Story of the shadow pony

Chapters

Wishing for a foal
Granny Glimmers family secret
Creation of a new life
Growing up

Wishing for a foal

It was a rainy night in Manehatten. It was the late hours of the day, so the only ponies out where the late night workers, drunks and the home going workers of the afternoon. Under those home going ponies was an actress of one of the many theaters of the city. Starlight Glimmer was a unicorn mare, with a lovely peach coat and an orange mane, pretty cyan green eyes and a shooting star cutie mark. She maybe wasn't the most famous actress, but she wasn't also the most unknown. To be precise, her show this evening had been pretty popular. More then the half of the hall was filled with ponies, nearly sold out.

The ponies had cheered the act and many threw flowers on the stage, clapping eagerly to show how much they have liked it.

But still, Starlight wasn't as happy. She was happy the act was a success, but it was her love life that made her frown.

For a couple of years, she had countless dates with all kinds of stallions, but never found one who truly loved her or the opposite.

It would actually be no big deal, but Starlight wished to have a family. Since she was young, she knew she wanted to become actress as for a loving mother, but she didn't knew it would ever be so hard to have both, especially in Manehatten.

Somehow, most stallions here didn't wanted a long time relationship, neither a foal and those who did freaked Starlight out.

She really had her problems finally get the second thing she wished for most in her life, but it just didn't wanted to happen.

And slowly, she got older and older. She feared, that if she wouldn't hurry soon, she would be to old to carry fully for a child and her career. But maybe she was just to much thinking. So she carried herself back to her small apartment in a smaller area of Manehatten. Here, most actors lived. On her way, a lot of drunk stallions tried their strange pick up lines on her, but she just kept walking until she was finally in the safety of her shelter. The receptionist as for many other ponies in the building where good friends as for fellow coworkers. They were like a very big family by now. "Oh hi Starlight!" Said the stallion at the reception. Starlight looked up at him and smiled "Hello Jazz Radio." "I heard your show tonight was a success. Congratulations for that.".

Jazz Radio was a coffee brown pegasus with an up going, curly blonde mane and a saxophone with a yellow music note for a cutie mark, who always knew everything about really everything that happened in Manehatten and mostly what happened to his friends. And while he wasn't working as a receptionist or when he found the time, he was working for a local jazz radio station, due to his love for that music genre. Even now, he had headphones around his neck and just as he saw Starlight coming in, he had paused the song he was listening to. Starlight smiled and said in a gentle and kind voice "Thank you. I am sure we will make it soon under the top 20 of the most popular theater shows in the whole city.".

Jazz leaned forward, having his head resting on his hoof. "Still sad about the last mean stallion who broke off with you?" He said, sounding both concerned as taunting. Starlight dropped her gaze off of him, giving him the answer he needed.

He sighed and said "Come on, I know you will find the right one someday. A mare like you should be every stallions dream.". That made Starlight giggle a bit, as she went for the stairs. She said a kind "Thanks", giving him a small kiss on his cheek and then going for her apartment. He blushed and giggled a little awkward, as he returned to listening to his music.

As she finally stood in front of her door, going through her saddlebag for the key, another familiar face greeted her.

"Hey Star, how's it going?" her next door neighbor Tailor said, dressed in her violet blue dressing gown. Her name pretty much suited for what she did: Making dresses and such, especially costumes for theaters. She was an earth pony, had a bright and creamy yellow coat, a red and black mane and had a harlequin face with thread and needles as a cutie mark.

"Oh, hey Tailor." Starlight said, forcing another smile, hoping her neighbor wouldn't also spot the sadness she felt.

"The boss send me a message. Seems like your acting and my costumes where the hit of the show?" She said, smiling proudly as she thought about her work. Starlight nodded "Yeah, you should have seen the ponies. They loved it." "That is great to hear.

After all, we give our best for a great payment!". Tailor laughed a bit. Starlight really was relieved that she didn't came to the last date she had and was about to open her door, before Tailor told her something. "Hey you know what sweetie?" "W-What?" Starlight asked a little surprised, voice also a little cracking. "Billy told me, that your boss gave you a free day tomorrow. The poor guy sadly didn't got to tell you yourself, because you ran off so quickly." "And how did Billy told you that so quickly?".

