Twilight's Shadow

Twilight's Shadow

-In-Depth-

To My Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle,

You should probably lay off all this late-night studying you've been doing. It seems as though it's beginning to have negative effects on your mind. I mean, really, Twilight, when you get to feeling better, you should re-read your last letter. I'm sure it will give you as much of a laugh as it gave me.

All joking aside, I am quite serious about the late nights. Hallucinations are never a good thing. Trust me on this one, you do not want to be having those for very long.

I'll be waiting patiently for you and your friends' newest findings on the magic of friendship. Until then, Twilight.

Sincerely, Princess Celestia

Spike finished reading the letter, and looked up at Twilight, who simply sat in silence for a few moments. "Uh, Twilight?" he asked. "I don't think the Princess believes you about that Shadow guy."

"Really, Spike? I never would have guessed." Twilight answered sarcastically. "So, that eliminates the Princess from the list of ponies that could give us a clue as to why he's even here."

"Wasn't she the only pony even on the list in the first place?"

Twilight sighed. "Yes. Yes, she was."

"So what are we supposed to do now?"

"I dunno, Spike. Let's go see if he'll give us any details about his world. I'm sure he'll be able to take my mind off of the fact my teacher and the ruler of Equestria just wrote off there being an alien in my living room as a joke."

"To be honest, I probably would've done the same thing."

The pair walked down into the living room to notice their visitor was now laying across the couch, reading a new book he seemed to have picked up while they were gone. He glanced toward them as they approached him, "Hmph'ed" grumpily and returned his gaze to the tome in his hands.

"So, uh, Shadow. I don't think the Princess is going to help you out."

He quirked his left eyebrow and lowered his book. "Why?"

"She, uh..." Twilight stammered as she recalled the contents of Princess Celestia's letter. "She didn't exactly believe me when I told her about you. She doesn't believe you exist."

He shrugged and went back to his book. "Not particularly surprising." he said, sounding rather bored. "Until about an hour ago, I wouldn't have believed she existed." He closed his book and placed it on the floor next to the couch and righted himself to where he was in a sitting position and said, "I don't suppose you could just figure out some way to fling me back to my world, could you?"

Twilight shuffled her hoof on the ground and sighed. "No. I don't think I could do that. I mean, traveling across dimensions isn't something that's really been studied all that well. Because, you know, it's um... supposed to be scientifically impossible."

"Right. Right. Of course."

Twilight sighed and levitated the book Shadow had deposited on the floor and inserted it back into its proper place. When she turned around, she was met with an entirely different pair of crimson eyes. While up to this point, Shadow had always seemed to have an angry look in his slanted eyes, he now had a surprised look in his just as surprisingly large, round eyes. He blinked at Twilight a few times, then looked at the book she had placed in the shelf, then back to Twilight, now having regained most of his composure.

"That was you, yes?"

"Uhm, yes, it was." Twilight answered, a little thrown off by his rapid change in demeanor. "Why?"

He closed his eyes and sat in silence for a few seconds,almost as if he was reminiscing about something. "No reason, it's just that possessing an ability like psychokinesis isn't exactly common where I come from."

"Oh, well, I get that. But it's pretty much one of the first things a unicorn learns when they figure out how to control their magic, so--"

"Wait." Shadow interrupted. "Magic? Real magic? You're completely serious? ... Of course you are, you're a talking pony, of course you're magical..." He said in exasperation as he put his head in his hands and sighed. "This is just getting worse and worse..."

"You don't even have magic where you come from?"

"No. Because magic is fictional and ridiculous."

"Well, listen up, Shadow," Twilight sneered. "Here, all unicorns, and the princesses, who are alicorns, can all use magic. So if you're going to be sticking around, you're just going to have to deal with it!"

Shadow huffed and turned his head away from Twilight. "Trust me, I'll be out of here as soon as I find a way home."

"You... you...! Gah! You're so infuriating! You act like you're some big shot and you're so much better than all of us! What makes you think that?!"

"Because I am. You're all pathetic."

Twilight's jaw hit the floor. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. She felt angry and hurt, like she wanted to cry and buck this monster in the face at the same time. "H-how... ?" she stuttered, shaking. "Why would you... WHAT IS UP WITH YOU?!" she shouted as she loosed a burst of magic toward him.

He flung himself off the couch as the cushions exploded, his metal shoes clanging as he hit the floor, and dove away from the second shot she flung at him. He seemed relatively calm for someone under attack, and wiped the dust off of his shoulder and smirked.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" he asked, tauntingly. "Looks like you've got some fire in you after all, girl. Unfortunately, it's still pretty pathetic. I know a child who could easily build a weapon with the same firepower as your precious 'magic' in minutes."

Twilight's eye was twitching now, and all she could feel was anger and hatred toward this hedgehog. What had been genuine concern and curiosity had all but completely melted away. "Get. Out." She growled, as her horn's light intensified and her eyes burned a bright white. "And never show your face to me ever again."

He laughed.

