Rising Shadows

Shadow slept soundly during the night and woke up early the next morning.

He got up and put his sunglasses and vest on and went downstairs.

Vinyl was sitting on the couch listening to some music playing through her headphones with her eyes closed.

Since she didn't see him come downstairs, Shadow decided to sneak up on her.

He crept closer and closer as quielty as he could until he was behind her and then scared her.

Vinyl jumped off the couch from being scared by Shadow and landed upside-down on the chair across from it.

"Nice trick," Shadow teased.

"Oh, ha ha," Vinyl replied, "I meant to do that."

Shadow laughed, "I'm sure you did."

"You know you just wanted to get a good view of 'it' down there," Vinyl teased while shaking her flank.

Shadow looked away.

"We both know I've seen 'it' plenty of times," he said moving over to her.

"Considering I was the one that took your cherry," he whispered into her ear.

Vinyl blushed as she remembered the details of that night.

Shadow took a seat on the couch with a smirk on his face.

"Then why won't you join me and Pinkie," she teased.

"Because you're in a relationship together, and speaking of Pinkie did she already leave for work," he asked.

"Yeah, she left about thirty minutes ago," she replied, "and that's no excuse, you and I both know that you want to so why not?"

"I don't know, it's just," he paused, "What would the readers think?"

Vinyl looked at him confused, "Readers? What readers?"

"Nevermind," Shadow said waving his hoof dismissively.

Vinyl shrugged, "I'm gonna keep pestering you until I get a direct answer."

Shadow sighed, "Fine, after Strife is taken care of and if I haven't started dating somepony in a month, then I'll agree to it."

Vinyl smiled, "Deal."

Shadow rolled his eyes, "That's the only answer I could give that you would accept isn't it?"

"Pretty much," she answered, "And I want you to Pinkie Promise."

Shadow knew he had been caught and couldn't get out of it now and went ahead and Pinkie Promised.

"I really hope she forgets about this," Shadow thought to himself.

"I doubt it," Nightshade replied, "you've pretty much trapped yourself."

Shadow just gave a blank stare.

"Why are you just staring off into space," Vinyl asked.

"Nightshade is being a smartplot," Shadow answered.

"Wait how are you talking to him if you're still conscious," she asked.

"Oh, I can speak with him inside my mind," Shadow answered.

"Ah," she replied, "Wait he's been listening in?" Shadow nodded.

"Nightshade stop listening in on our conversations about stuff like this please," she asked.

"Tell her I won't listen in on stuff like this anymore since its a private matter," Nightshade replied.

"Thanks man, she's not trying to be rude," Shadow mentally replied.

"It's okay, I'm not upset," Nightshade said laughing a little.

"He said he won't listen in on our conversations anymore," Shadow said.

"Good," she replied.

"Are you just gonna sit upside-down in the chair," Shadow asked.

Vinyl flipped upright in the chair and sat down, "Better?"

Shadow nodded, "Better."

"How can it be better if you can see 'it' anymore," she teased.

Shadow rolled his eyes.

"I think we both know that all I have to do is ask," he retorted.

Vinyl giggled, "Obviously."

Shadow closed his eyes for a moment to concentrate on Strife's location.

"Hmm, he stopped again, what the hell is he planning," Shadow thought.

"Is Nightshade being a smartplot again," Vinyl asked.

"No, I was just checking to see how far away Strife is, this is the second time he's stopped moving," Shadow answered opening his eyes, "That just buys us more time."

Vinyl smiled and nodded.

"I hope you don't mean that it also means that you get more time before our 'fun'," she teased.

"I said one month," Shadow sighed, "even if Strife doesn't show up at all, the time frame is still one month."

"Should have chose your words more carefully," Vinyl teased.

"How do you know that I didn't plan that," Shadow bluffed.

Vinyl giggled before tackled him.

"Well then make good on your word," she teased calling him on his bluff.

"Well that backfired real fast," Shadow admitted.

"Well what are you going to do," she teased, "you can't teleport out of reach this time since we're making physical contact."

Vinyl smiled a devious grin.

Shadow returned her devious grin and flipped their positions.

"What would Pinkie say if she caught us like this," Shadow asked.

"I'd say 'don't leave me out'," Pinkie answered bouncing from behind the couch.

Shadow got off Vinyl and rolled his eyes, "You two are like two sides of the same coin."

"You know that's what you love about us," Vinyl said nudging him.

"Aren't you supposed to be at work, Pinkie," Vinyl asked.

"Oh yeah," Pinkie giggled, "don't have too much fun without me though."

Shadow rolled his eyes as Pinkie bounced out of the house.

"Now where were we," Vinyl asked as she tackled Shadow again.

"Definitely not here," Shadow asked.

Vinyl rolled her eyes, "I'm pretty sure we were."

Shadow smiled a devious grin and flipped their positions.

"I think you'll find that this is where we were," he teased.