For that question, Starlight could have face palmed herself. Billy was a unicorn and knew how to send letters with his magic.

He also was Tailors coltfriend at the moment. Tailor hold in a laugh, as she said "Oh, you know Billy. That stallion can never keep a secret.". With that, Tailor finally let Starlight go into her apartment and get some rest. They said each other good night and closed their doors. With a deep sigh, Starlet lifted the saddlebags off her bag and dropped them beside her couch and let herself drop on it. She was pretty exhausted and needed a short break. She looked around her little apartment. With the payment of an actress, she really couldn't effort much, but on the other hoof, she was happy about the nice neighbors in the house.

But she wished sometimes she could effort a ride back to her old home, so she could check on her family in person. Lifting a picture frame close by, she looked at the photo which was made when she left for Manehatten and her career.

There was her old granny, her little brothers and her parents. She really missed them, even they wrote each other nearly every day. After a while of cradling in memories, she placed the frame back to where it was and made herself dinner, followed by getting ready for bed and dozing off into dreams.

Granny Glimmers family secret

The next day, Starlight was pretty relieved that she had a free day. It was as rainy as the yesterday and she could cuddle herself into comfy blankets. She had a nice breakfast and was now enjoying some tea, before a couple of letters popped into existence on the small table in front of her. One was from her parents, asking the same questions like any other time, like their little filly was doing and updating her about the newest happenings back home. Then a letter from her three brothers. The trio always taunted her a little about having no coltfriend, but on the other hoof also said every stallion would be a fool that they wouldn't wanna be with her. And then, the last from her grandmother. Granny Glimmer always had an open ear for her grandchild and tried her best to help Starlight when she had any kind of trouble. Starlight didn't even needed to tell her granny what was wrong, her granny would know it. Different then Jazz heard about everything, Granny Glimmer was a fortune teller. Even her cutie mark showed that.

And even now, the old mare still was great at her job.

"My dear Starlight," the letter read "I saw in my cards that you are still sad about being single. And that you fear that you would become to old to become a mother, am I right? Well, sweet child, Granny is here to help ya. Your mother probably would panic if she knew, but I will give you an ancient spell which was in our family for generations. Most used them to get servants back in the very old days, but its centuries ago our family was more then what we are today. You probably didn't knew, but our family once was royal and close to the Blue Blood family. But like I said, that was centuries ago. But we still had our spell. It created shadowy ponies, that would act in the liking of their masters, but had their down sides as well. It can probably help you out with your family wishes. So I hope, that it will cause you to smile again.

Your dear Granny Glimmer"

As Starlight was done reading, she got to the second page of the letter. Granny didn't lie, what she read there was an instruction and a spell. But Starlight had to fought about it. A shadow pony as a possible child? It was tempting, but she wasn't sure.

Especially that her Granny had said something about down sides. What could that mean? So she put the letter aside and got up from her couch, getting ready to go out. She headed to the biggest library in town, hoping to find some answers there.

She looked through some of the oldest books there. It seemed that her family really was former royals. That was until an ancestor refused to marry a mare he was promised to, disappeared and wed another mare he had fallen in love with.

A classic, middle ages romance, kinda like Romeo and Juliet. But no matter how hard she looked, she couldn't find out much about those shadow ponies. All she read about the servants was that they would do everything to protect their masters and that they were described as strange, dark and sometimes even scary. But mostly, they seemed to be pretty loyal.

"Maybe it wouldn't hurt" Starlight thought on her way back home "If I give it a try. I can find a coltfriend sometime later."

With that, her decision was made. She would finally get the foal she ever wished for.

Creation of a new life

It had took some minutes to get everything ready, but now it should do. Starlight had collected a crystal mirror from a recently moved in neighbor from the crystal empire and got the brilliant pearls of one of her necklace to perform the shadow pony spell.

The instruction read that the pearls would turn black while performing the spell, meaning everything was working fine.

Besides the mirror and pearls, Starlight would have to focus on how her creation should look like, what age it would have etc.

