“What?” Shadow jerked his head back, then scoffed. “Please. Dylan’s only been here for a month, I’m more than sure he’s not seeing anypony, especially not Fluttershy.”

“It took you two weeks to go from having just arrived in Equestria, to making love to me.” Twilight deadpanned.

Shadow blinked. “...To be fair...Nah, I’m not gonna finish that sentence.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow, opening her mouth slightly to say something, only for the TV to interrupt her focus.

“We now return to Daring Do: The Series!”

“Ooh!”

Shadow rolled his eyes at his wife’s near instant loss of attention towards him. He got up from the couch, looking off towards where Dylan stood. “I’mma go head out for a minute, I wanna ask Jorge something.”

“But you’re gonna miss the show!” Twilight reminded him.

“You can just fill me in when I get back!” Shadow replied. “I’m not gonna be gone for too long.”

“Alright…”

“So let me get this straight…” Jorge began. “You want me to go spy on Dylan simply because you think he’s been hanging out with Fluttershy too much?” He cocked his head to the side. “You do realize that’s an invasion of privacy, right?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Why don’t you do it?”

“Because… I have… Prince duties to attend to…” Shadow slowly replied. “Yeah, that’s it…”

Jorge stayed silent for a moment, waiting to see if Shadow would say anything else. “Alright, what’s the real reason?”

“...I don’t feel like it.” Shadow admitted.

Jorge deadpanned. “Fine. Whatever, I’ll do it, I guess…”

“I just want a status report on what they’re up to.” Shadow explained. “It’s not like I want you to watch them having sex or anything…”

“Yes, because I don’t already have enough of that over here with Rainbow.” Jorge rolled his eyes. “I just have to see what goes on in my friends’ sex life.”

“Jorge…?” Shadow tilted his head. “Your sarcasm’s showing.”

“Shadow, your stupidity’s showing.”

Shadow turned his head behind him, looking for something. “Is it? Because I can’t see it...”

Jorge shook his head. “Alright, feel free to stay here for as long as you’d like. I’mma go find Dylan.”

In an instant, Jorge had left his house, leaving Shadow to figure out what to do next. He looked over to the living room, noticing the TV was on. Raising an eyebrow, he walked over to the room, his focus immediately being drawn to the couch, where Cryo had been sitting.

Shadow looked over to the TV, recognizing the show that it was playing. “The Adventures of Batmare, eh?”

“You watch it too?” Cryo looked over to the canadian, whom had simply nodded.

“Sometimes.” He replied. “It’s not my favorite, but it’s pretty cool.”

“What’s your favorite show, then?” Cryo cocked his head to the side.

Shadow looked over to the nearby remote sitting on the table in front of the couch. “Mind if I change the channel?”

“Uh…” Cryo looked over to the TV, seeing that the show had gone on commercial break. “Okay… But change it back quick, the commercials are almost done!”

Shadow jumped onto the couch, grabbing the remove with a wing as he brought it over to his hooves, where he was able to press the correct number combination to get to the right channel.

“We now return to Daring Do: The Series!”

“Aw, c’monnnn…” Cryo whined. “Not you too…”

“What?” Shadow looked over to Cryo. “You don’t like this show?”

Cryo shook his head. “Uncle Jorgie and Auntie Rainbow watch this show a lot… I think it’s boring.”

“It’s not boring!” Shadow retorted. “It’s full of action, and adventure!”

“It’s boring.” Cryo crossed his hooves.

Before Shadow could retort, he heard a door creaking as it was opened, he looked over to the entrance to the house, realizing it wasn’t Jorge. Once he had heard the soft click of the door being closed, he narrowed it down to the only other option.

“Jorge?” Dash called out, the sound of her hoofsteps drawing closer. “That better not be a new episode of the spinoff!”

Once she had entered the room, she noticed the very surprising lack of the cuban, as well as the canadian that took his place.

At the same time, Shadow had also noticed the mare carrying her foals on her back, her wings extended to keep them secure and prevent them from falling. They seemed to be enjoying the ride their mother had been giving them.

“Oh, hey Shadow.” Dash said, raising an eyebrow. “Have you seen Jorge?”

“Err… He went to go spy on Dylan for me.” Shadow bluntly replied.

