Past vs. Future. Nah I prefer present.

It has been a month after shadow's arrival. He is already working on a shop around town, selling cotton candy, muffins, cupcakes, and other sweets. You can know for who he started working. He was working for the cake family ,principally, but pinkie gave the idea of selling sweets around town, walking from place to place, corner to corner. the first 3 days working on that job and he already knew all ponyville (due to be walking around town.). It's has been 2 weeks since he started working . He would normally work from 8 am to 3 pm but he worked 'till late: at 7 or 8 pm .He was happy, not because the salary ( like if he needed the money either. Well.... maybe but not the reason.), but because he saw fillies and foals running toward the portable cotton candy shop wanting candy. He sure was having fun. Meanwhile, Twilight, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were looking from far away. They were talking about the stallion whom entered exactly a month ago (or got helped in the process.). His wing has been fully cured a week ago, magic maybe? Or it was twilight? He didn't exactly knew but he didn't care. He was just happy to fly again, he thanked twilight even if he didn't knew if it was her. his leg, however, wasnt fully cured . Twilight had to take him to the hospital the day after his arrival For it. It seemed like it had swollen the 'little push she gave'.

"hmmm..."

"What are you thinking twilight?" Rarity said.

"oh... is nothing, i suppose. It that every time i see him, he doesnt seem... very happy... like if something is missing... but i can't manage to know what..."

"Maybe a party!?" Pinkie said.

"Pinkie... he doesn't seems like those ponies who likes parties that much... and I doubt that a party is missing... no offence." Rarity said.

"Um girls?"

"And what do you know about him!? "

"Girls..."

"More than you, darling!"

"Oh ye-"

"GIRLS!!!" Twilight shouted.

"WHAT!?" Both responded back.

" He's looking at us." Both ponies looked at the purple stallion looking back.

"Oh..."

"I still know more than him. "

"Gah!"

Is late at night and Shadow is trotting back to the castle, after delivering a cake to a important stallion in ponyville. He felt two things now... maybe three. He was embarrased; because the filly told him blank flank, anger; because she kept singing the words with a friend and either parents doing anything to stop it, and tired. Just by that situation, his scar was glowing, not by embarrassment but anger.

"I'm not useless... "He murmured to himself, looking down. he didn't noticed a black figure hiding inside a bush as he seated in front of the castle's doors. He should be looking for his cousins And his sister. He couldn't think of it right now but he knew one thing... he failed his mission...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~past~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Centreus! "

"Don't let go! "

"I...am trying!"

Centreus and his sister had fallen on a raging River just inside the everfree forest. They were holding on for dear sake, while not drowning. Struggling, the river's current was raging badly as rocks could be seen. Centreus and his sister smacks a rock, separing both.

"NO!!" Centreus shouted as he saw the grey hoof disappear inside the water as the river divided in two. A peaceful side and the raging side. His sister, luckily, went to the peaceful side. He tried to swim toward his sister but that only caused the little waves to roll him and hit a couple rocks and cutting a few times with stuff in the water. He tried to grab something to safe him from what would come next. He could see something not that far . When he realized what it was, he tried swimming away from it.

"HELP! HELP! HE-" the water pulls him out as he coughed when he arose, only to be out of the water, falling.

*SPLASH *

He fell on the water and hitted a rock in the back of his head, knocking him out.

somewhere, at a river, Played a couple fillies. Maybe 15 or 20. there were all kind of fillies: including alicorns, small dragons, and gryphons. There were normal ponies too. There were two alicorn fillies and their mother. Both were playing together in the river, apart from the rest as the mother rested under a three. Then they took sight of something blue right on the shore.

"what's that, Tia?" The younger asked. She had a dark blue coat with a lighter blue mane and tail.

"I'm not sure, lulu... stay here while I check... " the oldest said. She had a white coat and a pink mane, slightly taller than her sister.

As she approached the blue object, she could recognize it was a small foal, with a scar on his eye. Also, he had a black eye and lots of bruises and cuts.

