Shadow Rave

It was Hearth's Warming Eve in Equestria. The snow was falling in a delightful haze, cheering the mood of ponies all around. Lights could be seen the snow, showing that everypony was enjoying the holidays with their friends and family. Canterlot was an array of lights and singing, a pinacle of the season.

Now we indulge, once again, in the the story of Shadow Rave. He had decided to return to the castle for most of the holiday, to see Princess Celestia again, to see the castle again, to roam the streets on Canterlot again. Yes, he was extremely excited for when he would leave. Shadow, thought he should tell Cloud and Billy about his leave to Canterlot. Shadow trotted out of his room in his extasy. Shadow first went out to the school courts, hoping to tell Billy and the rest.

Once Shadow exited the dorm building, he was almost instantly able to see Billy's brown coat, giving him away instantly.

"Hey Billy!" Shadow called over to Billy. Billy looked over, nodded at Shadow, the face saying "One second" After that Billy jumped to the right of Dumb-Bell, and took a half court shot. The ball sailed over the court, landed on the front of the rim, bounced off the backboard and fell of the backboard, missing the hoop.

"Damn!" Billy cursed, Billy punched Hoops in the should and said something Shadow couldn't hear. Billy trotted over to Shadow,

"Sup dude."

"Hows it going?"

"Pretty good."

"Thats great, but need'a tell you something mate."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well, you know I lived with Celestia right?"

"Yeah, she's your adopted mom or whatever right? It's pretty dope."

"Well, just thought you should know, I'm leaving for the castle later today. So, I won't be around for the next month-ish."

"Nice bro, that sounds sick! Also, you wanna stick around for a few games?" Billy directed his nod back at the Basketball court.

"Remember, I suck major, so you wouldn't want me on your team." Shadow laughed

"Nah bro, it's fine. You can go with me against Dumb-Bell and Hoops."

"Ain't Hoops the best out of all of you?"

"Yeah, but I got a few trick up my sleeve I wanna try on him."

"Eh, if you wanna who am I to stop you?"

"An asshole?" Billy questioned

"Shut up." Shadow spurted the two words in a joking monotone matter. Billy laughed, and walked over to the courts where the four pegasi played three good games of basketball, Hoops' team taking the win with 2 - 1 (Sorry, didn't feel like writing basketball games).

After the games Shadow realized that there were still a few ponies that he still had to say goodbye too. Shadow looked to Billy and the rest,

"Hey guys, I needa go say bye to some otherponies seeya."

After a few byes Shadow was off.

Shadow walked into the dorm building and headed to Cloud and Flitter's room. He knocked on the door and heard a small "Hello?"

Shadow walked in to see Flitter listening to music, apparently quiet music too.

"Hey, do you know where Clowd is?"

"Umm..." Flitter took her headphones off and and put a hoof up to her muzzle.

"I think she left to go see her friend on the second floor."

Shadow raised his eyebrow, "Is it a mare or a colt?"

Flitter got his message, "Don't worry, she's a mare."

"Oh, ok."

Shadow left the room and her Flitter say, "Suspicious idiot."

Shadow smirked and walked down to the second floor.

Shadow mindlessly stared at all the numbers of the dorm room doors, unsure of which on he should be heading to. Shadow looked down the hallway, which branched into other hallways. Oh Celestia, this would take a couple of hours to search. And, as luck would have it, a mare came out of one of the many hallways and looked at Shadow,

"Hey, are you Shadow Rave?"

Shadow looked around, "Who me?"

"Who else, theres nopony else in the hallway."

"Oh, right. Well, yeah I am."

"And, I'm guessing your looking for Cloud?"

"Yeah,why."

"She said she knew you, and you look like the description. So, are you looking for her?"

"Yep."

"Okay then, follow me."

The mare went down two more hallways to a door with the number "57" printed on it. The mare nodded towards the door,

"Me and Cloud were working on a Project thats due in like three days."

"Okay, well I'm just here to tell her something then I'll be off."

"Thats fine, thanks."

Shadow entered the room after the mare and saw Cloud at a desk with two chairs infront of it. Cloud was writing on some paper and had two text books open in front of her.

"Wow, looks like you guys are down deep in homework."

Cloud quickly swung her head around to see the source of Shadow Rave's voice.

"Oh, hey Shadow." Cloud smiled

"I came looking for you because I need to tell you something."

"Oh, yeah sure, anything."

"Well, I'm leaving back for the castle in a few hours."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, thought I'd visit Celestia."

Cloud's friend bumped in, Shadow had forgotten about her,

"Wait, you know the princess?"

Shadow looked over, "Yeah, she's my adopted mom."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah..."

"That is SO cool!"

"Thanks..." Shadow turned back to Cloud, "So, yeah, I'm probably leaving within the next hour."

"Okay, well if I don't see you later, bye!"

Cloud hugged Shadow.

Shadow returned to his dorm to double checked he packed everything necessary. Yes, he had. Shadow set his alarm for thirty minutes later and jumped on his bed for a nap.

As expected the alarm was beeping louder than ever.

