Memories of a God

"So, Fire Lily, was that scary?" asked Shadow.

"It was very scary."

"It's just going to get scarier from here on out. It's getting late. You going home, or do you have something to do?"

"Just home."

"Alright."

"What about you?"

"I was gonna get something from the barracks. I left my badge there. After that... I'll just go sleep under a tree. I guess."

"Why under a tree?"

"I don't have anywhere to go. I could ask Celestia, but she might kick me out for being lazy."

"Would she do that?"

"It's possible. She's a little distant. Completely understandable."

"She seemed ok when she introduced you."

"She's good at that."

"Well, you could stay at my place for the night."

"That's pretty nice of you. Are you sure? Complete stranger could just come into your house and pretend to sleep until you fall asleep and rob you blind, or even worse. I told a similar thing to the last pony who offered that."

"I'm sure. You seem trustworthy enough."

"Alright, thanks. Tell me where it is and I'll be meet you there in a few minutes." She told him how to find her house. "See ya later, Fire Lily."

"Bye, Shadow Streak."

"Starliner, please. Spies could be anywhere."

Shadow headed back to the castle. He used Celestia's spell to hide himself and walked to the barracks again. Two guards were there. One was training hard. The other was watching him.

"What are you two still doing here at this hour?" asked Shadow.

"Just training."

"And you?"

"Dunno. Seemed like the place to be."

"Alright. Remember to get some rest. Have you two seen my badge?"

"It's right here." said a guard, pulling it off the ground.

"Thanks."

He grabbed the badge and put it in his pocket.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"What is it?"

"Where will you be tomorrow?"

"I'll be doing my own form of training in the gorge."

"Be careful, sir."

"Keep in mind that you need to be careful as well. If you need help just come get me."

"Actually sir, I'd like a rematch." said the guard that was training.

"Sure about that?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Alright. Prepare yourself."

"I'm as ready as I can be."

"Good. Go!"

Shadow easily took him out with a blow to the face. He stood back up and said, "I knew it, not nearly good enough."

"You need many years of hard work to achieve this kind of skill. You don't just get it on a silver platter. I know I didn't."

"How many years?"

"It all depends on who you are. It took me about 10 years." 'To the power of 10.'

"That's... not possible. I've been at this for more than ten years!"

"We didn't train the same. Trust me on that."

"Well how do you train?"

"Stop by the gorge tomorrow and you'll see. See ya later, men."

"Bye, sir."

Shadow went to Fire Lily's house. He knocked on the door and she answered.

"Hey, Fire Lily."

"Hello again, sir."

"Just call me Starliner. I'm not even near the training grounds."

"Sorry. I have a few questions for you."

"I assumed you would."

"I'm letting a total stranger sleep in my home. Why am I doing that? I trusted you as soon as I saw you."

"I just have one of those faces."

"You didn't put a spell on me, did you?"

"Why would I do that?"

"I don't know. Maybe what you said. Rob me blind or worse. What kinds of worse? Have your way with me? Kill me in my sleep?"

"Or maybe all of the above." he said seriously, "If you don't want me to stay here, I'm fine with sleeping outside. I'm quite partial to it actually. Besides, if I wanted to hurt you, why didn't I do it in the desert?"

"No, you can stay. I just... I'm letting a total stranger sleep in my house."

Shadow patted her back. "First for everything. Now that you've gotten that out of your system, where do I sleep?"

"Anywhere you want."

"Except your bed... right?"

"Why? Do you have a problem with that?"

"As long as you don't have a problem with it."

She chuckled nervously. "Anywhere, but my bed."

"Thank you."

"Any time."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm gonna sleep now."

"You have something planned tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I was gonna train."

"I'd like to see that."

"Really?"

"Anything that would make you stronger must be a sight to see to say the least."

"I guess. If you feel the need, I'll be at the gorge. Goodnight, see ya tomorrow."

"Night, Starliner."

"Do you have any pets? No, no pets. Thought I smelled one for a second there. Dog, really big, female."

"How did you know I didn't have pets?"

"I've seen ponies with pets. They're somewhat different from other ponies. I also would've seen animal hair."

"How do you know I don't clean often?"

"Are you going to question me all night?"

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"Of course not, I love hearing your voice. Just another sleepless night."