"Is that A foal?" lulu asked. Tia, how the youngest called, nodded . Lulu then ran off ,calling their mother. The mother trotted where tia was as she saw the little foal.

"Oh my. If it's just a little foal..." the mother said. She had white coat, like tia's and her mane And tail, we're red. Taller than the average pony, she stood besides him as he coughed .

Centreus opened a little his black eye but closed it again. Tia saw his dagger-like eyes a as she backed up.

"A bat pony???" She asked to her mother.

"doubt it... he has claws, unlike the bat ponies. Let's get him home."

"He doesn't seems fine... what happened to him?" Lulu asked.

The mother's horn as centreus got levitated and laid on her back as she opened her wings.

"Luna, can you pack our things up while I take him to the castle?" The little filly nodded and, happily, started packing up. Her sister helped her as their mother took centreus to the 'Castle'. It wasn't a castle really but luna insisted on calling it castle, because she had a lot of faith that their miserable life will change. She had a dream of it, she and her sister being princesses, having a huge castle, having servants, going on free spa, stuff like that. The mother couldn't help but call the poor, wooden cottage ,a castle.

Centreus woke up as he opened his eyes slowly, his vision all blurry.

"Where...am i..." he asked, almost with no voice, as he coughed up water.  He tried lifting his head up , shaking a little. his ears were flattened as he tried to see. He held a hoof up to his right eye, where the bruise was.

"Don't force yourself to talk, little one..." the mother said, as she took him to the bathroom for a shower. "I will clean your injuries and bandage you up. "

Normally, he would had refused to getting helped with shower. Mostly because it was embarrassing... at least for him. His sister loved him to help her while he didn't liked to. But due to the circumstances, and the worried expression from the mother, he didnt. He was too weak to do it on his own. She filled the tub and afterwards, putted centreus inside.

"I'm lauren by the way..." she said. " What's your name?"

"Cen...treus..."

After a while of cleaning him, lauren took him out and bandaged him and gave him a bag of ice for his eye. he, instead, Used It For The back Of His Head where he got hit .

"Mom! We are back!" Lulu Exclamed.

"Ok girls! I'm going down in a bit. " she said , half sang. lauren took him carefully to the living room and putted him down on the couch as she seated on the bigger couch. He closed his eyes and laid his head as his bag of ice remained on his head. luna was worried about him. celestia, on the other hoof, wasnt worried. In fact, her face was that of insecurity, scared and jealous. She wanted to get rid of him. His mother was taking time from her and luna for him.

"What are you?" Celestia asked. Lauren glared at her like wanting to scold her but centreus knew what she meant and opened his eyes.

"Dragon pony..." he said before closing his eyes again.

"Interesting..." lauren said. She inspectionated centreus body. His wings weren't full scales like dragons but weren't feathers like pegasus either. It was like a mix of both. Scathers? Feales?

"Awesome! Can you breath fire?" Luna asked. He just shrugged.

"I don't know... never tried..." he managed to say Understandable .

"Maybe you need some rest... maybe you can tell us tomorrow what happened exactly. " lauren assured. She was tad late: centreus was already sleeping. celestia now felt the urge of getting rid of the pest arrive at her home...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~present~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile he was thinking about all of this, he had started to clean the floor of the castle with a broom. He even used magic to at least clear his mind. He finished after 30 minutes. He put the broom away, walked to his room and laid on his bed. He looked out the window on the night sky. He could see 5 stars shining brightly, one of them bigger than the rest. What did that meant? Maybe he was pretty close from one of his cousins or his sister? Either way, he did a mental note on visiting fluttershy the next day because he was free that time and closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Shadow has awoken early as usual, to clean his room, and making breakfast for twilight , himself , spike and the owl. He was surprised when he saw the mane six and spike sleeping on some couch .he couldn't help but sigh. He could see their happiness on their faces. He could go and try to find his family, but then the mane six would look for him and he could raise the curiosity of the mane six to ask why he left.

He took out the waffle mix and started making waffles. The tasty smell of waffles filled the entire castle, waking up the waffle lover, or the gems lover... maybe both

 "Good morning shadow" said spike, yawning .

