoke from the winds clouded my lungs, and my asthma had already began to hurt me. I looked up to see the final straightaway. I smiled with relief that I was done with the fire wings, and saved up enough energy to perform this last stunt, my Shadow Blast!

I picked up my speed, even though it hurt my lungs to strain my wings. If I were being chased, I wouldn't care. I would need to escape no matter the cost. I began to spin, and my vision began to distort rapidly. I could feel a harsh resistance and pressure around me: the Mach Cone. I kept pushing and pushing until BOOM! I was rocketed to the end of the straightaway and into a soft cloud. There, I tried to breathe slower with my aching lungs. The smoke and asthma and overall exertion was killing me. My wheezing was heavy, but I had one last trick to pull from that cloud, a trick was powerful and recently made up. On the ground below was a group of dummies. This final trick needed as much energy as I could use, as it was, as I call it, "a charge-up" attack. My horned glowed again, this time wasn't with normal grey magic, nor electricity. It was pure dark energy, a shadow energy, if I may. At the thought of that intruder that recently attacked me, my eyes glowed red with anger once again, which fueled my adrenaline and power put into the charge. I looked up to see a sphere comprised of completely dark energy about  two feet across. With all of my might, I magically hurled it down to the ground.

BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!! The sphere smashed into the ground with great force, obliterating all of the targets in the immediate vicinity. When the smoke cleared, there was nothing but a small crater and pieces of shattered practice dummies. I smiled, proud of my efforts, and flew slowly to my room. I needed sleep, I felt exhausted beyond anytime I've ever overworked myself. I truly felt I deserved some rest.

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On the ground, a very shocked Raziele looked around at the destroyed targets. He looked up and watched as Shadow lazily flew to his quarters. Raze felt that Canterlot was very glad Prince Shadow Blitz was on their side.