“Okay… Why?”

“Uh, well, Dylan’s been leaving the castle pretty often…” Shadow explained. “And almost every time he’s left, it’s been because either Fluttershy’s called him over, or just ‘cause he wanted to visit her personally.”

“So?” Dash asked. “What’s that gotta do with anything?”

“I’m just curious of what they’re doing, that’s all.” Shadow shrugged, looking over to the foals. “Looks like they’re having fun.” He chided.

Dash turned her head to see the foals on her back. “Yeah… Prism and Spectrum love piggyback rides. And naps…”

“Sounds like they take after their mom.” Shadow joked, unaware of Cryo stealing the remote from his grasp to change the channel back.

“Hey!” Dash retorted. “I love naps as much as the next pony… But these two practically live off of naps!”

Shadow got up from the couch, realizing Cryo had stolen the remote. “I’m sure it’s fine. If anything, it should be easier to take care of them since all they do is nap, right?”

“You’d think that.” Dash shook her head. “They almost never sleep when it’s time to, they’re always so full of energy because of those naps, that it makes it impossible for any of us to sleep since they’re constantly wanting attention.”

“Is that why you’re out here now?”

“Duh.” Dash spoke. “If I can keep them awake all day until it’s bedtime, then they’ll be too tired to stay up all night.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Shadow commented. “Welp, since Cryo decided to steal the remote from me, I’mma head back home and watch TV.”

Dash looked over to Cryo, then over to the TV. “Yeah… Cryo doesn’t like watching anything that isn’t a cartoon.”

“But…” Shadow uttered. “Nevermind…” He simply just shook his head, and began walking over to the door to the outside.

“Hey.”

Shadow stopped in his tracks, looking back to Dash, whom had given him a curious look.

“Why didn’t you go and spy on Dylan, anyway?”

“I have prince duties to attend to.” Shadow replied. “I don’t have time to keep an eye on Dylan.”

“...So you just didn’t feel li—”

“Yeah I didn’t feel like it, shuddap.” Shadow huffed. “Besides, Jorge is sneakier than me, I figured he would fit the job nicely.”

“I don’t see what the problem is with Dylan hanging out with Flutters, though…” Dash gave her two cents. “I mean… They’re both too… what’s the word…”

“Shy?”

“No, not that one…” Dash shook her head, placing a hoof on her chin to help her think. “There was another word…”

“Timid?”

“Yeah, that.” Dash nodded, removing her hoof from her chin. “They’re both too timid to do anything. I mean, it’s not like they’re both gonna start having sex all of a sudden.”

“Well, I mean, it took about four months for you and Jorge to start banging…” Shadow shrugged.

“And it took you two weeks for you and Twilight to start banging.” Dash countered. “Your point?”

“My point being…” Shadow ignored Dash’s counter. “How long do you think it’s take for Dylan to get some?”

Dash deadpanned. “You can’t be serious…”

“I’m just saying…” Shadow shrugged. “It may have taken me two weeks to actually become official with Twilight, but it only took Ishtaba a week to wind up in bed with Lyra.” He smirked at his instant win, remembering Ish had gone to work the fastest. “Who knows? Maybe today’s Dylan and Fluttershy’s lucky day.”

“Shadow, you’re talking about the mare who I’ve known since we were fillies back in Cloudsdale.” Dash rolled her eyes. “She’s too shy to make a move on anypony, let alone have sex with somepony so quickly.”

“If you say so, Dash…” Shadow opened the door. “But let’s just say that they do wind up in bed together? What then?”

“Depends on the stallion.” Dash replied. “I know it’s not going to be him, but if it is Dylan, I could see it work out. He seems like a pretty nice stallion.”

Shadow nodded. “I suppose.” He slowly began walking out the door. “I just have this feeling that something’s gonna happen with those two.” He poked his head back inside the house, reaching for the doorknob. “I’m calling it now, Dash. Just you wait.”

And with that, the door had closed.

“Hm, Dylan and Fluttershy, eh?” Dash thought aloud to herself. “I wonder how that’ll turn out…”

Shadow looked around Ponyville as he walked back to the castle. Passing by Sugarcube Corner, his stomach growled angrily at the sight of the sugary themed house. He paused for a moment, looking at his path back home, then back at the shop. His stomach growled once more, leaving him with a choice to make.