Shadow looks behind and see the 'huge scary' dragon . He liked to compliment spike saying he's the biggest and scary dragon in all of equestria, in which the bond he and spike shared had become thick and hard.

" Oh h-hey s-spike " Shadow said trying to sound scared. Shadow gave the dragon a soft, playful punch on spike shoulder. Spike climbed onto shadow's back .

"How you slept ?" Said shadow, forcing a smile.

"Perfect" spike said, yawning.

"Mmmm this is delicious! " pinkie said as shadow finished his pancakes. The rest were either finishing eating or already finished. Fluttershy was one from the first to finish, then pinkie. Rarity didn't really bothered to finish fast, it would ruin her 'perfectly brushed' coat and that syrup would mess up her coat. Rainbow Dash and Applejack I'm their usual rivalry. This time of who finished last. twilight and spike just ate calmly as shadow looked away from them.

they are lucky to have friends that care for each others... or they are lucky or I'm the unlucky... maybe I should leave later to find lighting. I know how protective he is when I played with him. He must be protecting genes, and maybe planing on how to save his sister from Ryan... Lucy can be easily controled, probably she's being used to find me. That or trying to find lightning, wait no... if an alicorn is missing in the family, then the one to lead is the unicorn... but knowing lightning that well... he will refuse and fi-

"Shadow?" Spike called. He returned to equestria and looked around. the mane 6, owlowishus and spike were staring at him. "Are you ok?"

He lowered a little ,trying to appear invisible.

"Um... yeah..." he earns a worried look from all.

"Who." Owlowishus said.

"me."

"Who."

"Me..."

"Wh-"

" I need fresh air." he interrupted the owl irritably and went to the balcony, holding his plate with his wings. He putted the plate down as he seated on the balcony. He moved his tail next to him as he started eating.

"What's wrong with him?" Rainbow asked.

"Um... maybe he has a lot of pressure..." fluttershy supposed.

"Maybe he needs fluttershy and her kindness to calm him down.~" Pinkie proposed.

""Yes... maybe later... "

"Thanks fluttershy... for ... you know... letting me help you with your animals friends.

"Is no problem... isn't it supposed to be me saying thanks for helping me?" She asked. shadow shrugged and chuckled. they walked around fluttershy's garden until they both got bored of it and walked down a path leading to the everfree.

"Is this path safe, flutters?" He asked, kinda scared. He had passed through there a lot but his personality didn't let him feel brave or courageous.

"Yes... I think... this is the path where I walk almost always And meet up with zecora, a very nice zebra." She said, ignoring some rustling bushes. Shadow keep looking and noticed they were getting inside hydra territory. He gulped as both went deeper .

"Um fluttershy..."

"Oh... oh..."

" are we lost?"

"Y-yes."

"We must go ba-"

*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH*

A shadow started rising from the ground 100 meters in front of both. A big, huge, scary shadow with 4 heads could bee seen.

"A HYDRA!?" Both exclamed. The hydra heard both and ran towards them.

"Run!" Shadow said as fluttershy ran, in a different direction. The hydra, took the turn and followed fluttershy. Seeing her in trouble and more when cornered, lighted a spark inside himself. His scar glowed at the though of leaving her here, to the hydra's fate. He couldn't let her die. Not now during a peaceful walk. His wings flared up and flapped as fast as he could, towards fluttershy. He grabbed her just before the hydra ate her. she had her arms in front of her eyes, scared. Shadow then landed pretty far away from the hydra, who was spitting a tree from one of his mouth.

"Get to twilight!"

just great. Exactly a month after trying to escape the timberwolves and now I get to face a hydra. It's a shame that I threw my father's sword at a tree without anything to grab on...

Fluttershy nodded and ran as fast as she could toward ponyville.

