Everlasting Shadows

I woke up in a soft bed, I was having a little bit of déjà vu, as I remembered two years ago waking up in the hospital. The first thing I knew was that I was in the hospital, second is that my body hurt, and last was that somepony was talking just on the other side of the doorway to my room.

“Are you sure sister?” came the hushed voice of Celestia through the door. (I knew her voice well, from all the times she came over to check on Twilight over the years)

“I am Tia, that little unicorn used arcane lightning, she’s lucky that she didn’t hit him directly or else he would’ve been no more than a charred husk of meat.” Said the voice of who I assumed was Princess Luna.

“That kind of spell is too powerful for a normal unicorn, not even Twilight could’ve done that spell before she became an alicorn, are you sure you didn’t see something that just looked like it?”

“Sister, I know that spell very well, I know how it looks, feels, and everything. I am the one who created that spell after all, if you remember.”

“All too well.” Said Celestia’s voice again “But what does this mean? I haven’t heard of a unicorn being able to do that kind of thing in over a thousand years.”

“I know what you mean sister, and I know it doesn’t make sense. All we can do is wait and see if this happens again. That unicorn may have used a spell only meant for ponies as powerful as us, but she did get a nasty back lash from it. She’s lucky she didn’t make the spell more powerful, because the back lash could’ve killed her.” Said Luna with a sad tone.

“I agree with you sister, I’ll be sure to have Twilight keep an eye on her.”

“How is Twilight by the way Celestia?”

“She took a bad hit from some kind of magical poison that seems to have been altered to hurt alicorns, luckily, it was a weak spell and it responds the same to normal magical antidotes. I think she’s talking to her parents in the next room.”

“I am glad to hear it. Though I’m worried about this, it just doesn’t add up. The unicorn that was burnt by Shadow Star is barely alive, when we looked him up, we found he was the pony who attacked Shadow Star two years ago when Rarity found her. I don’t know how he could’ve used a spell like that on Twilight.”

“I don’t think he did, the spell came from a gem stone, which means it could only be one kind of race who attacked her.” Said Celestia in a somber tone “But I can’t say yet until I do some digging.”

“I understand sister; I’ll let you get to it then. I’m going to go have a word with Shadow Star when she wakes up, then Twilight. I’d like to see what else I can learn from them.” Luna said.

After that the sisters said their goodbyes, Luna came into my room. I did my best to look like I was sleeping. She walked over to my bed and said in a quiet tone “It’s really hard to fake sleeping when you’re in the presence of the Princess of the Night you know.”

I opened my eyes and said “Have to work on that one I guess…”

“It’s ok Shadow Star, and I know you were eavesdropping on my sister and I, you have every right to know what’s going on.” she said sitting down next to my bed.

I found my eyes wandering over the larger mare for a moment before catching myself and saying “I wasn’t trying to Princess Luna, I just woke up and you two were out there talking.” Then a memory came back to me “Twilight!”

She cut me off “She’s fine, as you may have gathered from listening to my sister and I. You, on the other hoof, are not.” I saw her eyes go sad as she said “That power you used was more than just a fear fueled attack from a young unicorn. That was what I call Star Magic, a mysterious magic that normally only shows up in Alicorns. Where did you learn to use a spell like that?”

“I wasn’t shown how to do that at all, it just happens when I get scared or feel threatened. That time was the first time I had a little control over it.” I said honestly. “Before when I felt that power it would just cause extreme pain on whomever it was cast on. The lightning is new.”

“Odd.” She said. “Well you’ll need to learn how to keep those emissions under control then Shadow Star. I’m not sure how you can use those kinds of powers, but I do know that if you do it again you could die. Your body can handle a lot of power going through it, but only an Alicorn can handle that much power. If you made the attack any more powerful the back lash would’ve torn you to shreds. I’m shocked you were able to awaken after the back lash you took.”

I looked around the room seeing it was still only sunset. I looked back at her and said “I’m used to taking a beating I guess. I will do my best to keep the power under control.”

“I am sure you will, but there is only one way you can learn how to keep control on the trigger for that power. That is learning to control your emotions. I’ll talk with Rarity and Twilight about this and see if we can find something for you that will help.” Princess Luna mentioned. “Now can you tell me what happened earlier?”