"Well are you gonna go through with it," she teased, "or can you not get it up anymore?"

"You asked for it," he replied before going through with it.

Nightshade sat in the Inner Sanctum keeping track of Strife's location and was growing concerned that he had once again stopped moving.

"What is he planning," he wondered, "I should have Shadow check some maps of the places Strife has stopped at to see if anything is there."

Nightshade went through the plans that him and Shadow came up with.

"I guess I should check in with Shadow, it's been a while since Vinyl asked me to stop listening in," he thought to himself.

Nightshade reconnected his soul to the material world to see the world around Shadow, what he saw Shadow doing made him blush and he quickly disconnected.

"Well, I didn't expect that to happen," he thought out loud, "how in the world am I blushing?"

Nightshade tried his best to keep his mind off of what he saw, "I better not mention that I saw that or they'll both try to kill me. But the jokes on them, I'm already dead."

Nightshade sat in silence for a moment.

"Okay that was a bad joke," Nightshade said facehooving.

"I wonder why he decided to go through with it," he pondered.

Nightshade facehooved again.

"Stop thinking about it," he told himself.

Nightshade sat there for half an hour keeping his mind on other things.

"Okay they have to be done by now," he told himself, "I'll wait til later to be on the safe side though."

Vinyl was sitting in the chair once again and was out of breathe.

"I take back what I said," she began, "that was amazing."

Shadow sat on the couch grinning, "Who can't get what up now?"

"You don't have to rub it in," she giggled, "well more than you just did."

Shadow rolled his eyes as he laughed.

"You asked for it," he smirked, "and I mean that literally."

Vinyl giggled, "Pinkie sure missed out on the 'fun', unless you wanna go another round after Pinkie gets home," she teased.

"You know what, hell yes, I might die in the fight against Strife, so yes count me in," Shadow said flopping down on the couch.

Vinyl stared at him with wide eyes.

"I honestly didn't expect you to say yes to that," she admitted, "are you really that nervous about confronting Strife."

Shadow sighed, "Don't get me wrong, getting to fight somepony really strong is awesome, but if I'm not strong enough, then everything and everypony I want to protect will be in danger."

Vinyl nodded.

"I can understand how you feel, I'll let Pinkie know about tonight then," she giggled.

"I'm gonna take a nap, I'm tired after all that 'fun' and I need to go over some plans with Nightshade, I'm not gonna tell him about what happened though," he said.

"Okay, I'm gonna go hop in the shower, if you get cold just use the blanket hanging on the back of the couch," she replied heading upstairs.

Shadow covered up and quickly drifted off to sleep and found himself in his Inner Sanctum.

"Nightshade you here," Shadow asked.

"Yeah, I see that you're finished," Nightshade replied.

Nightshade realized too late that he had let it slip that he knew what Shadow did.

"Finished," Shadow asked, "what do you mean finished?"

Nightshade began to blush, "N-nothing! I didn't see anything, I swear!"

Nightshade realized that he had once again let it slip.

"You were still listening in even after Vinyl asked you not to, weren't you," Shadow asked with a blank stare.

"N-no I really wasn't, I reconnected to ask you something and I saw you two, well you can guess, and then disconnected almost immediately," Nightshade said still blushing.

"It's fine dude," Shadow said waving his hoof dismissively, "And before you ask, she issued a challenge that I couldn't turn down."

"Oh, and what was that," Nightshade asked.

Shadow blushed, "She said 'Are you gonna go through with it or can you not get it up anymore?', so you can see that I had to show her."

"That and you gave into your temptation didn't you," Nightshade asked firmly.

Shadow stared at him blankly.

"Are you trying to scold me for that," Shadow asked.

Nightshade was silent for a moment.

"Truth be told, I want to give you a brohoof," Nightshade admitted.

Shadow laughed, "So what was it that you wanted to ask me?"

"Oh yeah, I wanted to know if you can get some maps of the areas that that Strife has stopped in, I have a feeling there's something out there," Nightshade answered.

"Wow, I was seriously gonna talk to you about that, I had a feeling there was another reason that he was stopping at those spots," Shadow replied, "I'll get to then."

Shadow woke up on the couch and noticed that Vinyl was sitting in her chair, her mane and coat were still slightly damp.

"How long was I asleep," Shadow asked as he stretched out.

"Only for a little bit, I just got out of the shower just a couple minutes ago," she answered.

"I need to get around to finding some maps of Equestria, I'll be back in a little bit," Shadow replied getting up.

"I've got some maps I borrowed from Town Hall awhile back when I was planning the New Year's party," she replied.

"Do they show the land Southeast of Ponyville? Up to two hundred miles in that direction," he asked.

Vinyl thought for a moment.

"I'm pretty sure they do, they showed a lot of weird places out in the middle of nowhere in that direction, hold on I'll go get them," she said going to get the maps.