“I could go for a smoothie right about now…”

He walked inside the store, walking through the non-existent line.

“Hiya, Shadie!” Pinkie beamed. “What can I get for ya?”

“Uh… a strawberry banana smoothie, please.”

“Coming right up!” Pinkie zipped off to the kitchen, returning merely seconds later with his requested smoothie. “Here ya go!”

Shadow blinked. “That was fast…”

“Well, you see, I knew you would be here, my Pinkie Sense told me!” Pinkie explained. “So I had your smoothie all nice and ready for you when you came!”

Shadow paused, having forgotten about her ‘Pinkie Sense’. “Right…” Having lost interest in caring, he focused back on his smoothie. “Welp! Thanks Pinkie!”

“No problem!”

Shadow grabbed his smoothie, placing the appropriate bits on the counter, and walked off towards one of the tables. While the place hadn’t been packed full of ponies, there had been quite a few here and there that had been occupying his normal tables of choice. As he began scanning through tables to find one that would allow him to simply hide in a corner, he eventually noticed a familiar panda looking stallion, eating a slice a cake along with a smoothie of his own.

Curious, Shadow walked over to the stallion’s table, occupying the seat across from his.

“Sup Shadow?” Ish raised an eyebrow, noticing the smoothie in the canadian’s hooves. “Man, these smoothies are amazing, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, they’re pretty great…” Shadow nodded. “What brings you here, Ish?”

“What, can’t a guy eat some food just because he’s hungry?”

“No, I mean… You rarely go to restaurants like this and pay for your own food.” Shadow shrugged. “At least, for the two years you’ve been here in Equestria, anyway.”

“Oh, you mean ‘how did I pay for this’?”

“Erm, that’s one way of putting it.”

“Ah.” Ish nodded. “Yeah… Lyra gave me a few bits so I could go eat something. She said I look like I haven’t eaten in weeks.”

“...Have you?”

“Somewhat.” Ish replied. “Since Cryo kept spending the weekends with Jorge, feeding him wasn’t an issue. I mostly just ate whatever my neighbors gave me every now and then.”

“Hold on a second…” Shadow spoke, realizing something. “Did you say Lyra gave you some bits?”

“Oh yeah, I guess I haven’t told anyone yet…” Ish thought aloud. “I asked Lyra for a second try, a fresh start, that kind of thing.”

“And she said yes?”

“Surprisingly, yeah… She offered to help me find a job that’d fit with my talents.”

“Talents?”

“I dunno, I used to be able to make you guys laugh back home.” Ish shrugged. “And I’m good at a few other things. So we’re mostly just looking around to see what fits.”

“Sounds like you’re actually pulling yourself together, Ish.” Shadow took a sip of his smoothie. “I’m proud of you. It must’ve taken a lot for you to do this.”

“Yeah, well, you can thank Jorge for a part of that.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I ended up talking to him, and it ended up turning into an argument, even Dylan kinda stepped in.” Ish explained. “Things were said, counters were thrown… Let’s just say that Jorge said some things that actually got to me.”

“He tends to do that.” Shadow took another sip of his smoothie. “One minute, he’ll be full retard mode, the next minute, something’s turned around completely to work in his favor.”

Ish nodded, taking a bite out of his cake. “Jorge knows a lot about this world, doesn’t he?”

“Not as much as you’d think.” Shadow shook his head. “He’s been telling me that a lot of things have been different than what he saw in the show this world’s supposedly based on, and other things he hadn’t even known about.”

“Really?” Ish cocked his head to the side. “Like what?”

“Well, for one, it took him almost four months to find out what being official means here in Equestria.” Shadow explained. “And according to him, things that were supposed to happen according to the show haven’t happened at all here. He blames the fact that us being here changed some events, but I think there’s something more to it.”

“How so?”

“Well, from what I’ve noticed, only a handful of things that were ‘supposed’ to happen actually happened. Tirek, for example.” Shadow began. “And while we don’t know for certain, Jorge believes that all the stuff that happened in the show prior to him showing up have actually happened. Although we have no proof to help with his theory.”