So I did, starting with my trip to the bookshop and taking my short cut. I told her how I ran into Quick Shot and couldn’t believe who it was, I told her about the fear and about Twilight showing up only to be taken down by the strange figure, and I told her about the attack I did. When I finished I said “I have no idea who the other strange figure was, but his accent reminded me of a Cheetah who visited our village where I grew up in the Zebra badlands. She said she came from beyond our borders.”

Luna looked shocked at the story and she stood quickly saying “Are you sure about this?”

“I am really good with accents, having grown up around many different kinds.”

She cursed under her breath, then looking at me again saying “The people past the Zebra badlands are known as the feline tribe or in their old tongue, The Xytoe. They are one of the few races in this world who can use magic that are neither pony nor zebra kind. If you are right then my sister’s suspicions are correct.”

“What kind of problem would they have with Equestria?”

“It’s a story for another time. You go ahead and rest and remember what I told you. I have to get back to the castle so I can talk with Celestia.” She said turning to leave.

As she started to walk out of the room I said “Princess Luna, what about Quick Shot…? What will happen to me because of what I did to him?”

She smiled as she turned back to me “Luckily for you, he’ll live, so there will be no action taken against you. He attacked you and has a history with you. When he is fully healed he will be put on trial and sent to prison for his crimes.”

I smiled saying “Thank you Princess.”

“You’re welcome, now get some rest.” And with that she was gone.

It only took another day of rest for me to be able to leave the hospital and go back to Ponyville with Rarity. That first night back Pinkie Pie threw me a big party that she called “Thanks for saving our Twilight” party. Rarity’s house was filled with ponies that night and we ended up having a lot of fun, though I was still a little weak and couldn’t dance much. Twilight came over to me later that night and sat down watching her friends all have fun.

“Thanks again for what you did Shadow, even though I know that spell hurt you so much.”

I blushed and said “It’s okay, I’m just glad you’re okay. I don’t think I’m walking down any more alleyways though.” I chuckled a bit.

She laughed at that and said “I’m just glad you aren’t scared of using your magic again.”

“I know that magic is special now, thanks to you, and I like it too. This wasn’t like before where I was just scared of what I would do. Last time, I didn’t know that I could control my power.” sipping on some punch I continued. “Though, I would prefer to use my normal magic and not that other kind again if I can.”

“I’ll have to teach you how to use less harmful lightning magic soon I think. Though the books I had you get from my mother’s shop will help you a lot too.” She said smiling.

I’d forgotten about Twilight Velvet until then, the memory of her made me smile too as I said “She is a nice pony, but I wish you would’ve told me who I was going to see.”

She blushed at that “I have a bad habit of leaving my family out of a lot of things in my life, because of that I also forget to talk about them. I’m glad you had a chance to meet her though. She’s been waiting to see my first student for a long time now.”

Before I could say anything else, a purple and green dragon walked up to us, he was only slightly taller than me. Spike smiled fluttering his newly uncased wings saying in a voice that was a deeper tenor giving a small hint at what he would sound like when he was fully matured “Hey Shadow, would you honor me with a dance.”

He blushed a little as he said that holding out a claw. I blushed, but got up anyway saying “The pleasure would be mine Spike.”

Twilight just giggled and watched as her number one assistant pulled me onto the dance floor. I danced with Spike for over an hour before the music finally stopped and the party started to die down. I was panting with all the movement I was doing, still managing to smile though. Spike on the other hoof looked like he was fine, he wasn’t even winded.

He blushed again and said quickly “Thanks again for saving Twilight, Shadow Star, and I’m glad you’re ok too. It’d be a lot less interesting of a place around here if something would’ve happened to either of you.” And before I could respond he gave me a big (to hard) hug and ran off.

Sweetie Belle walked over to me and nudged me with her flank saying “You should keep an eye on him, and make sure not to lead him on. Spike is a kind dragon and gets crushes to easily.”

“Wait…what…but how, I mean I’m a…he’s a…” I managed to sputter as I blushed harder realizing I almost said too much.

Sweetie Belle just giggled harder and said “Shadow you’re so cute when you do that. Like I was saying, Spike likes ponies and he had a crush on my sister for a long time until she finally had to tell him she only liked him as a friend and nothing more. He seems to have taken a liking to you now, so please make sure you tell him the truth before he gets too attached. Now let’s get to bed I’m tired.”