"Oh, this is cute. You're threatening me, aren't you? Well, looks like this perfect little world of yours isn't as perfect as it looks, eh?" he asked, smirking the whole way through. "You're just as violent as every other sentient species. And you know what? Fine. I'll go. I was just about done here anyway."

"Oh my goodness! What is going on here?" a new voice called out in alarm.

Twilight blinked and her eyes and horn seemed to burn out as she looked toward the door of the library where this new voice had emanated from. Shadow turned too, satisfied Twilight was disarmed. What he was met with didn't particularly surprise him at this point.

A yellow pony with wings and pink hair stood at the door, blue-green eyes wide with fright and confusion. Shadow looked back and noted the exploded couch and scorched floorboards and chuckled. This was barely anything to be afraid of in his book. His face fell back into his signature uninterested frown and he turned around to face her. "Hmph. Get out of my way, creature," he said as he approached the door. "I have no further need to--"

A blast of force sent Shadow flying into the wall above the door. He groaned as he fell backward and landed on his back. He blinked a few times, and then his face contorted with rage. Suddenly, he vanished in a flash of blue light.

Twilight ignored his little vanishing act and galloped over to a very crestfallen yellow pegasus. "Oh my gosh, Fluttershy, I'm so sorry you had to meet up with him! He was a terrible, mean creature, and I should have sent him away as soon as I found him!"

Fluttershy looked at the floor and then up to Twilight. "I-it's okay, Twilight. It's not your fault. I just wish he wouldn't have been so mean... I really would have liked to spoken with him. He seemed like such an interesting animal..."

Spike, who had long since hidden behind the wastebasket, approached Fluttershy with a sullen look on his face. "Yeah, I thought he was cool, too..." he said, sadly. "... Until he started trash-talking Twilight and pretty much all of Equestria!" he finished angrily, stamping his foot on the ground.

Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth in shock. "H-he really did that? W-w-why would he say such m-m-mean things? That's just... not right!"

"Tch. Wow. This is almost sickening," spat a certain, all-too familiar voice. The three gathered at the door whipped around and saw a very angry hedgehog glaring at them from across the room, shocked. "What, you thought I was done with you after that last little shot? Well, you'd be wrong. So now..." he began walking toward Twilight, cracking his knuckles. "The real fun begins."

Before he could reach Twilight, Fluttershy's expression hardened and she stepped in front of her friend. "Now wait just a minute, you!" she shouted.

Shadow stopped and looked the pegasus directly in the eyes. in contrast to what he had seen earlier, these eyes were those of someone determined to get their two cents in about something. He didn't falter, but felt himself tense up, as if he was being rooted to the spot.

"You can't just waltz into somepony's house, run your mouth at them, and then attack them like some sort of violent, mindless... jerk!" Fluttershy continued. "And furthermore, I don't know who or what you are, but I--"

"How are you doing this?" Shadow suddenly interrupted.

Fluttershy abruptly halted her sentence, surprised. "W-what?"

"How are you keeping me here? I have quite literally lost all ability to move."

Shadow's anger seemed to have faded, and he was looking at Fluttershy expectantly. She blinked and looked away, and he immediately began stretching, as if he was stiff. "Well, I, um..."

"Never mind. I think I've already figured it out," he said, apparently calmed. "For reasons I cannot explain, however, I seem to have been stripped of my anger at your friend, so I think I'll take this opportunity to leave."

He vanished again and reappeared, already at the door. Fluttershy quickly turned around and reached out to him. "Wait!" she called. "Please don't go!"

Twilight huffed and walked back toward her destroyed couch. "Let him go, Fluttershy. It'll be in everypony's best interests if he just leaves now."

Shadow turned and nodded. "For once, we are actually in agreement. I don't belong here, and it's painfully obvious. So, 'Futtersly,' or whatever your name is, I'll just be going now."

"B-b-but!"

"I bid you all farewell," were his final words as he vanished once more, leaving only the two ponies and the dragon in the library.

Fluttershy sighed and turned to Twilight. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it again before a single word was uttered. She turned and flew toward her cottage home without so much as another sound.

Spike shook his head sadly and headed off towards Twilight's bedroom to turn in for the night, leaving Twilight all alone in the main room of the library. She took a good look around and noticed a piece of paper by the shelf in which she had placed the last book Shadow had read. She picked it up with her magic and levitated it over to herself.

On the paper was a series of sketches. One was a rather faithful rendition of herself, minus the colors, with a small question mark pointing to her horn, and a few notes scribbled her and there about certain parts of her anatomy. The next was what Twilight supposed was a picture of her eye, slanted as if she was angry of frustrated, unlike the bright happy eye on her smiling face. The final sketch was a simplified picture of her cutie mark, without the smaller white stars surrounding it, with another question mark pointing to it.

She shook her head sadly at the drawing and folded it up carefully.

"Oh, Shadow..." she sighed as she looked out her window. "There's so much you don't understand about our world... you'll never make it out there by yourself. I'll find you... and I'll fix this. I have to."