He walked over to her couch and laid down on it. He waved at her and smiled. "Night."

"Yeah."

NEXT DAY

Shadow got up early and headed to the gorge. He dropped down to the bottom and looked all around him. "There's a lot of stone to be moved today." he said.

He found a very large rock on the ground and put it on his back. He moved it to the side of the gorge and set it down. He found some more large rocks and did the same with them.

"Is that you, Starliner?"

"Rainbow Dash? What are you doing here? What happened to the Wonderbolts?" he asked without turning around.

"I come here to train. And the Wonderbolts... they told me to go. Fun while it lasted."

"That's a shame."

"Yeah. What about you?"

"Also training. What a coincidence."

"What's with the rocks?"

"I think I'm clearing out the gorge. I'm gonna put all the rocks here."

"Then what?"

"Stick around, you'll find out. Hey, it's the cave Sigma killed you in!" he said happily.

"That's not something to be happy about." she said, "He wasn't right in the head."

"Wait a minute, you had to have heard the news about me, right?"

"Everypony did. Everypony knows."

"Then why aren't you running in terror?"

"Princess Celestia sent a letter to Twilight about it. She also mentioned your nickname. Only the six of us know. Fluttershy is scared out of her mind, even after hearing that."

"If I try and go say hi, she might run off screaming. Still, at least she wasn't the first target. She would be... anyways, it's back to work for me."

"So you're just moving rocks here?"

"Yeah, until later. I have a lot of work to do. There was an avalanche recently."

"Yeah, that was me."

"I know, it was funny."

"It wasn't that funny."

"Maybe not for you. See ya."

Shadow left to collect more rocks. Rainbow flew off to train.

11 HOURS LATER

"That's just not possible." said a guard.

"Did he do all this by himself?"

"But how?"

"And that is how we take care of business where I come from." said Shadow, putting the last rock down. "This was kinda tough. What do I do with all these rocks? Rainbow? Oh yeah, she left a few hours ago. Now, has anypony ever had a use for a huge pile of giant rocks? Amateur sculptors and destruction spell testers. I know what I could do with these. Which is closer, Ponyville or Canterlot? Um... Ponyville. Ponyville is that way. Wait, I'm here to train. Walking to Ponyville alone isn't training. I know!"

He got a rock from the pile and set it on his back, then ran off to Ponyville. After a few minutes, he made it to town. He was getting odd looks due to the rock on his back. He walked as if it wasn't there.

"Now, if I remember correctly, it should be around here. There it is! Sporting goods."

He set his rock on the ground and walked in. He grabbed a few wooden bats. "No metal bats it seems. There's an abundance of metal, but it's not used often. I might need to use my smithing and smelting skills some day for my own advantage."

He went up to the counter and the pony said, "What's with the rock?"

"Training."

"What are you training for?"

"Dunno. It's always a good idea to keep in shape."

"If you can lift that rock, then you're way past just in shape."

Shadow shrugged. "See ya."

"Bye."

He picked up the bats and left. Outside he saw a familiar face.

"Applejack!" he said happily.

"Sha... Starliner?"

"Yup, it's me! Are you busy right now?"

"Nope. What do ya need?"

"You're strong, right?"

"Ah reckon."

"Good. Take this." he said, handing her a bat.

"What's it for?"

"I want you to smack me with that as hard as you can across the skull."

"That is the stupidest this Ah've ever heard!"

"C'mon, it'll be fun! What? It's not like I'll get hurt or anything. Please?" He looked in her eyes.

"Well, Ah guess."

"Alright, whenever you're ready. Right across the head." He looked behind him. Just the rock. "Ready Applejack?"

"Yeah."

"Don't you hold back. That is important. I need accurate results."

"Right. Get ready, here Ah go!"

She leaned back and hit Shadow in the head with all that she could. He didn't move a single centimeter and the bat broke in two. The second half flew back and slammed into the rock, splintering it. A trail of blood ran down Shadow's face.

Shadow took the bat handle from her and examined it. "This is a piece of junk!" he said, "That means that the others won't work either."

He picked up the other bats and gave them to a group of fillies. He kept one just in case. He picked his rock back up and said, "Thanks for the help, Applejack."

"Right. What exactly did Ah do again?"

"Tell your brother I might come see him some time. See ya later."

"Bye Starliner!"

