Rising Shadows

'Long ago there were two Alicorns of great power, one of good known only as Nightshade, the other a being of evil known as Strife. They fought for hundreds of years before Nightshade triumphed over Strife, he fused himself with Strife in order to keep him from ever rising again, however, while the fusion was still newly formed somepony Nightshade cared for and trusted with his life betrayed him, causing them to split back into two separate beings where they had one final battle, a battle, however, that neither of them would walk away from.'

"This is were it ends, Strife, I won't let you hurt anypony ever again," Nightshade shouted.

Strife let out a maniacal laugh, "You think you can stop me again, don't kid yourself," he shouted as he lunged at Nightshade.

The battle went on for hours and seemed like it would never stop, that is, until Nightshade managed to strike a fatal blow on Strife, but not before receiving one himself.

"I will return, Nightshade, in a thousand years, after the sisters of the sun and moon are reunited, the God of Chaos has been defeated by the magic of friendship, and the empire of crystal has been reunited with it's crystal heart, I will be reborn and then I will have my revenge," Strife said as his body fell limp, he was dead.

Nightshade was severally wounded and didn't have long to live, so he decided to head to his village, which was nearby, to warn them of Strife's passing words.

When he got into the village he was greeted with happy faces until they saw how badly he was injured, they then wanted to tend to his wounds but he refused, telling them it was already too late, he told them to gather round and listen to his final words and they complied.

"Strife will be back," he said, "In a thousand years, after the sisters of the sun and moon are reunited, after the God of Chaos was defeated by the magic of friendship, and the empire of crystal has been reunited with its crystal heart, Strife will return to seek out his revenge."

Nightshade then went on to tell them to pass the story down through the years and started to explain what needed be done to be prepared.

While he was doing this, two little Alicorn fillies were listening at the front of the crowd, two sisters, one with a coat as white as snow, the other with a coat of dark blue like the night sky itself.

When Nightshade had finished explaining he gave a smile to everypony thanking them for listening to his final words, he laid down his head to rest, everypony had tears in their eyes as they watched him take his final breathe.

The white filly turned to look at her younger sister, "I think we should go Luna," she sniffled, trying her best not to cry, the younger filly looked back at her older sister with tears flowing from her eyes and nodded and followed her sister home.

"Gah," Shadow shouted as he quickly shot up in bed, "That same bucking dream again," he said getting up and moving over to his bedroom window, "I wonder what the hay it means."

He shook his head to take his mind off it and turned to look at the clock on his wall, he couldn't see it since it was too dark in his room so he used his horn to light up the room just enough to read the time on the clock, it read 3:15am.

Shadow stifled a yawn as he stopped illuminating the room, he used his magic to levitate a glass of water he had put on his nightstand before going to bed, after taking a few sips he laid back down and quickly fell asleep.

Shadow was enjoying the comfort of his bed when the knocking at his door finally awoke him, mumbling to himself he went downstairs and answered the door.

"Well it's about time you woke up," Twilight said standing at the front door, "I want you to come to Sugarcube Corner, I have something to show you."

Shadow gave out a small yawn and nodded his head deciding it was too early and he was too tired to try to get her to just show him what it was there instead at Sugarcube Corner.

"Did you have that dream again last night," Twilight asked, "Yeah, but this one was different, there were two young filly sisters, one called the other by name but I couldn't make it out," Shadow shrugged dismissing it as nothing more than a dream, "Let me go get ready and I'll meet you there."

Twilight smiled, gave a nod, and left.

Shadow went into his bathroom and took a shower, after getting out and drying off with a towel, he brushed his teeth and combed his blue mane and tail.

He went back upstairs and grabbed a pair of his dark blue DJ sunglasses and put them on, hiding his deep blue eyes, next he grabbed one of his blue vests and put it on.

"I'm so glad I had these vests custom made for maximum comfort," he said enjoying the comfort they brought him.

He went back downstairs, took his house key off the wall and walked outside, he then closed the door and looked it, putting the key in one of his vest pockets, he then left for Sugarcube Corner.

Upon arriving he noticed that he hadn't seen anypony the entire way and figured that they were probably still asleep, something he wished he could be doing, he then opened the door and walked inside, he tried to look around but it was pitch black.