I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep, so I nodded and followed her up to our shared room. The next morning I awoke to find Rarity sitting next to my bed looking down at me with her beautiful eyes. I jumped a little then said “Rarity what are you doing in here?”

“I’m sorry darling I was coming to wake you up because it’s getting really late, but I couldn’t help watching you sleep. You look so peaceful when you’re asleep.” She said.

I noticed her eyes looked red, like she had been crying. I scooted up in my bed saying “Rarity are you ok?”

Her smile left her lips as she looked down at her hooves saying slowly “No Shadow I’m not. I just got done with my meeting with the Princesses and Twilight. They said that because of the gifts you have with magic and knowledge of the lands beyond our borders, they have a task for you.”

I was a little lost and I said. “What’s so bad about that?”

She looked up at me, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks “Shadow Star, the Princesses want you to join a new elite guard they are forming to help keep Equestria safe. They want you to join a training group that starts in a couple weeks, and you’ll be gone for a long time.”

She started to shake as sobs racked her body, I reached out and put a hoof on hers. I wasn’t too shocked, after hearing what the princesses had been talking about and after my talk with Luna, I had a feeling something would be done about me sooner or later. At least this sounded like it was a good something and not a bad one. But it seemed to be hurting Rarity so I said “It can’t be all that bad Rarity, it could be like college. It’s not like your losing me forever.”

“That’s just the thing. This can end up turning into a job for you and a dangerous one at that. I don’t know what I would do if something was to happen to you while you were gone. Your life was hard enough before I found you and all I wanted for you is to have a good easy life.” She said crying harder now.

I pulled her head into my shoulder and let her cry, rubbing her mane slowly “I’ll make you a promise okay. I promise I won’t let myself get hurt or worse, and I will always make sure to come home when I can. I mean who knows maybe this will all blow over and the training is really just a way for Luna to help me learn to control the harder part of my powers and my emotions.”

She took a long moment to get a handle on herself “I just wish you could get your training here in Ponyville, I feel like this is a bad idea. It’s all happening to fast for me.”

“When did the princess tell you this?” I asked, finding it odd that this was all happening a couple days after my attack in Canterlot.

Rarity sniffed and using a handkerchief, she whipped her eyes saying “This first came up a week or so ago, Luna and Twilight were worried about your power. I told them there was no way I’d let you leave Ponyville, not unless they had a better reason.”

I was taken aback for a moment “Wait, you mean they’ve been planning this for over a week?”

She nodded “The program that starts soon is called the G.P.P. but I don’t know what it stands for. They need ponies who are gifted in stealth and magic for a new unit with the Royal Army. Luna herself is leading the program and Celestia is behind it as well.”

“So they just want me because of how good I am at Stealth spells?” I wasn’t too surprised by that.

Rarity started tearing up again “I didn’t want you to leave, but after what happened to you, I know you need this. It’s time you went and found your place in the world. And yes they need you for the spells, but that’s not the only thing dear, you know more about the Zebra badlands and their culture than most ponies living in Equestria.”

I smiled as a thought ran through my mind, I knew something would happen as I said before, this was honestly what I was hoping for. I hadn’t told Rarity or Twilight yet, that I’d sent a letter to Princess Luna and Celestia about trying to join the Royal guard. They told me they thought my talents could be used elsewhere. I figured this was what they meant. The only thing this attack did was make Rarity see that I needed this.

“I’m ok with doing this Rarity, and like I said I’ll be safe, and if everything goes well you’ll see me again by Hearth’s Warming Eve.”

She sniffed one more time and hugged me.  She slowly got to her hooves and said “Well, how about we start getting things ready for you.”

“Attention Cadets.” Yelled a tall female griffon who had red feathers and fur, she was the drill instructor for the program I was now in. It was our first day here. I was fitted with a padded uniform and made to look like the six other mares that were standing in line with me trying to keep still and at attention.

She continued. “I am Sergeant Black Talon and you will address me as such or Drill Instructor, not Black, or Talon not DI, you hear me Cadets?”

“Yes Sergeant Black Talon.” We all said in unison.