Only then, the spell should create exactly what it was supposed to do. It made Starlight a little nervous, but the fought of finally having a child made her heart take flight. She would create a little filly. Thinking about what she heard about pegasus and unicorn foals, she thought it maybe would be best to have an earth pony filly. But how should she explain to her friends how she got it?

Honestly, she didn't knew, but also didn't cared much. She just wanted a foal. And with that, she got ready.

The mirror was leaning against a wall, directly under the single window in the living room and kitchen area, beside it where two lines of pearls, about three on each side, going away from the mirror itself. Starlight stood in front of that formation and started to focus. She knew exactly how her child should look like, so she cast the spell. Her horn began to glow in its usual, bright blue aura, but soon, all light of the room faded, creating pitch black darkness, with only the pearls, window and mirror shining as bright as the sun.

Then, all shadows flew towards Starlights horn, as the room began to brighten up. And with that, a pitch black beam shot out of the horn, right at the mirror, passing by the pearls. Exhausted from the weird feeling of the shadows, Starlight collapsed to the ground. But she looked up at the mirror. It was shaking. Nearly everything was shaking in her apartment and even a couple of things fell and broke into pieces. Then, the pearls started to hover in the air. They turned black, then back to white. The closest to Starlight became white first, the last being the pearls closest to the mirror, as all shadow seemed to concentrate there.

And as all the shadow disappeared in the middle of the mirror, with all the bright white around her fading away to the state it was before, a last light appeared and quickly disappeared. Did it worked? Or did it failed? Starlight got back on her hooves, starting to fear it hadn't, as she spotted something in the mirror. Something dark was walking towards her from inside of it.

Not so long after, a tiny, dark gray hoof reached out and touched the ground, dragging the rest of its body outside.

It was a filly, an earth pony filly with a dark gray coat, black mane and bright gray eyes. It was covered in a weird liquid, which turned the ground below it in a gray color, but that didn't mattered now to Starlight. It had worked, she had created a shadow pony. And it stood there, cute and small. But it then collapsed. Finally, it screamed, like a foal that age would.

Quickly, Starlight hurried to it, taking it in her forelegs and looking at it closer. It wasn't quite what she imaged her foal to be, but it was cute no matter what. "Hush, don't cry little one" She said in a calm voice. The filly looked up at her. She had adorable gray eyes. They looked kinda like mist in the early morning on a winter day.

"Starlight?" Tailor yelled from outside, as she opened the door and stepped in. The mare looked scared and was surprised to find a couple of tables and tea cups broken on the floor, as for her neighbor sitting there with a dark foal. "Oh, Tailor!" Starlight said, blushing slightly "I ah.... I can explain this.". Tailor just looked at the filly, confused. But then said "I... I heard rumbling from here and worried that something might have happened to you and ah..." "Don't worry, I am fine." "Okay-a but what is that... filly doing here? And where did it come from?". Tailor pointed at it while saying that. Starlight just rubbed the back of her head with one hoof, not knowing how to answer. Tailor stepped in further and saw the instruction, taking it and reading it.

Starlight tried to get it back, but Tailor was a quick reader. "A shadow pony?" She said, hearing that kind of thing for the first time in her life "Is that thing that?". Starlight nodded, having a sad look. She was afraid of what her friend might think.

Tailor didn't knew what to think at first either. But seeing that her friend seemed to finally get something she had wished for, made her happy and she didn't wanted that she would regret that. "Well, seems like you finally have your foal." She said, smiling. Starlight was surprised she took it that well, then smiled and said "Yeah...". With that, Tailor sat down besides her and said "Well, she sure is cute. How do you want to call her?". Starlight thought for a bit and then said "Misty Shade." "The name is perfect." Tailor smiled, tickling the foals belly, making it laugh. But she then asked "How do you explain to the others that you suddenly have a filly?" "I-I don't know..." Starlight answered, looking down sad at the filly.

Tailor stood up, walking around a bit before she said "How about you had, well, a certain something with a stallion some time ago and he got you pregnant? Lets say around the time you had that sickness, you actually hide yourself because it was embarrassing to you that he had left you as you told him that and didn't wanted to bother any of us with that?"