“Why not just ask the girls if X happened or if Y happened?” Ish asked logically. “If X happened, but Y didn’t, then you’d clearly be able to find something to backup that theory, right?”

“Jorge wants to leave asking the girls as a last resort.” Shadow shook his head. “Something about not wanting to pry into their personal life from before we showed up. Besides, reminding Twilight that back home we used to consider this world as simply a children’s cartoon? Not the greatest of ideas…”

“Right…” Ish nodded. “Makes enough sense, I guess. So then where are you going with this?”

“My guess is that certain events are just coincidentally playing out like in the show, and others either haven’t happened at all, or won’t happen in the future.”

“Have you found anything to back up that guess?”

“Nope.” Shadow bluntly stated. “I have to ask Jorge about some events that ‘happened’ in earlier episodes before I can do any actual investigating of my own.”

“Ah.” Ish took the final bite of his cake, moving over to finish the rest of his smoothie. “Well, get back to me on that theory of yours, I’m actually curious to see how this plays out.”

“Will do.” Shadow nodded, realizing the contents of his cup was now empty. “Alright, guess it’s time for me to head home. “It was nice talking to you, Ish. Y’know, actually talking.”

“Same!” Ish smiled. “It’s been awhile since we’ve actually hung out. You... think we could do this more often?”

Shadow raised an eyebrow. Ish seemed genuinely set on putting his life on a better track, and reconnecting with his friends. He smiled softly at the thought of Ish actually becoming bearable to be around with again. “Yeah… Yeah, definitely.”

Ish’s smile simply grew brighter at the canadian’s response.

“Great!”

Shadow opened the door to his castle, walking inside as he called out to his wife. “Twilight! I’m home!”

With an audible click of the door, he continued walking ahead, looking over to where he originally had left Twilight, seeing the TV was off, he figured the marathon was over. Curious of Dylan’s whereabouts, he decided to make a turn over to the hall that lead to Dylan’s room. He knocked on the door gently, calling out his name in an attempt to get his attention. However, that failed, leaving him to assume either Dylan was asleep, or not there at all.

Wanting to figure out which of the two it was, Shadow opened the door softly, peeking his head through to see if Dylan was asleep. Upon finding the unicorn to be nowhere in bed, Shadow entered the room completely, looking around in an attempt to find his friend. His closet, under the bed, he checked multiple places that Dylan had normally hidden in, only to come to a single conclusion.

He walked out of Dylan’s room, looking out the hallway to see if his wife was nearby.

“Twilight?” Shadow called out. “Has Dylan come back yet?”

“Not that I’m aware of, no.” Twilight called back.

“I thought maybe he teleported back home into his room, but I don’t see him.”

“He’s probably just out with Jorge or something...”

Shadow paused for a moment, recalling Dylan having being called by Fluttershy. “You don’t think that Dylan’s still with Fluttershy, do you?”

“The two of them? Alone? They’re both too timid for…”

Shadow blinked, realizing his wife had paused mid-sentence. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Twilight walked into the hallway. “You don’t actually think… That Dylan and Fluttershy are…”

Shadow’s eyes widened. “We need Jorge. Right now.”

“I can indeed confirm that Dylan and Fluttershy have boarded the express way to pound-town.”

Shadow’s mouth fell open. “Seriously!?”

Jorge nodded. “It took a while, but last I saw, Dylan got invited into Fluttershy’s place. And there was some massive sexual tension going on between them.”

“Did you see anything else besides that?”

“They made out.” Jorge bluntly stated. “Does that work for your curious mind, Shadow?”

“Err, yeah, that works.” Shadow nodded, disregarding his comment. “Were you caught? Like, at all?”

“Well, Linda almost noticed me at one point.” Jorge replied. “I guess she could tell someone was there.”

“Damn though…” Shadow thought aloud. “I mean, yeah, I called it. But holy shit… Go Dylan…”

“Well, I didn’t see them head to the bedroom.” Jorge added. “Fluttershy invited him in, he went in. About five minutes later, I… uh… I heard things that I shouldn’t have been hearing.” He looked away, trying to disregard the sounds he heard earlier.

Shadow blinked. “Uh… Sorry to put you through all that trouble, Jorge.”