“Good, now today you’ll all be starting on your nine week training course for the new program called G.P.P. or the Griffon Pony Project. You will all be placed into teams with one griffon partner; depending on how well your talents work with each other. There are only three team slots open in the program right now. Each week you will all receive scores on how well you do in the testing. The one team with the lowest score each week will be bumped out of the program. This will all happen in the first eight weeks, by the last week there will six of you left and we will hold one last test. The top three Cadets will get the job and stay in the program. The rest of you will be placed under a spell so you are to never speak of what you’ve seen and will see here.”

The mare next to me put a hoof up in the air saying “Drill Instructor, there are only six of us, if we are all in a team that will only be six teams, how can you cut one team a week?”

Sergeant Black Talon walked up to her and poked her in the muzzle with one of her black talons and said in her loud voice “Do you think I can’t count Cadet?”

“No ma’am…I mean yes ma’am I think you can count.”

“Then don’t ask stupid questions. There are other teams you’ll have to compete with. The Stallions are in the room next door and they have eight more to add to the teams. All in all there are fourteen teams and only three will make it through.” She said putting her talon back to the floor “Now Cadets go over to the tent you see at the end of the room, you’ll be assigned your partner.”

We all did as she said, making our way quickly to the large tent that was erected in the corner of the room. I, of course, was made to go first, the others saying something about smallest to tallest. I really didn’t mind though, I figured that I would get better luck in picking my partner this way. I honestly didn’t know much about griffons, but from what I learned from growing up where I did, they could be pretty rude, or at least my old teacher used to say so.

“Cadet Shadow Star, right?” said a cute pegasus mare that was standing behind a desk inside the tent.

“Um…yes….” I said looking for a rank on her uniform.

She smiled and said “I’m captain Sharp Feather, but you can just call me Ma’am, I don’t have my rank on at the moment. I kind of left it at home.” She blushed a little. “Don’t let Black Talon get to you, she’s always worked up like this on the first week.”

I smiled for a moment, then let it pass “Ma’am, I won’t let any of it get to me.”

She chuckled and said “Well good for you.” She looked over some of her notes finally saying. “So I see you’ve lived in Ponyville for just over two years, it says you were placed under the care of one Miss Rarity, and you had schooling with Princess Twilight Sparkle. I take it you must be quite talented to have her as your mentor.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“Would you mind giving me a list of some spells you’ve mastered then?” She asked.

“Well I wouldn’t say mastered quite yet, but I am getting close, I know a spell that will bend light around my body to be mostly in shadows, but I’m trying to make myself go fully invisible, I have one that muffles my hoof steps, another for a silent teleportation, also one that will hide my voice from any who are more than three feet away from me. I have more I’m working on, but those are some of my better spells.” I said to her nervously doing my best not to blush.

“That’s impressive, I know that most stealth spells are not easy to do. How are you with offensive spells?”

“I…well, I mean I know a few and I’m not bad at them, but I prefer not to use them. I’ve had some bad experiences in the past with going overboard.” I’m doing my best to stand up straight as I spoke.

“Yes, I’ve read the report from Princess Luna about your power, from what I’ve seen you can’t control that yet.” She said looking back up at me. “That’s one reason you’re here, the problem is I have to put you with a partner and most of the ones I have won’t like being around a unicorn that could kill them if your anger gets out of control.”

Her tone changed a bit as she brought this up, so I said. “I can control it a lot better than I could before Ma’am. Also for me to get that far and that bad with my power it takes a lot, both times it’s happened I thought my life was in danger and it was the only thing I could do.”

She let the smile creep back to her lips as she looked me over (why was it so cute when she did that) “I like you, you don’t back down or try to hide what you did. I think you’ll go far with us if you keep that up, but I still have a problem on my hooves. The partners we’ve gathered may not work for you, I have to look into a few things. I want you to head back to the barracks for now. Be back here at 0900 tomorrow and I should have an idea of who to set you up with.”

“Yes Ma’am.” I said and walked out of the little tent.

Black Talon was waiting for me as I made my way out. “Cadet Shadow Star, come here for a moment.”

So doing my best to not roll my eyes (and failing) I made my way over to the older griffin “Yes Drill Instructor.”

She moved her head closer to mine and said in a more hushed tone “Listen kid, I just wanted to make sure you understand something. When the others get back to the barracks they will all have partners assigned to them, I knew you wouldn’t be getting one today, so I planned on letting you stay in a room tonight if you want. The others will tease you for being the only one who wasn’t assigned one and I can’t have any problems if you know what I mean.”