"Hmm, weird places in the middle of nowhere, Nightshade you there," Shadow asked mentally.

"Yeah, I'm here, and I think that might be what we're looking for," Nightshade replied.

Vinyl soon returned and placed the maps on the floor, after placing all the maps down she pointed out the 'weird places' she was talking about.

"Are those ruins," Shadow asked. Vinyl nodded, "That's what it looks like to me. I asked Twilight about them when I first noticed them but she couldn't find anything on them."

"Those look like the old bases of the Agents of Strife, they disbanded a few hundred years after Strife's death though," Nightshade told Shadow.

Shadow looked over all the ruins noting their distances.

"Okay the first one was two hundred miles, the second is about one hundred and fifteen," Shadow said, "both of them look completely, well, ruined by the looks of it."

Shadow traced the line between the ruins and Ponyville before coming to an abrupt stop.

"What's wrong," Vinyl asked.

"How long ago were these maps made," Shadow asked.

"Only last year, why," Vinyl replied.

"These ruins are the old bases for the Agents of Strife, and that's not all there's another one on the map, it's only fifty miles from Ponyville," Shadow began, "and that's not all, it's not in ruins."

Vinyl looked at the map at the base in question and noticed that it looked like it was well maintained.

"Do you think that there are still Agents of Strife around and they're in that base," Vinyl asked.

"What do you think Nightshade," Shadow mentally asked.

"I think there are, but I wouldn't worry, when I was fused with Strife, they were nothing but pests when I was alive," Nightshade answered.

"Uhm, not trying to be a jerk but, didn't they threaten to kill your newborn son in order to get your wife to betray you," Shadow asked.

"Yes, they did," Nightshade admitted.

"I'll be right back," Shadow said getting up and taking the maps with the three bases, "I'm going to let Shining Armor know and come back."

Vinyl nodded as Shadow left, it didn't take long for Shadow to find Shining Armor at Town Hall.

Shadow walked over to Shining Armor and showed him the maps and and explained what he had found out.

"I see," Shining frowned.

"What's the plan," Shadow asked.

"Well there's a chance that he could be using it as bait to lure you out, we a battalion mostly pegasi and unicorn guards arrived this morning so I'll send them to check it out. We need you here just in case he attacks here while they're gone," Shining answered.

Shadow nodded, "Sounds good to me, he still hasn't moved so that'll give your guards a pretty big head start."

Shining Armor nodded his head in agreement.

"Do you need me for anything," Shadow asked.

"Nope, I'll call for you if I do though," Shining answered.

"Okay, I'll be at Vinyl and Pinkie's house til tomorrow," Shadow replied.

"Oh, doing what," Shining asked with a sly grin.

Shadow rolled his eyes, "Like I'm gonna give those kind of details, and we're just catching up that's all."

Shining Armor kept his sly grin.

"Uh huh, sure you are," Shining said moving closer to Shadow, "That's not what I heard coming through the window of their house earlier during my rounds."

Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Don't tell anypony," Shadow said firmly.

"Don't worry I won't, I'll even Pinkie Promise, Shining said before making his Pinkie Promise.

"So how about making me a Royal Guard," Shadow joked.

"No can do," Shining frowned, "you've already got a good job, and you don't have your Cutie Mark yet."

Shadow gave him a blank stare, "Just because I don't have my Cutie Mark and already have a job is reason enough not to let me be a Royal Guard?"

Shining shook his head, "The truth is, Princess Celestia ordered me to keep you from becoming a guard, she believes that your destiny lies elsewhere and becoming a guard will make it harder to find."

Shadow thought for a moment, "Fair enough, and we both know I wouldn't be able to stand still long enough."

Shining Armor laughed, "That too."

"Well I'm gonna head back to Vinyl's," Shadow replied.

"Uh huh, planning on doing anymore 'catching up'," Shining asked with a sly grin.

Shadow gave him a blank stare, "Keep it up and the next bokuto that hits you in the nose, won't be on accident."

"I'm just messing with you," Shining replied while nudging Shadow.

Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Well let me know how if you need me," Shadow said turning to leave.

"Sure thing," Shining said going back to his makeshift desk.

Shadow left and went back to Vinyl and Pinkie's house.

"So what did he say," Vinyl asked.

"He's gonna send the battalion of guards that came in this morning to go check it out," Shadow answered as he sat down on the couch.

"So what are you gonna do," she asked.

"I'm gonna stay here until they call for me, and that's if they call for me," Shadow answered.

Vinyl moved over and started whispering into his ear, "You wanna have some more 'fun' before tonight?"

Shadow thought for a moment, "Sure, but let's go upstairs this time."

Vinyl was surprised that he agreed but was happy anyway.

"Nightshade, can yo-," Shadow began.

"Say no more," Nightshade replied before disconnecting.

Vinyl headed upstairs with Shadow following her.

They went into her and Pinkie's bedroom and shut the door.