Shadow headed back to the gorge. He dropped his bat and separated the rocks into piles. "Alright, a majority of iron and gold. Now, I need fire. Dragon fire. Spike isn't old enough. Few dragons are at the volcano. There's my next destination. It's close to the previous migration right now. Dragons don't like ponies and it's getting late and I'm training the guards tomorrow. I think it's time to check on the Wonderbolts as well. I met them as Shadow Streak, guess not. I hate being not Shadow. Show up so I can kill you, Sigma!" he shouted.

One of the guards who was watching him jumped off of the edge and slip down the side of the gorge. He approached Shadow.

"Sir, that was all the confession I need."

"Sorry?"

"You are Shadow Streak, correct?"

"Yeah. What of it?"

"No denying it?"

"You're too determined to be persuaded. Wait a minute... you were the mare, and the dog. Who are you, because you're certainly not friendly."

The guard transformed into a tall blue pegasus mare with a long purple mane.

"I didn't expect that. What do I call you now, sexy?"

"You can call me Blue Rose."

"I've heard that name before. I think."

"You've forgotten. I'm with Sigma in this war."

"It's not a war yet."

"It most certainly is. You need to see how powerful we've gotten since we last met."

"You need to see how powerful I've gotten since our last meeting." said Shadow angrily.

He shot a glance up to the other guards. They were watching them carefully. 'Good job, Fire Lily.' Blue Rose grabbed the bat from the ground. Shadow laughed at her.

"Go ahead and hit me. It won't work. My friend broke a bat over my head five minutes ago."

"She just wasn't using it right."

She hit him across the face and he soared into the sky. He landed after a few seconds like a meteor. "Ah, that should leave a mark, but won't. She's got a nice swing."

He saw a shaking mare look into the hole in the ground he was in. "Are... are you ok?" she asked.

"Is that you, Fluttershy?" he asked, "Great to see a friendly face again."

"Shadow?!" she said, backing away.

Shadow stepped out of the hole and looked at her. "Fluttershy, it's ok. It's me, Shadow. I'm not gonna hurt you. Twilight told you about what really happened, right?"

She nodded. "H-how do I know you're Sh-Shadow? Shadow and not S-Sigma."

"I'm sorry, but I can't help you with that. You have to decide that for yourself. If you'll excuse me, I need to go."

"Shadow, wait!" she said.

"You called me Shadow. Sorry, love to stay and chat, but I need to go."

"But you're hurt!"

"No I'm not."

He sniffed at the direction he came from, then stood up on two legs in front of Fluttershy. A piece of wood flew through the air at them and struck Shadow in the head. It bounced off and landed a few feet away.

"Holy cow, that hurt!" said Shadow, rubbing his head, "Ow, it cracked the skull. There we go, good as new."

"Are you ok, Shadow?!" said Fluttershy, running to him.

"I'm fine, Fluttershy. I'm ok."

"What was that?"

"I think it was a bat. That was some spot on accuracy from that much of a distance. She's good. Stop looking at me like that, Fluttershy. I'm fine." He parted his hair and showed her his head, "See? There's no bumps or marks or anything."

"But you said..."

Shadow looked in her eyes and said, "I'm alright."

"Ok."

He picked up the bat. There was a note on the handle. "Sigma lets us kill anypony we want now. Keep that in mind when you plan your next move. There are things you don't know, and things we don't know. Your memory for one. Sigma's memory as well. Now we have an advantage. We know your weakness. If you act normally, we'll act normally. Blue Rose." he read.

"Damn. Hmm... She gives off incredible power, I can feel it from here. There aren't any other power spikes, so she must be the only one on this earth. If she's allowed to kill anypony she wants, Fire Lily and the other guard are dead. But they're not. She needs me to keep in line. Hostages. Damn it, damn it, damn it all! No, I'm not gonna let her get the best of me. She's not gonna die peacefully. Wait, she's from my past. And she's old, really old. Chrysalis old. In fact, Blue Rose is exactly 7122 years, three months, two weeks, and three days old. So many questions, so little time."

Shadow looked at Fluttershy. "You didn't hear any of that, did you?"

She shook her head. "Why?"

"It's not really for anypony in public. Now, I have a problem. I need to stay in town. Hey Fluttershy, I need to go. See ya."

