“Go on!” “She’s right there!” “Go up to her and ask already!” came the enthusiastic voices of his friends. Clutching something to his grey chest, the pegasus was pushed across the ground against his will by a gathering of hooves.
After ensuring that he had been pushed uncomfortably close to his target, Shady Point’s friends let go and scampered back to watch the show. Shady stared at the back of the mare’s head for a few moments, before getting up off the floor and giving his ruffled wings a flap to make them neat again.
The mare the young colt had his eyes on was an unusual target: A changeling. A very odd changeling at that. Sparkfree was her name, of the Lady of the Sun’s Shining Paladins, serving under Shining Armor and as a personal aide to Princess Celestia herself. Sparkfree’s duty clearly showed in her appearance, what with the white and gold theme she had to her and the orange markings painted onto her carapace, including a lesser version of the princess’ cutie mark tattooed on each flank.
Shady Point, in contrast, was a dire affair of grey and more grey, save for his jade eyes. This, coupled with his thick dreadlocks and hood-like fringe, made him look extremely untrustworthy. He would have looked rather dangerous, too, if not for the bewildered look on his face.
Without a word, he pushed the small, pink envelope into the air before him, quickly throwing his gaze to the floor in an odd mixture of a bow of respect and utter embarrassment.
Sparkfree finished what she was doing and walked away.
“BrrraAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!” came a cacophonous laughter from behind the pegasus. Shady’s shock instantly turned into pure, unbound hatred. He looked back at his “friends” with a scowl so deep it could freeze a cockatrice if it stared too long. They didn’t care, of course. The timing had been perfect, and the fact that the normally closed-up pegasus had finally plucked up the courage to, not only buy a floofy pink card, but to actually ask out a mare, only made the showers of humiliation all the more golden.
He tossed the card to the floor, watching with his signature scowl as it drifted a few inches further across the marble.
“You have to make sure she knows you’re there first!” one of Shady’s friends called over. This sent the rest of them back into the throes of laughter, and Shady Point further into the pits. “Maybe you should think about-”
“-About going back to flight school!” another interrupted. He was the largest of the group by far. “Maybe you’ll find a mare who shares a common interest in flying! That’s all you’re good at!” as well as the meanest. The bronze guard armour that had to be custom made for his size only served to bulk him up further.
Shady Point didn’t even look at him. “Buck you, Flat Drop,” he replied bitterly.
“That’s more likely than you ever scoring!” Flat Drop was also rather stupid. He burst out laughing again, but the rest had gone fairly quiet. They were smart enough not to interrupt him.
Shady Point was not a smart colt. He gritted his teeth and looked at the group. “You know what? Buck you all!” he shouted. “I don’t care what you think!” With that, he turned and galloped away, unintentionally heading the same direction Sparkfree had gone.
Upon seeing her up ahead, Shady Point’s eyes went wide and he skidded to a halt. “Hey you!” he shouted, the anger still fresh in his tone.
Sparkfree stopped. She turned to face him, her strange yellow eyes, a mix between those of a pony and a changeling, seemed to judge him for a moment. “What?” she asked, her voice noticeably lacking an insectoid hiss.
“Why didn’t you notice me? I was right there in front of you, holding a stupid card out for you, and you just walked away!”
“No you weren’t,” Sparkfree replied in a passive tone.
Shady leaned back, his brow now furrowed in confusion instead of anger. “What?”
Sparkfree turned around again and continued trotting. “You were behind me. Not in front.”
‘You have to make sure she knows you’re there first!’ his friend repeated inside his head. Shady Point mentally slapped himself for being such a fool. What do I do now? he thought. Do I just go “yes, you’re right” and end it there? I have her right in front of me. I may as well try to start a conversation or something.
He brought himself back into the moment to see Sparkfree’s flank disappearing up a stairwell, putting his plans to a premature end. “Shit,” Shady cursed and galloped to keep up with her. He stopped at the entrance to the stairwell; it was one meant only for the higher divisions, not the Regular Guard. Still, though, he’d come this far, and like a switch from purple to gold wall décor was going to stop him. He meekly placed a grey hoof on the first step and began to climb.
“Uh, wait up!” he called, feeling calmer than before.