I was taken aback “Do you mean you don’t want me in the barracks because you think I’ll get mad at them and do something?”

“Well in a way yes and keep your voice down Cadet.”

I stepped back “No thank you Sergeant Black Talon, I’m not worried about what they’ll say to me or any pony else. Now if you’ll let me be dismissed I would like to get some lunch before I head back to the Barracks.”

She sighed and waved a talon. “Dismissed, but like I said, No trouble. And don’t be a smartass cadet.”

I nickered and trotted away. Down the hall I got into a small line behind some of the males from the other class getting some lunch. I was still fuming as I moved slowly in the line not really caring what the lunch pony put on my tray. I just couldn’t believe that the captain and the drill instructor were scared of my power. I haven’t ever hurt any pony who teased me before, I was more used to that than anything.

“DAMN THEM ALL TO THE FUCKING MOON!!” I said a little too loudly, I blushed and looked up seeing that the pony in front of me was looking at me with a confused expression, I blushed harder saying quickly. “Sorry about that, didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

He laughed and said. “No problem at all miss…”

“Oh sorry, I’m Shadow Star.”

The Stallion who I was talking with was a tall grey unicorn with a red and orange mane that was cut short, he had a cutie mark of twin lightning bolts crossing each other. He gave me probably the friendliest smile I’ve ever seen and put a hoof out to me saying. “Well it’s nice to meet you Shadow Star, I’m Lightning Rider, you can call me Rider though, most ponies do. So I’m guessing it’s your first week huh.”

My eyes widened “Is it that obvious?”

“From the way you stomped into here then yelled out about nothing, well yeah. It’s okay though, it’s mine too, or at least with this program. So what’s eating at you?” he asked as he took his tray and started to walk away.

I figured he wanted me to follow him so I picked up my tray in my magic and followed, as I trotted next to him levitating my tray I said “The drill instructor seems to think that since I didn’t get a partner today and because of my past, that I shouldn’t be around other ponies right now, she wanted to set me up in a private room.”

He set his tray down at an empty table and sat down gesturing for me to join him, so I did. He then took a bite of his sandwich then said. “What could be so bad about getting your own room?”

Wow that was the thing he took out of my rant? I just rolled my eyes. “It’s not the room I had a problem with, it’s the fact that she thinks I need to be away from others for their safety, like I’m some kind of monster.”

“Oh don’t look so down about it, so what if they’re scared of you, I’d take it as a compliment. If you’re scaring them then you’ll have a hoof up on the competition later on. How do you think the others will feel once they think you’re scary? Messing with a pony’s head is the best way to win any fight.” He said winking at me, when he saw my face he quickly added. “Not that I’m saying you’re scary or a monster, honestly all I see in front of me is a little cute mare who’s mad.”

“Oh please don’t call me cute, I hate being called cute.”

“Truth hurts, get used to it.” He said with a laugh.

I liked his laugh, it reminded me of the crack of thunder from far away, not loud, but deep and nice. It made me smile a little as I said. “Okay I see what you mean, don’t let it get me down, just fight though it and prove them wrong.”

“Isn’t that what I said?” he asked looking up from his sandwich.

“I guess, in a roundabout way and you’re right, I won’t let it get to me, I’ll just do what I think is right and make it through to the end.”

“Good girl, now why don’t you start eating before I feel all odd about stuffing my face in front of a cute mare.” He said laughing again.

I couldn’t help myself and I found myself laughing as well. After a little while a red and black griffin walked up to the table and sat down with us. He looked over at Rider saying. “Hey Rider, been looking all over for ya. Who’s this? Did you really find a date this fast?”

I almost spat out my food, trying not to choke saying “No…he’s just…”

The griffin cut me off laughing as he said “I’m just kidding.”

“Sorry Shadow, this here is my partner, he likes his little jokes.”

“How ya doing, names Flip, nice to meet you.”

“I’m Shadow Star nice to meet you.”

“Flip and his sister are both in the program just like us. I was happy that he joined, we’ve been friends for years and with him as my partner we’ll make it in for sure.” Rider said with a smile.

“Speaking of partners. Where’s yours Shadow?” Flip asked looking around.