"Twilight tells me to come here so she can show me something and she doesn't even show up," he mumbles to himself.

He was just about to turn and leave when the lights flashed on and everypony jumped out of hiding, "Surprise," everypony shouted in unison, "Happy 20th Birthday, Shadow," they shouted together.

Shadow was stunned, he had forgotten that today was his birthday and was overjoyed that all his friends had remembered.

Twilight saw the look on his face and decided to say something, "What? You didn't think we would forget your birthday now did you? Like I would forget my cousin's birthday, and I know that they wouldn't either," she said pointing to her friends who nodded in agreement.

"Well are you going to blow out the candles on your birthday cake," Pinkie asked pointing to the cake on the table in the center of the room.

Shadow moved over to it and thought about what he wanted to wish for, "I wish that me and my friends can stay friends forever," he thought to himself as he blew out the candles.

"Well what did you wish for," Pinkie asked smiling ear to ear.

"If I tell you that then it won't come true," Shadow said teasingly.

"Oh yeah," Pinkie said giggle snorting, "Hurry and open your gifts," Pinkie said bouncing excitedly.

Shadow walked over and picked up the first of the gifts in his magic.

"That one is from me," Twilight said as he opened it.

When he finished opening it he took out a book, "What's this," he asked reading the title, "Advanced spells for the magically talented?"

He looked at Twilight, grinning ear to ear, as he spoke, "This is so awesome!"

Twilight smiled, "I thought you'd like it, since you're always coming around the Treebrary checking out spell books, and since you've mastered almost every spell in the ones I had, I requested a copy of that book from Celestia to give to you as a gift, and she sent it to me the next day, she also said that she placed some ancient spells in their just for you" Twilight said still smiling.

Shadow nodded and sat the book down on the table and proceeded to open the next gift, which was also the largest and heaviest.

"That one is from me, you know, cause I'm so awesome," Rainbow Dash said, Shadow giggled a little as he finished opening it, he found a bunch of metal, he looked at Rainbow Dash with a puzzled look on his face, "Is this what I think it is," he asked.

Rainbow Dash nodded, "Yep it's Mithril alright, I had an old friend of mine from flight school find me some, I figured you could use more for that project you've been working on."

Shadow gave her a hoofbump as thanks and then opened the third gift.

"That one is from me, darling," Rarity said as Shadow was looking at its contents confused.

"Those are magical gems, two thousand to be precise, I found them when I was looking for some rubies and saphires for my new dress, I have no use for them but I figured you would, darling," she said.

Shadow put down the box and gave her a hug, causing her to blush, "Thank you, Rarity, I can definitely use those."

He turned and opened the fourth gift, this one was from Fluttershy, when he got open and looked inside he took out the contents.
"A-a poster of Neon Lights and Vinyl Scratch, and it's autographed by both, getting Vinyl's autograph is pretty easy but getting Neon to autograph anything is nearly impossible," he said as he turned to look at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy hid behind her mane, "D-do you like it?"

Shadow shook his head, "No, I love it, how did you Neon to sign this," Fluttershy smiled, "I know Neon has a crush on me so all I had to do was ask," Shadow just sat there looking at her in awe.

After a couple minutes he finally snapped out of it and opened his fifth gift, this one from Applejack.

"Hope ya like it, Sugarcube," AppleJack said.

He looked in the box before looking back at Applejack, "Zap apple jam," he asked excited, Applejack nodded and giggled as Shadow gave a hoofpump.

Shadow set down the box of Zap apple jam and picked up the sixth and final gift.

"Open it, open it, open it, its from me and Vinyl," Pinkie said bouncing around out of excitement.

Shadow giggled as he finished opening it and looked inside and pulled out one of the thousands of similar strange devices.

"Vinyl told me you could use that for your project, she said she used them for her Bass Cannon and a few of her other inventions," Pinkie said.

Shadow smiled and gave a hoofbump before grabbing all six of them into a group hug, "Thank you all so much, this is the best birthday ever," he said as he let them go.

They spent the rest of the day enjoy the party and when it got dark Shadow told everyone good night and went home and went to bed.