Shadow Prophet

(Intro Song)

The multi-colored hot air balloon hovered over Equestria, passing over forests and small towns, the bird's eye view making them look like ant-hills. The warm breeze blowing through his hair made him feel clean and fresh, like all of his troubles were being blown away. He didn't ever look back to where he was leaving, not even when he was positive he wouldn't have seen it anyways. As he approached his destination, he truly felt as though that... thing had left him. Though, deep down he knew it was still there, and he knew it would probably be a great source of trouble. But none of that mattered as he landed on the cement square in the open field of Trans-Equestrian Airlines Landing Site #6. And when he opened the straw door on its side and all the ponies jumped out and yelled, "Surprise!" he almost forgot to act surprised.

"This is a great party, Pinkie! You sure do a great job at making ponies feel welcomed!" Twilight Sparkle said, having to talk loudly for Pinkie to hear her over the Vinyl Scratch music and laughing ponies.

"Thanks! I think it's great too! Whoo-hoo!" Pinkie Pie ran off; well, not so much ran off as spun around in circles while heading in one general direction. She stumbled a couple of times, but made it into the dance floor without injuring herself. Twilight couldn't look over to the dance floor that long without her eyes tearing up; the floor was made up of super-bright flashy color-changing tiles that could easily give one a migraine.

Seeing as how she was having a good time, and everypony else seemed to share the feeling, Twilight wanted to see how the new stallion the party was being thrown for liked it. She wandered through the crowds of laughing ponies, most laughing only because they drank too much apple cider and not because anything particularly humorous was happening. She squeezed herself through tight groups of ponies that just stood around, getting in other ponies' ways. Twilight looked around for a while until she noticed a lone blue pony, sitting far away from the party in a dark bench, facing away form it as well.

Twilight thought, This can't be him, can it? The one pony the whole party is for is the only one who doesn't like it? Ironic. She found that the crowd of partying ponies ended rather abruptly as it looked like she was leaving through a living wall. The lavender alicorn trotted over to the old wooden bench where the pony sat and asked him, "Why don't you come join the party? It's pretty fun, I'm sure you'd like it."

For a moment the blue stallion didn't move, like he didn't want to, but then he turned and looked at Twilight. He was a frail-looking and smaller than average stallion, and his horn almost looked worn. His mane was attempting to grow forwards while he brushed backwards,making it stick out all over the place, and it was a much darker blue than the rest of him. His eyes, on the other hoof, stood out. His eyes were very gray, and anypony could easily get lost in them.

"No. The party... I wouldn't like the party." He started his sentence strong, but ended weakly, and turned back around and slumped his head on the table.

"Come on! What's not to like about it?" Twilight asked.

The stallion looked back at Twi, annoyed. "The whole thing. I just don't like these kind of parties."

"What kind?"

He waved his hoof over at the party, "That kind. Welcoming parties. There's no point to them."

"What are you talking about?" Twilight trotted up to the stallion and closely observed him. He returned her studying gaze with a look that clearly said he didn't want to talk. The mare's head retracted slightly.

"Well, somepony comes along and moves into town, and that doesn't happen often, right? So, naturally, whoopee!" The stallion was almost glaring at Twilight and waving his hooves in the air like he was partying.

"But all this party is is celebrating something that nopony really cares about, just so that the next morning everypony can wake up with hangovers and a big mess to clean up. All that nonsense for nothing." Once he was done, the stallion let his hooves fall back on the wood and laid his head in them, closing his eyes.

There was another silence, Twilight wondering what to ask this pessimistic pony, and she eventually came down to one question.

"What's your name?"

The stallion opened one eye and looked at Twilight, apparently shocked she was still there. "What, you threw a party for somepony, and you don't even know their name?"

"I didn't throw it, and nopony's told me yet."

He closed his eye and said, "Shadow Prophet." He didn't say anything else, and Twilight looked back to the party, over to Shadow, then left for the core of the celebration.

"Whoo! Come on Rainbow! Dance with the Doctor!" Somepony in the mass cried out. It was replied to with lots of screamed cheers. Rainbow Dash was then pushed onto the dance floor, as was Doctor Whooves, who had come for muffins with Derpy, but had decided to stay for the party once he had heard about it. Both of them smiling, they began to quickly move about the dance floor together withe the beat of the music.

A couple of yards away from the edge of the party, Shadow Prophet stared at the mass of excitement with dull, almost nonexistent interest. Suddenly, his face was washed over with absolute terror, and he immediately shot off toward the crowd. Once he reached the clearly defined outer wall of the party, he was terribly cramped, having to push ponies aside and squeeze himself together as much as he could.