“I won’t know till tomorrow, long story trust me.”

“That sucks.” Flip said looking down at his own meal (fish and some odd seeds I couldn’t place) “Just pray you don’t get my sister, I feel bad for any pony who ends up with her, she can be kind of a frigid bitch if you know what I mean.”

“Oh she isn’t that bad Flip.” Rider said with a chuckle.

“She’s a bitch and you know it and she only cares about winning and herself, she’ll make a terrible partner.” He said with a laugh.

The two of them started to get into what sounded like an old argument and I just let my attention wander looking around the mess hall. I saw that a few tables had griffons and ponies sitting at them, some chatting, some looking nervous. I wondered what my own partner would be like. I just hope that I could get along with her.

“Shadow you still with us?” came Rider’s voice pulling me back to reality.

“Huh? What now?”

“I was asking if you’re going to stay here all day or if you were going to be doing something after lunch?”

“Oh…yeah I have to finish some reading today before tomorrow’s classes start.” I said.

“Well if you ever feel like pulling your muzzle out of the books come find us. Flip and I both normally like to train during free time, they have a good area to train behind the main building.”

I nodded. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” The two of them left and not long after, so did I.

I made my way out of the mess hall and headed for the mare’s barracks or at least I tried to, as I stepped out into the hall, I ran right into something hard and feathery. I heard a plate hit the floor followed by the sound of food splattering. I looked up into the face of a pure white griffin with dark blue eyes. She was skinny and had a beautiful long beak and nice curves…thinking to myself “wait was I checking out a griffon? Odd.”

Those blue eyes went from shock to anger in the span of two seconds. She poked me in the chest with her white talon saying. “Hey pipsqueak what’s the big fucking idea, don’t they teach you damn ponies how to watch where the fuck you’re going?”

“Wait a minute, it’s not like I could see you on the other side of the door.” I said with a hint of anger in my voice.

“Yeah well maybe you should look at what door you’re walking through next time dipshit.” She said pointing up at a sign over her head that said “IN”

Great now I couldn’t read, how else could this day go wrong? Like life, as it so often does, had to answer. I let my own hard headed anger take over “Oh shut your beak, bird brain, it was an honest mistake no need to get so worked up over a fucking plate of shitty food.”

In a flash her talon was wrapped around my horn and she was holding my head close to hers “I don’t like it when a pony or griffon or anyone is rude to me got it? You ran into me and messed up my lunch, I didn’t do anything wrong, now I suggest you get the fuck out of here before I do something you’ll regret.”

I wanted to say something witty back. The thought died as I looked at the razor sharp talons she had. I just nodded as best as I could and moved around her looking back only after I got a few feet away. I saw she was picking up her food with a grumble. My eyes fell on her tail watching it swish back and forth…then I pulled my eyes away, a little voice in my head saying “She’s a griffin and a bitch, stop staring.”

I walked away and went back to the Barracks. I spent the rest of the night there doing my best to read one of the books I took with me. Turned out that reading was really hard when your mind kept going back between being mad at the griffon female, that drill instructor and the sight of the griffon’s flanks. I felt like I was going mad. So instead of getting some well-deserved reading done, I spent the rest of the night fuming.

“Cadet Shadow Star, Front and Center!” Came the loud voice of Black Talon pulling me out of a nice dream.

I was up in an instant and in front of the tall griffon. I stood at attention, just noticing that I was the only one out of my bunk, “Yes Drill Instructor.”

“Report to the Captain’s office A.S.A.P!”

“Yes ma’am, but why does she want me there so early.”

“Did I say ask dipshit questions Cadet? I don’t think so, now move it!” I didn’t need any more provocation, I practically ran out the door.

I was halfway down the hall when I realized that I had no Idea where the Captain’s office was. I had no idea what I was going to do, so I did the only thing I could, I started running down the halls. I was hoping I would see a door with the Captain’s name on it, what I didn’t expect, was to run into Lightning Rider. When I say run into, I meant that literally.

“Whoa, slow down kid. What has your horn all twisted in a knot?” Rider asked me as he offered a hoof to help me up.

I took it. “I was told to get to the Captains office A.S.A.P. the problem is I have no idea where her office is. When I met her it was in a tent in the middle of one of the large meeting rooms.”