"Alright, Shadow."

"About that, could you call me Starliner please? Spies could be anywhere. See ya.”

Shadow ran back to the gorge. Fire Lily and the other guard were nowhere to be seen. "Blue Rose? I just wanna talk! Show yourself! I know you're here, I can feel your energy."

"You don't let anything get past you, do you Shadow?"

"I need you to do something for me."

"What makes you think I'll listen?"

"I know you will. I need you to teach these guards how to kill and all that. Continue their training for me. Here's the badge."

"Why should I?"

"You don't need a reason. You'll do it regardless. I trust you."

She laughed. "You haven't changed a single bit. I remember when you asked me to filly-sit for you."

"So I asked one of my mortal enemies to watch my kid?"

"Yes you did."

"What was I doing?"

"You were fighting Sigma."

"That would explain it. Was this recent? I don't remember it."

"We figured out why. Your memories weren't just taken, they were splintered. They've always been splintered. You can't remember things because that part is a new splinter in your head."

"When it get's to a certain point, my memories will collapse. But so will Sigma's. Absolutely unavoidable. Damn. Until then, fights to the death."

"I'll be waiting for it."

"See ya, Blue Rose."

Shadow ran back to town and looked around a little. "It's eight right now. Not late, but not early." He looked at the sky, "Constellations, the moon, planets, galaxies. So beautiful. Hang on, that wasn't there before. Neither was that. It's different, all of it. Where am I right now? Isn't this the pony Earth? It has to be, ponies and Earth! What the hell is Sigma doing? Is he attacking the universe? He could be. It's not like there's anything stopping him. Whoa! Major power surge. From where? The sky? I recognize that power. Sigma must've met the Saiyans. He's dead. No, I'd know, no matter how far. He ran. It doesn't explain the irregularities. Nor does it explain the pony ten meters away from me listening in to what I'm saying. It's a nice spying spell, but as soon as you cast it I knew about it. So Twilight, are you getting suspicious of me? Anypony who brings threat to your teacher can't be good, can they? Get out of the trees, let me see your pretty little face."

Twilight walked out of her hiding place and Shadow walked over to her. "How are you, Twilight?"

"I'm good. What are you doing here?"

"Well, I found out that my enemies are already here, so I decided to stay in Ponyville for a while."

"An enemy?! Shouldn't you stop them?"

"It'll be fine. Anyways, if I said any more than you would just worry about it. That or you'll tell Celestia. You're gonna do that regardless so I need you to tell her something for me. Tell her that Blue Rose is training the guards."

"But you were doing that."

"Now I'm too busy."

"Sha... Starliner, Princess Celestia didn't tell me what happened with Sigma. Can you tell me?"

"Look up at the sky. Tell me what you see."

"I see the moon and stars, but that's it."

"C'mon Twilight, it shouldn't take a genius like you to figure it out."

"What are you talking about? Wait a minute... where's Ursa Major? Ursa Minor, Orion, Leo? Maybe I'm looking at it wrong."

"No, they're gone. Everything's all jumbly-wumbly."

"Jumbly-wumbly?"

"Sigma's out there attacking planets and recruiting an army. He just attacked one of the most powerful beings in the universe and got trashed. There's no way in our existence that we could match them. He's not causing the constellation problems though. Something big is going down."

"It's just not possible."

"I've seen less likely. Hey Twilight, look over there, near the moon. That star is Regulus. No matter what angle you look at it from, Leo is nowhere in sight."

"Jumbly-wumbly?"

"Yeah." he said. His stomach rumbled. "You know I can't eat until I get paid again. Stop making noise."

"Are you hungry?"

"A bit, I haven't eaten in two days."

"Two days?!"

"It's fine. Maybe I'll cook up my arm. I know how to spice it up good."

"Your arm?"

"Anyways, what were you doing spying on me?"

"Well I saw that you were in Ponyville and I thought that..."

"I was Sigma. Well I'm not, and you know that."

"I heard that Applejack hit you in the face with a bat. Why did she do that?"

"I asked her to. I was testing the durability of the bats. It broke, so it wasn't any good. I hope it didn't cause any trouble for her. That wouldn't be good. Be a bit rude if you ask me. Maybe not rude, but not good nonetheless."

"That doesn't seem very smart."

"Hitting anything else would just look silly. Hitting me was cool."