The yellow tail in front of him stopped in place, Shady having met Sparkfree half-way up the stairs. Sparkfree looked over her shoulder in the narrow passageway, her eyes once again judging him. “What are you doing?” she asked sternly.
“I’m sorry, I just want to talk for a while, ok?” Shady replied, holding one of his hooves against the wall, just in case.
“If you want to talk, then you will have to wait until I come back down. I am on my way to an important meeting with my Captain.”
“Look, I know… I-it’s just…”
Sparkfree regarded him with a stare that was growing crueller by the second. “Hearts and Hooves Day?” she asked. Shady Point nodded. The changeling stayed silent for a few moments. “Go away,” she said. “Every year I have many ponies and Changelings wanting after me. I don’t care about you creatures or your love.”
Shady Point’s heart sunk. Then a question arose, in what felt like nothing more than a vain attempt to salvage what couldn’t even be called a conversation. “Huh? But s-surely you want our love. You’re a-”
Sparkfree’s face turned dark. “I. Don’t. Want. Your. Love.” She turned her gaze back to the top of the stairwell, and gave the quartet of orange insect wings on her back a short flutter. “I am above such things. In case you hadn’t noticed, I am not a normal Changeling. Just one of the many gifts my mother has given to me.”
Shady Point searched his mind for something to say, but came up empty. With nothing more to say, Sparkfree raised her back legs and landed a pair of monstrous blows to the pegasus’ chest. Shady yelped in pain and he was tossed backwards down the steps. The hoof he had been using to keep himself steady in case of just such an event proved no help.
Sparkfree glanced back to make sure he ended up back where he was allowed to be. A short string of painful cries met her ears, then a slump as Shady Point came to a stop at the bottom of the stairwell. Feeling annoyed, but content, Sparkfree continued on up.
Shady Point wheezed and held his chest in pain. Two of his legs, his back and forehead, as well as the spot on his chest where Sparkfree had kicked the wind out of him were all bruising.
And then a shadow fell over him. The shadow of a darkish-purple earth-pony who stood taller than almost all others in the Royal Guard. “Oh, did things not work out for you?” asked Flat Drop. Shady Point stared up in terror and tried to stand, only for the giant to hold him in place with one of his hooves. “No, you’re not going. Not yet. Not until everyone knows just how much you suck!”
Flat Drop wore a terrifying scowl on his face, but it switched to a smile as he lifted up a small, pink and white card. Shady’s eyes went wide, but he soon let out a cry of pain as Flat Drop was forced to put all his weight on the hoof holding him down, using the other to read the card. A small crowd had gathered, keeping their distance from the brute.
“You flutter by everyday life like it is nothing, flying free without a care in the world. Without bumps in the road or stormy skies overhead. Everything is calmer when you are around, but nothing can calm the fire... in-... ugh.” Flat Drop stopped reading and tossed the card away in disgust.
He leant down. “The last mare you tried to buck with words didn’t like them too much. I figured you’d come up with something more interesting for your Changeling freak of a marefriend.” The giant pony removed his hoof and took a few steps back, before kicking Shady Point in his side. “Fetishist!” he spat.
The day shift ended and Shady Point dragged himself back home. He was limping slightly from his injuries, but he powered on in spite of the pain with that walk one gets if they really want to get somewhere, but also have to look like they’ve been stabbed in the gut at the same time. The sun was setting by the time Shady reached his home. The reception room rested on the bottom floor of the apartment building, the lights within just starting to appear in the fading light of day.
Shady Point stared at it for a while, and then up at his balcony which jutted out two floors up. With a look of unease, he skipped the thought of signing in and simply unfurled his wings, leaping into the air and flapping for the few brief moments before he reached his balcony. He winced at the pain in his legs as he landed. One can only wonder why he didn’t just fly to get back home in the first place.
The pegasus slid open the balcony door and ventured into the small kitchen area of his home. Even for just supporting one pony, it was a mess; the few plates and utensils he had were all scattered across the surfaces, while old leftovers caked the insides of the oven and sink. A clear patch had been carved out of the latter to allow the water to reach the plug hole. The walls and ceiling were a very murky shade of yellow, and they were even darker in places where damp had managed to find its way in - mainly around the balcony entrance.
Shady Point made his way past piles of grime and kitchenware and into the short hallway that separated his apartment from the corridors. Being Canterlot his accommodations were of a fair quality, or at least they were originally, that was something he wouldn’t contest, and for its size it was cheap and had all the room a single pony could need.