“Oh is that all? Her office is just down that way, third door on the left.” He pointed a hoof down the way I just came.

I sighed and turned toward a wall and started to bang my head on it “Why am I so stupid.”

“Well I wouldn’t say you’re stupid. Her name isn’t on the door so it’s easy to miss. She just transferred here last week from what heard, so it’s not surprising you didn’t know where to look for her.” He said with a friendly smile.

“Thanks again Rider, I better get going before I’m any more late than I am now.” I told him waving a hoof.

“Shadow Star, hold up a sec.” He said moving up next to me. “Are you free tonight?”

What was this, is he going to do what I think he is going to do? I readied myself saying “I’m not sure yet, why?”

He looked a little nervous now as he put a hoof behind his head and looked away sheepishly “I was wondering if you’d be okay with meeting me tonight and going on a walk…as friends of course.”

Yep, it was just what I thought, it was the nonchalant way of asking a girl out. I’ve seen it a few times when I was growing up, all the young zebra stallions would ask the zebra mares out in much of the same way. I shook my head and tried to let him down as nicely as I could “Listen…you’re a nice guy and all, but I’m not really looking for anything…”

He cut me off as we reached the Captains door “We’re here. Listen just a walk that’s all I’m asking for, I’m not asking you on a date or anything like that. I just like to go on walks and Flip’s not one for things that don’t involve flying. I just want a friend or something like that to walk with tonight. Just think about it okay, if I don’t see you tonight at 2100 hours then I’ll know your answer.” And with that, he was off humming a marry tune to himself.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I was deciding to ignore it for now though. I moved toward the captain’s door and knocked, after a moment the soft voice of Captain Sharp Feather came through the door. “Come in Shadow Star.”

“You wanted to see me?” I poked my head in the door just a little

“Yes, come on in and take a seat, I have your partner all set up for you.”

I thought as much. “I thought you said to come by the tent at 0900?”

“I changed my mind, I found a partner for you last night and I woke up early. I also didn’t feel like trotting all the way down to the other side of the fort just to see you. So I had Black Talon wake you.” She said looking down at some notes.

“Okay, so who will I be with?” I asked hoping I wasn’t out of line. I just wanted this to be over with so I could get on with my life, and watching Rider and Flip yesterday kind of made me want a cool partnership like them too.

“Her name is Aura, she’ll be here with us in just a minute I think.” She said looking back up at me. “She was the only one I could talk into being your partner, said something about not caring who you were as long as you two could win. I like that kind of thing out of a team, so I figured why not.”

Before I could get a word out to ask more, there was a tap on the fogged glass of the door. The Captain said to come in and soon I found myself looking eye to eye with the griffon from yesterday. Her white feathers bristled and she pointed a talon at me “What the fuck are you doing here tiny-tard?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing bitch-feathers.” I said back getting to my hooves.

“Oh good you two have met, now take a seat both of you.” Said Captain Sharp Feathers, we started to protest, but she cut us of “NOW!”

We both did as we were told, but I wasn’t able to stop my mouth from running away on me “Why did you stick me with her?” I pointed a hoof “She’s so rude.”

“Oh yeah? Like you’re one to talk.” She said to me then she looked at the Captain “Listen Cap, ya know I’m loyal to the cause and helping out Equestria along with my brother, but I can’t work with this twerp.”

It was something I could agree with her on, the Captain on the other hoof didn’t care “Both of you be quiet.” We did “Now listen here. You two are the only ones left without partners, and with the contract you two signed there’s only two ways out of this partnership. You two fail out of the program, or you two retire. Either way I can’t change this, and honestly I don’t want to. You both have skills that will benefit Equestria, as long as you can learn to work together. I don’t care if you like each other or not, but that would help immensely.”

I felt like a brick had just been dropped on my head. I really wanted to be in this program, and I knew I could pass as long as I did my best. If I had to put up with a bitchy griffon to do it then so be it. Bitch or not I would show them all that I was strong. So with gritted teeth I said “Fine, I’ll do it.”

“Yeah same here. I’m no quitter and I’m not going to be starting now.”

“Good, now I suggest you both start to get better acquainted because you only have a few days until the first elimination. I wouldn’t want to see you two lose out in week one.” She said with an evil smile.

The two of us who were just staring at each other both turned our heads to look at her both saying in unison “Wait…What…”