"That... That is brilliant." Starlight said. Tailor smiled and said "Yeah. But today, I found out. To make it more realistic, how about I got you to show your filly to the others now?". Starlight looked at her baby and said "Okay.".

It took some minutes to get everypony in the building down in the lobby, so Starlight could introduced Misty Shade to everypony. They believed the story, Jazz was so surprised that he had missed that out, that he laughed at himself for not being up to date anymore. And they all got to like Misty pretty quickly. She was the new family member now.

Over the time, Starlight gave her best to raise her foal, getting an official birth certificate for her and when she had to work, lots of her neighbors offered to take care for the filly. With that, Misty was raised in a good environment.

Growing up

Misty Shade grew up like any other foal. It wouldn't be much worth mentioning, if she wouldn't be such an odd pony.

A shadow pony had a lack of personality, would often be silent because if that and had a bad habit of stealing, seeing it was more then an empty, dark vessel as a normal pony. And so was Misty. She was normal in the beginning, but pretty quickly became silent. She wouldn't talk much, would hide herself and stare kinda awkwardly at things, especially unicorns who performed magic tricks.

Lets look at her when she was about to enter school. She was so small and cute, but she liked to wear her mane in dreadlocks. Starlight was smiling brightly walking with her to the local school and gave her best to cheer her filly up.

Yet all her tries to talk to her own daughter were really one sided. "Are you nervous?" She asked, finally getting close to the school building. Misty looked nervous, well, a little. But she mostly had that dull expression in her silver eyes. Starlight sighed slightly, before she stopped the little filly in her tracks. With her hoof on Misty's shoulder, she said "Listen, I know everything will be alright. Just, keep your hooves to yourself and be nice. Okay?" "Okay..." her tiny voice escaped Misty's throat, making her mommy smile and giving her a kiss on her forehead. With that, they entered the playground of the school building. Many of the fillies and colts stopped in their tracks as they spotted the dark filly. Even the teacher jumped a little, never seeing a pony like Misty, but beside from that, school went well. Until one day, Starlight was called to the principal.

On her way, she noticed a young unicorn colt. His eyes looked a little dull, as for looking so frightened as he was witness of a horrible crime, which would traumatize someone his age. That made her wonder, what that would have to do with her being her.

Was it something her little Misty Shade had done? With those worried thoughts, she entered the office.

Misty was sitting on a chair in front of the principal, which made Starlight even more worried.

"Hello, Mrs Glimmer." The principal said, her voice rough and kinda sad "Please, take a seat." "Thank you.". Shortly after Starlight had sat down, the principal explained what had happened. "You see, Mrs Glimmer, today, your daughter got into a fight." "W-What?" "Yes. Some colt had made fun of her. And as a filly had told a teacher and they were on their way to help Misty, they found all the colts knocked out and one begging for her to stop. We have no idea what happened, but I think there is no doubt that your daughter had beaten up those colts.".

Starlight was so shocked to hear that. She promised she would make sure something like that wouldn't happen again, before she took Misty back home. On their way she asked the filly why she had done something like that. Misty didn't answered, yet it was clear she didn't felt good about what she had done. So, she got a punishment like she should and that was it.

Yet one thing that was odd: Misty's coat seemed to had become slightly blue, as for her eyes becoming slightly yellow.

Most of Misty's life, those accidents happened again every now and then, as for her taking things which weren't hers.

Starlight didn't knew what could be wrong with that filly. It was so odd, but yet, it was a pony created from a spell.

Yet, all of Starlights friends helped her as best as they could with. Misty grown to like what her mother did for a living and seemed to be pretty good at it too. She was like somepony totally different when she acted. Even she never got a cutie mark, it was clear that acting was her special talent. So when she was grown up, she was an actress herself. Yet that wasn't the only thing that changed over the years. One thing was that Jazz Radio and Starlight Glimmer had started dating and when Misty's own acting career started, her mom and Jazz were an official couple. It made even Misty pretty happy to know her mom was as well.