He moved into his bedroom; the colours were dark and rather drab, with its dark-red carpets and dark-grey walls. A desk lay to one side, covered in all sorts of papers and scrolls, and to the other side was a wooden door leading to a tiny cubicle-sized bathroom. Taking up most of the room - aside from the papers sprawled all over the place - was Shady Point’s double bed, a luxury left behind by the flat’s previous tenant.
He let out a small groan of pain as he climbed onto it, and then a long sigh as he lay flat out on the sheets. “What a bucking horrible day,” he grumbled to himself. It was rare for him to say such a thing. Not because he wasn’t one to complain - Shady Point was definitely one to complain - but because he had grown used to the bad treatment of his fellow guard members.
Today had been an especially bad day, and seeing the bedside chest of drawers, devoid of a certain floofy pink card, only made things marginally worse. Shady glowered at the empty space where it had been sitting for three days beforehand, and then down at the many scrunched up sheets littering the floor around the drawers.
Sparkfree’s words repeated themselves in his head and the place she had kicked him burned a little bit. It was around about this time that Shady thought it best to start breaking something.
He hopped down from his bed, dark thoughts and feelings filling his mind and his limbs starting to shake with anger. Shady looked around for a target. The mirror? Far too important. The wall? One side of it, the side behind his bed’s headrest partially covered by a Wonderbolts poster, already had giant cracks running through it. It didn’t need any more help falling apart, especially considering the fact that it might not just be the next room over on the other side of it.
Starting to feel desperate, Shady went into the kitchen, scraping the door frame for a moment as he went past. He scowled; last time he had lost his temper in here, he had broken every piece of ceramic dishware he had, including those that his parents gave him upon moving out. The memory brought up a sting of guilt in the pegasus’ mind, and he quickly moved through and back to the balcony. He raised a hoof, ready to bust the glass panes into shards…
And noticed that they were already broken. Did I seriously not replace these…? he thought to himself in sudden confusion. With his teeth starting to grind together, he picked out some of the shards that were still stuck to the frame, before slamming his hoof on the floor. “GOD’S SAKE!!” he yelled. “Why do I-” He let out a growl. Why do I have to be so particular about this shit!? Just SMASH SOMETHING!
With no other options, he spread his wings and leapt into the air. He spotted a tree just across the street and dived into the leaves, proceeding to tear twigs and branches in twain in a fit of unrestrained anger. Images of his so-called “friends” filled his mind, but none more so than Flat Drop.
“Hey you, what in Sleipnir’s name are you doing?” came a voice from below. “Get out of my tree, you hooligan!”
Shady Point, still in the throes of fury, stuck his head out of the side of it and shouted, “Buck off!”
The mare at the base of the tree was taken aback by the reply - Shady lived in a good area, one that wasn’t used to seeing trouble such as his. She stared wide-eyed at his scowl and cried, “How dare you! W-what in the world makes you think-”
“I don’t bucking care, ok!?” Shady interrupted. “Piss off!” He snapped another small branch.
The mare retreated from the tattered tree and aimed for the back door of her house. “Get out, or I’ll call the Royal Guard!” she called back. She was partially hidden behind the door with one hoof held against it, ready to pull it shut should Shady Point make the slightest aggressive move.
“I AM the bucking Royal Guard!!” Shady’s strained voice shouted in reply.
The mare slammed the door.
“BUCK YOU!”
Twenty minutes passed between the mare shutting herself in her home and Shady Point returning to his bed. By this point it was almost totally black outside, with only a dark-blue glow remaining in the sky. Night had fallen.
Shady lay draped across the sheets, once again staring at the empty space where his card had been that morning.
“I. Don’t. Want. Your. Love.”
The words of the day repeated themselves in his head. “Why did she have to say that?” he asked himself. Shady knew that there was more feeling behind the words than Sparkfree had shown him, even more than what had warranted her backing them up with a powerful kick to the chest. They spoke of all the previous times she had been sought after - the desperate, ignorant suitors turning her sour towards the concept of love.
“But surely you want our love? You’re a Changeling.”
Shady bit his tongue; he was one of them.
He turned himself away from the missing card and shut his eyes.