"Ow! Sorry! Excuse me," he kept on saying, as he inched ever closer to the dance floor, where Rainbow Dash and the Doctor were. On the other side of the dance floor, Twilight was trotting around the edge of the thick mass of ponies around the ones dancing. She heard an, "Oof!" and looked over to see the tip of a blue horn poking out of the crowd, moving towards the dance floor.

Twilight thought, what in the hay is he so worried about? She started towards him, meaning to ask what he was running in for. But she was distracted by a loud, "Watch out!" She looked to the dance floor but could see nothing, so she flew up in the air, knocking some ponies below her back and a couple of drinks over. What happened next happened in only about five seconds, but for Twi, it felt like an eternity.

Some drunk pony had tossed a half-eaten piece of cake out onto the dance floor. The Doctor happened to be heading in the direction of that cake. When he stepped on it, he slipped, spinning around before falling over. He grabbed for Rainbow Dash's hoof, and she was dragged forward a little before pulling her hoof from his grip. He crashed right into the table with the cakes and snacks on it, knocking the whole thing over, spilling cake all over him almost to the point where you couldn't see him. Then, one of the knives on the table, covered in frosting, flew in the air. This moment seemed slower than all the others, and Twilight could remember it vividly to this day. The knife flew at a horizontal angle directly at Rainbow Dash's surprised face. In slow motion, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash unfurl her wings, but she knew that Rainbow wouldn't make it away in time. Then the most improbable thing happened, something she could never have anticipated.

Shadow Prophet, the pessimistic anti-social stallion, slid out from under the crowd and into the scene, putting his back hoof down and stopping in front of Rainbow Dash. He then reached his hooves up in the air and grabbed the knife, centimeters away from the blue mare's eye.

Down on the ground, something Twilight couldn't have seen or heard, Rainbow stared at the knife for a long while. Shadow had caught it by clamping it with both of his front legs, just below his hooves, so the knife had finely sliced into his skin. A single drop of blood fell from his reddening leg, and Rainbow's eyes followed it all the way to the ground. Then, everypony lost it. Ponies ran around, some helping push the table up, others starting to clean up the spilled goods (Pinkie running around lapping up the splattered cakes). Twilight flew down and grabbed Rainbow's shoulder, who jumped a little, looked at her friend, then curled her wings back up. She looked back at Shadow, who was being asked by Nurse Redheart to come with her. He returned her gaze when she looked at him, and Rainbow turned to trot away with Twilight.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, are you okay, Rainbow Dash?" Twilight sounded frantic, and she was looking hard at Rainbow's face. There wasn't as much as a scratch, but Twilight did notice her friend's eyes seemed distant, and she wasn't talking at all. She wasn't even moving that fast, which she always did, trotting or flying, she was moving at a slow, rhythmic pace. She's in shock, Twilight thought.

"Rainbow, why don't you sleep at the castle tonight? Come on," Twilight tugged lightly at Rainbow's shoulder in the direction of her palace, and the blue pegasus turned without hesitation.

"Ye-ow!" Shadow yelped as Nurse Redheart splashed some alcohol on his front leg.

"Sorry! Not much else I can do," She said the last part absentmindedly as she dabbed some soothing cream on a long strip of bandaging. "Hold it out!" She was mildly surprised to see he had lifted his hoof up to her before she started her sentence, but payed it little mind.

As she wrapped Shadow's leg up, she asked, "So how did you come in in time to stop that knife hitting Rainbow Dash?" She looked up at his face, still wrapping.

"I guess I was just lucky," He replied the moment she made eye contact with him. Redheart could tell he was holding something back, but it wasn't her job to start arguments with her patients, so she replied with a doubtful "Hm". She took her bottle of alcohol and splashed on his other leg. This time instead of a yell, he clenched his eyes shut for a moment. They grow up so fast, the Nurse thought jokingly. She applied the cream to another strip of bandage and wrapped it around his other leg. There was already a thin line of red on the first bandage showing. Seeing this, she just handed Shadow her roll of bandage, she had plenty more at the hospital.

"Put a new one on every two or three days, okay? And don't put too much pressure on your hooves. Think you can get home?" Nurse Redheart asked.

"Yes," Shadow replied, jumping off the examination table, flinching for a moment, then trotting out. Not so much as a thank you. Nurse Redheart forced a smile and said, "Get well!" as he left.

Finally reaching his vacant house he had made his first monthly payment on before he flew over, he opened the door with his hoof and limped inside, kicking it shut behind him. There was no furniture yet, but he had a mattress in his room, with a bedsheet and blanket, and once he got under the covers, he looked at his wounded legs and sobbed, not out of any physical pain, but from memories still fresh in his mind.