A mere shadow

Shadow fumes, after she had laid Echo Shade out on her bed she had rushed back to where she left Ageus. The only evidence that he been there were a few broken branches and the magic-stifling net he had been tied in hanging on one of the branches. There was a possibility he had woken up in the short time she was gone, but even then she didn't see how he could have possibly gotten loose and away. Without even leaving tracks! She has the net with her now to check in the better light from the lamps in her house. While thinking of her house, she thinks of the stallion on her bed. Then she turns her thoughts to how he could have gotten so sick, it was sudden, the labored breathing and dead tired look about him. It couldn't have been Ageus, the only spell he was able to pull of was the one that... She shakes her head to clear it. The one spell, then they had gotten the net on him. She then studies every moment from then until he collapses, only one thing keeps coming to mind. Before they took off Echo had swished his tail as if to brush away a mosquito or something... But there aren't mosquitoes around there, it's dry as a bone... A poison dart! That's the most probable explanation,  the timing the symptoms, everything! With renewed vigor Shadow rushes back to her house.

She checks Echo Shade over more carefully. "There you are, you little beastie." She mutters to the point of the dart still stuck in his flank. Not wanting to poison herself of accident she retrieves a pair of tweezers and uses them to pluck the tiny dart out. She sniffs it, but can only smell blood. "No help there, I'd never be able to determine the poison in any reasonably amount of time..." She throws the nub away and pulls several books about poison and the like down from her bookcase. Stifling a yawn, she sets to work and Celestia's sun peeks over the horizon.

* * *

Shadow wakes with a start, how long had she been asleep? She glances out the window, the sun has barely cleared the horizon. "That means I've only been asleep for a few minutes... I need to stay awake, if I fall asleep again... Echo could die..." She looks at the stallion still unconscious on her bed. What's this emotion she feels toward him? Love? Again her thoughts go back to five years ago, with Shooting Star and that dammed pink and red unicorn that stole him away. She banishes the thoughts from her mind refuses to think of it again.

"It's possible Zecora's still at her house." She knows that the zebra planned on leaving for a festival in her home land in the near future, but it's still possible she hadn't left yet. "At any rate, the short flight should help me clear my mind even if she's not there." She doesn't leave immediately however first she prepares a tonic that will, in most cases, slow down poison. There are about ten different poisons that the tonic would affect, and five others that would actually get worse. Not that she thinks he was poisoned with one of those, except for the possible one... But the odds of that are about a hundred to one. She finishes mixing the tonic and brings it back over to Echo Shade, forcing his mouth open she pours it in. First he tries to spit it out, she holds his mouth closed, he breathes through his nose, she blocks it until he swallows. "Good boy, I'll be right back... With or without Zecora."

Flying through the cool morning air does wonders for Shadow nerves. Soon she's wide awake and her mind is racing, she has doubts about leaving Echo Shade untended, but the slightest that she could bring Zecora to help was too much to give up. The zebra was far more advanced in the knowledge of plants and poison and things like that. And another thing, if he was poisoned with what she thinks he was... A fever would take hold of him and he would start babbling nonsense... She really doesn't want to witness that. Wiping away a tear she lands at Zecora's hut, she knocks on the door, waits, and knocks again. The zebra would be up by now she was sure, the zebra all basically worshiped the sun, they got up at dawn and slept at dusk. Frustrated with herself for the wasted trip she rockets off back to her home, determined to not waste another moment.

She reaches her house, panting slightly from the fast trip, and opens her door. Echo moans and she rushes to his side. "I was afraid of this." She says to herself. Echo has a fever, just as she feared. She rushes to her kitchen, picks up the bucket by the door and rushes out to the pond back of her house. Her neck straining as she lifts the full bucket back to her house, puts the bucket by her bedroom door. Rushes back into the kitchen knocks over a bowl of fruit, grabs the bowl and a couple towels. Back in her bedroom she sets the bowl on her nightstand, accidentally knocking a candle off of it. She fills up the bowl with cool water from the bucket, soaks a towel and lays it on Echo's sweaty brow.

Sweating from the constant exertion, Shadow takes a moment to regain her breath and ponder what to do next.

"Books, find the books with the cure. Make sure I have all the herbs to make the cure, and give the cure to Echo."