"Come on big boy, show me your moves." He murmured. He knew he couldn't fly back, leading the hydra to ponyville would result in a catastrophe. He chose to stay there, at least until twilight came and helped. his forehead then started to glow as he shot the hydra with magic. That only caused the hydra to go to angry hawk mode as it charged toward shadow. two of the hydra went to tackle him, although only one suceded. Shadow managed to dodge the first one but didn't saw the other one as it tackled him. He was sent flying, although he managed to fall on his hoof as he slid on the ground for a moment. His muzzle was bleeding. His scar glowed brighter as he growled, taking flight again toward the hydra.

The hydra sensed it coming as one of the head rose and with an amazing strength, hammered him down to the floor. Dust rose . After the dust settled, shadow was lying there, inside a crater. The scar was glowing less and less each passing second but never stopped glowing. The hydra, being the victorious, grabbed him by his wings. They wanted him to feel more pain...

" hurry girls ! shadow may be in trouble!"

The mane 6 were running toward the hydra, who was facing the other way, not noticing the mares. There could be only be seen three heads with their necks, they supposed it has been defeated, but then the missing head rise up and hammered something to the floor. After a while, a head picked up something, and threw it towards some trees. The thing that the hydra threw was standing back up, shaking. Fluttershy saw what it was as her eyes narrowed.

"SHADOW!!!" she shouted. The hydra, hearing her, stops and turns around.

"F-f-flutters???" Shadow managed to say. He tried to limp toward the mares but a head noticed him and grabbed him, and threw him again to the floor. Fluttershy's eye twitched as her ear did so too. She had enough.

"How DARE YOU! HURTS HIM!" She shouted, breathing heavily. The hydra flinched at her sudden outburst and backs up. Fluttershy then started doing 'the stare' as the hydra paralyzed in front of her.

"YOU SHOULDER BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF! NOW YOU BETTER GO, BEFORE I CALL MY FRIENDS!!!"

That did it. The hydra whimpered as it ran away, scared.

Fluttershy calmed down before flying down in front of centreus.

"Shadow!" The rest shouted.

"G-g-girls..." he said. His muzzle was bleeding badly, if it wasnt before. His wings were injured... again...

"Don't try to talk now, shadow. You will be ok..." fluttershy assured.

"Don't close your eyes"

"Shadowy shadow!"

Shadow closes his eyes into unconsciousness. His heartbeat slowing down.

"Let's hurry to the hospital." twilight then surrounded him in her aura and took sight of something at the side on the stomach. "Should I take the log out?"

"No I don't suggest it. You can do it wrong too, just like when you pushed the bone back in instead of doing it the gross way..." Rainbow admitted. " and besides, he will lose blood faster. Let's get going!" the gang then ran to the hospital.

"A log in his side, a twisted hoof, few minor cuts here and here, a bruised lung, 2 broken ribs, and injured muzzle, among other minor injuries. "

"Shadow!"

"We need to take him to the operation room right away."

Shadow opened a little his eyes, enough to see where he was. White ceiling... he could feel he was being moved. He let his head drop to the side to see spike holding his hoof.

"S-shadow?" He was crying a lot as he saw shadow's blood stains in his purple coat.

"at... least... fluttershy's ok..." he said, before passing out again.

...

...

...

...

"Is he awake?"

...

...

...

"He's moving..."

...

...

"Shadow?"

...

"Wake up please..."

please... wake me tomorrow... today I got beaten the tartarus out of me...

"Ugh.... last time I felt this way... was when i, got carried away... by the river..." He said to himself, not remembering that there were voices. He opened his eyes slowly, looking at it surrounding.

"Why is... all blurry..." he scrunches his face as he hears giggling and relieving sighs. He turns his face toward said sounds.

"A pink blob... shiiiit... I swear I didn't got drunk..."

"No you didn't... I think... right twily?"

"No."

His vision became clearer as he saw 6 ponies and a dragon .

"Are you ok ,shadow?" Rainbow asked.

"I... think... not the first time I've been this bad tho... although it was a different situation..."he answered.

"Ah' suppose the first one was when you got dragged away by the river?" Applejack asked.

"How did you..."

"You just said it, silly! " pinkie giggled.

"Oh..."

now I will be here a month maybe... 30 annoying days... even I hope lauren would be here to comfort me...