"How is that cool?"

"Dunno, I just think it is. It must've looked a little cool. I didn't even move."

"What are you gonna do now?" asked Twilight.

"I was looking for a place to sleep. Then I'm gonna go to Canterlot and continue training the guards. By then your brother should be out of the hospital. I'll help him out a little. Am I forgetting something?"

"I don't think so."

"Good."

"Starliner, are you worried?"

"About what?"

"Your memory. What if you lose it?"

"Try not to read my mind. I don't care if you spy on me, but stay out of my head."

"You don't care if I spy?"

"Go ahead, by all means."

"Alright then."

"So what do you wanna do now?"

"I don't know. What about you?"

"Dunno. Whatever's fine, but if you don't pick, I'll just fall asleep. Or maybe I'll stay up and study the sky. I need to find some sort of pattern in the stars. If I find one, I can cross check the results with the individuals I've come to know."

"That's a good idea. Maybe I can help."

"I'd love your company, if you'd stay."

"I'll stay, I need to tell the princess about this."

"Good idea. You should also tell them about what I told you. Leave my mind state out of it though."

"Why?"

"They shouldn't be worried. I don't want them to worry about me. They'll find out eventually, and it'll only be a big deal when it happens. Before then, nothing good can come of it. Your prying makes you know."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not upset. Just keep it to yourself."

"Alright."

Shadow looked at the sky again. "Maybe it isn't real." he said.

"What?"

"This might not be real. Whoa, look at that." he said, pointing to Canterlot. There was a large white light emanating from the castle. A few seconds later, it shot into the sky in an orb.

"What was that?!" asked Twilight.

"Celestia must've thought the same thing that I thought. It's real. A long distance spell, nice."

"How can you tell that it was real?"

"There would've been interference of some kind. Twilight, when you look at the sky, what do you see? Metaphorically.”

"I see the beauty of the night and the wonders that it holds. What about you, Shadow?"

"I see everything."

"Everything?"

"The brightness of life, the darkness of death, the power of the universe, and the lonely eternity I'm doomed to spend it in."

"You don't have to be lonely."

"You don't understand what I go through."

"Could you tell me?"

"That isn't a story for today. Well, I must say that I did not expect this day to turn out as it did. I met enemies from my past, Sigma is amassing an army, and the universe is all jumbly. At the risk of something else going wrong, what else could possibly go wrong? If it was raining, my day would be complete."

"It's not scheduled to rain today."

"I still wouldn't be surprised in the slightest. It's getting a little late. Going home?"

"What?"

"Are you going home tonight?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"I can think of a few arguably logical reasons. One that stands out is that it's pretty dark out. That can be fixed with a little spell though. Easy enough."

Shadow jumped up and stood on his hooves. "I can't find a pattern in the stars. It's like somepony deliberately made it unorderly. I can go as far as to say the pattern was random."

"Random? Wait, you looked at all of the stars?"

"And I calculated the stars themselves, the distance between each one, the histories and lore, and every other combination of variables I could think of."

"That's not possible!"

"If there's one thing you learn being over 14 billion years old, it's that everything is possible. Who do I know that dabbles in the art of randomness? Do you know anypony like that?"

"Well, there's one."

"Really?"

"Yeah. His name is Discord, he's the one who attacked the princesses all those years ago."

"He couldn't have been freed again, right? The more that I think about it, the more I'd like to speak with him. Maybe. From what I've learned, last time Celestia and Luna used the Elements of Harmony to seal him away. This time it was you and your five friends. You are most certainly weaker than the princesses, but you managed to stop him. Maybe this time there wasn't enough power to seal him completely. If that's true, he should be capable of affecting this world. But stars are immensely powerful. If he was able to move this many stars from this distance, then there is no way the Elements could even begin to effect him. Hypothetically speaking, if this is all true, this land is in much more danger than ever before. Which means we have to tell the princesses. Put it in that letter of yours."

"Good idea."

"Well Twilight, I believe it is time for us to part. Until morning if you feel the need. Night, see ya later."

"Bye Starliner."

Shadow walked to Sugarcube Corner and jumped on the roof. He laid down and looked at the sky a little more. He sensed some more power surges, but they weren't as noticeable as before. "If he gets himself killed, I'm going to have a very boring time."