* * *

The whole day Shadow works, studying all her books for the type of poison Echo Shade was poisoned with. Punctuated with pauses to change the cloth on Echo's brow. Around two in the afternoon he starts mumbling and raving in his sleep, she takes a break from trying to find a cure and strokes him sweat-soaked mane.

"Oh Echo Shade, I'm doing everything I can... Dawn's gone, I have no way of finding her. Ebony's still at Fluttershy's cottage but she would just get in the way anyways... I never knew my parents... From what I could find out, Storm, my father, was at the hospital when I was born. He was... is? A pegasus. My mother Star is... was? a unicorn... They went home with me, that's all I was able to find out at the hospital. Plus one picture of my mother holding me." Driven by some unknown impulse, Shadow lays her head on the stallions chest, listening to his heartbeat. "You on the other hoof, you're the captain of Luna's royal guard! I don't see how somepony like you would ever be able to like somepony like me, an abandoned orphan. Even if my parents are still alive... They still abandoned me, left me to face life on my own. The only true friend I've ever had is Dawn, and she's been taken from me as well..."

Wiping tears from her cheek Shadow goes back to work, looking for the cure for Echo Shade.

* * *

That evening Shadow finally discovers a cure. "Colere! Of course." She immediately sets about preparing the cure. Finding she has all but one of the necessary herbs she stifles a scream of pure frustration. Grabbing her saddle-bags and cloak she rushes back out the door. "I think I know where to find some of this herb. Lachen, there's a patch of it by that river." Flying to the river, Shadow ponders the various uses for the herb. The most basic use for it was making ponies laugh, but at the same time tell the truth about any question they were asked. A sort of truth serum, but she knows that mixed with various other ingredients it could have other uses. Maybe it has medicinal qualities as well? Knowing that the author of the book most definitely has better knowledge of poisons and the cures, she turns her whole attention to finding the last herb. Finding the river she lands, and scans it's banks for the Lachen.

"Ha! Maybe fate is still in my favor!" She spots a patch of the herb, each time she goes looking for it, it always amazes her how much like common mint it looks like. She grabs a mouthful, trying not to taste any of the bitter herb, puts it in her saddle-bags, and grabs a few more mouthfuls. Spitting, she takes off again, as Celestia's sun makes it's way below the horizon again. Once back at her house, she drops her cloak on the floor and checks on Echo, who is sleeping peacefully. Shadow heads once again to her kitchen, tripping on an apple as she finds another bowl. First, she grinds the herbs into a pulp, adds the dried herbs. Then she mixes in the liquid ingredients, ticking of each ingredient in her head as she does.

"Now I just need to... Keep it at a simmer... For an hour?" She reads the directions again, and again, just to be sure. "He's waited all day while I figure this out... Surely he can wait one more hour?" She pours the potion in a pot and hangs the pot in her fireplace, lights the fire underneath it and goes back to reading about the deadly poison Colere.

"From the time poisoned to the time of death is about twelve hours? He was poisoned shortly before dawn... And it's sunset now..." She fights to quell her growing panic. "I can give him that tonic again... Colere is one of the poisons that can be slowed by it..." She quickly prepares the tonic again, and this time when she gives it to him, he hardly fights at all. That making her all the more panicked she rushes between the kitchen and Echo, constantly checking to see if the potion was blue-green, and if Echo Shade was doing any better or... worse.

Staying awake and alert for over thirty-six hours, all that happened over that period of time, and her overwhelmed emotions eventually took her toll. She woke with a start with her head on her bed and panicked all the worse.

"Ok, good you're still alive... And this still hasn't turned blue-green yet!" She reads the instructions again just to be sure, but for all her wishing nothing was different. Noticing the dim light she lights a couple candles putting them in handy spots around her house. And with nothing else to do, resumes her frantic dance from pot to stallion.

* * *

Finally after what seems like hours to Shadow, the cure is a blue-green color. She pours it into a clean bowl. "Now I need to give him a dose every four hours, until all of it is gone." She measures out the proper amount and rushes back to Echo. "I have it, I finally have the cure." Her voice breaks as she sees how weak and fragile he looks. Opening his mouth, the distraught pegasus mare pours the concoction down his throat. He doesn't fight at all. She steps back to see if there is an immediate change, and sees he's not breathing.

"No, NO!" She crumples, sobbing into her sheets. "No, you can't be dead. You can't!"