“Oh, it wasn’t much trouble.” Jorge admitted. “Sure, Linda made things a little tricky, but the only thing I’m gonna need brain bleach for is cause of the stuff I heard.”

“Well, thanks, Jorge.” Shadow smiled softly. “Glad to see that Dylan’s found something to occupy himself with.”

Jorge simply rolled his eyes. “No problem. Just… next time you need me to spy on anything, think about what it is you’re having me spy on, alright?”

“I’ll try.” Shadow chuckled. “Though I can’t promise you anything.”

“No, I suppose not.” Jorge shook his head as he chuckled along with his friend. “Well, I’mma head back home. Dash is probably wondering what’s going on.”

“Alright, see ya later Jorge.”

The cuban nodded in response, walking off into the distance, until he was out of Shadow’s view, it wasn’t until he heard the door closing when he found his friend to leave the castle entirely.

Shadow walked over to Twilight, who had been sitting on the couch, watching TV once again. He looked over to the TV, finding his favorite show to still be running. “This is a marathon, isn’t it?”

“Yep!” Twilight nodded. “They’re running a marathon for all the episodes of the original Daring Do series, because they’re going to do a crossover with the spinoff, and the original! Isn’t that exciting?!”

“Yeah, it sounds like they’re going all out for this one.” Shadow nodded. “So then I haven’t really missed much, have I?”

“Not really.” Twilight shook her head. “Most of the other episodes that played we saw already.”

“Ah.”

“So, what did your ‘spy’ say about Dylan and Fluttershy?”

“Let’s just say we might need to buy them some bleach…”

“Really?” Twilight jerked her head back. “They’re actually…!?”

“According to Jorge, yeah.” Shadow confirmed. “According to the scars on his brain? Yeah.”

Twilight blinked. “W-Wow… I never thought that Fluttershy… of all ponies…”

“Neither did I, to be honest.” Shadow shrugged. “But, hey, what’re you gonna do? They’re both adults, they can take care of themselves.”

“I suppose…” Twilight agreed, grabbing the remote, and turning down the TV’s volume. “So, I heard you spoke with Ishtaba at Sugarcube Corner while you were out?”

“Pinkie told you?”

“When it comes to Pinkie, news gets out real quick.” Twilight chuckled. “What did you guys talk about?”

“Well, he’s still working on getting his life back on track.”

“He is?”

“Yeah. Believe it or not, but he also asked Lyra for a fresh start, and she’s been helping him find a job.” Shadow replied. “Then we started talking about some other things, just a friendly conversation.”

“Wait, Lyra’s actually helping him now?” Twilight’s eyebrow raised. “Do you think he’ll actually pull through? I mean… this is Ishtaba we’re talking about.”

“To be honest… Yeah, actually. I think he actually realized how much of a dick he was.” Shadow began. “Like, before I left the shop, he even asked if we could hang out more often.”

“What’d you say?”

“I said yeah, it was nice to actually talk with him, for once.” Shadow explained. “If he keeps going the way he’s going, I don’t mind.”

Twilight smiled at Shadow’s statement. “You really care for your friends, don’t you Shadow?”

Shadow nodded. “I give them a lot of crap, but I really do care for them.” He smiled softly. “They may be a bunch of goofballs, but I’m glad to have them as friends.”

Before Shadow could utter another word, he was interrupted by his wife hugging him from the side. “You’re a good friend, Shadow. You know that?”

“So I’ve been told.” Shadow jokingly said.

“Seriously though.” Twilight lightly tapped his head with a hoof. “At first I wondered why you all considered each other friends, but… Now I see why. And I’m glad they all have you as a friend.” She sighed softly. “I don’t know what they’d do without you…”

Shadow looked off to a nearby window, able to see Ish walking somewhere in the distance.

“Yeah… I guess you’re right.”

Author's Note

Special thanks to Speed-Chaser for doing this art. I wasn't even planning on having this until he randomly showed up in one of Daszkin's (he's also gr8 pls check him out too) streams offering one request. So big thanks to him once again for doing this!

In other news, this is the end of "Arc 3.5"

Why was it called Arc 3.5?

Well, instead of explaining everything here in the author's note, I've posted a blog right before I uploaded the chapter, which you can find here.

See ya there.