"Shut up."

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Shut up!"

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"I will kill you."

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Your putting your family at risk now."

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Right, I forgot about the sleep button..."

Click...

"Oh right, I'm going to Canterlot!"

Shadow jumped out of his bed, went to the lobby in one of the other buildings on campus, grabbed a trolly, went back to his room and started to load his things on it. After that was done Shadow wheeled the trolley out of the building and waited at a location of where he was suposed to wait for a carriage driver. After a good five minutes the carriage came into sight. The carriage stopped infront of Shadow, the trunk opened at Shadow started loading his things in the trunk of the carriage. Once that was done Shadow hopped into the backseat of the carriage and said "Canterlot" to remind the driver of where he was going.

The carriage landed on a private road for people from the castle only. Shadow got out of the carriage and the driver loaded all of Shadow's things onto another trolley and followed Shadow to his room. When they had got to Shadow's room, Shadow still hadn't seen the princess, just a few guards. Shadow pointed to a corner in his room and told the carriage driver to unload everything in the space.

Shadow thought that the princess was in her throne room, so thats where Shadow headed. Once Shadow was in the room though, the Princess wasn't in her throne room. Shadow walked up to a royal guard,

"Hey, do you know where the princess is?"

"Her Majesty may still be in her study."

"Thanks."

Shadow walked to Princess Celestia's study. Shadow was about to open the door the he heard the princess say something.

"Come on, concentrate!"

Shadow walked into the room and saw the princess next to a table smiling at something.

"Princess?"

The princess looked over and saw Shadow and smiled even harder,

"Oh, you back Shadow! It's so nice to see you again."

"You too princess."

Shadow heard a small zapping noise somewhere above him and then something fell on his head.

"Ow!" Shadow rubbed his head where a booked had fallen on him, "How'd that get above me?"

Next a small unicorn filly ran up to Shadow, "Oh, I'm so sorry!"

Shadow's eyes opened and looked down at the filly, her coat was violet and her mane was an array of dark purple, hot oink and a brighter purple. Her cutie mark was what also appeared to be a spark of some sort with five sparkles arrayed arround it.

"And who are you?"

"I'm, I'm Twilight Sparkle."

The princess then spoke, "Yes Shadow, this is my new personal student Twilight. She will be staying with us for a while."

"Wow, she's pretty young to be trained by you, Princess."

Twilight jumped up, "No I'm not!"

Shadow looked down and Twilight looked a little angry and sad,

"Okay, Okay. You're not to young."

"Thank you." Twilight smiled

"How old are you anyways?"

"I'm five!"

Shadow spread his eyes again, "Wow..."

The the princess spoke again, "Yes, Twilight is an exceptional student and has so very much potential. I just had to take her in."

"What were you two working on when I walked in anyways?"

Twilight spoke up, "We were doing a transportation spell, they're really hard!"

"I bet."

"Do you want to see?"

"Sure, just not on my head again." Shadow smiled.

"Okay." Twilight laughed, highly pitched.

Twilight picked up the book with a levitation spell and walked it over to a table and placed it down. Once it was down Twilight closed her eyes and a purple aura surrounded the book. Twilight started to sweat a bit, the spell was obviously new to her. After about thirty seconds the book disappeared in light and reappeared right infront of Shadow's face.

"Woah!" Shadow jumped back as the flash surprised him. Twilight and Princess Celestia laughed at Shadow's reaction.

"That was NOT funny."

"Yes it was." Twilight sniggered.

"Yeah, maybe for you, but not me."

At that point a Royal messenger came through the door and bowed, "Your Majesty, there are governmental needs that require your needs in Manehatten, I shall inform the of the needs on the way there."

Princess Celestia frowned, "Yes, I shall go." the Princess turned to Shadow Rave, "It appears that you shall be in charge of Twilight. As to who will be in charge of the castle, I shall inform one of the Senators."

"Yes, Celestia."

Shadow looked to Twilight, "Well, I can't really teach you any magic so... what do you want to do?"

Twilight put her hoof to her chin, "Ummm..... OH! My brother is training for guard duty, we could visit him!"

"Sounds good to me."

Shadow and Twilight trotted through the castle to the other side and out into the fields. Then they took a right, mid-field, and headed to the training grounds. When the two walked in the Sergeant was giving the traines drills. Shadow looked down at Twilight,

"So, which one is your brother?"

"He's.... Oh, its hard to tell with the mud on them." After a few seconds she pointed to a stallion, roughly four years older than Shadow, He was covered in mud and had a white coat and a mane with multiple shades of blue.

"Wow, he looks tough. Whats his name?"

"Shining Armour!" (Yes, Canadian spelling.)

"Okay, I'll be right back." Shadow walked up to the Drill Sergeant, "Hey, can we see Shining Armour for a sec?"

The Drill Sergeant laughed, "And, who are you?"

"... The Princess' adopted son."

The Drill Sergeants eyes opened wide, "I'm am quite sorry sir." Then he turned to the recruits, "Shining! Take five!"

Shining Armour from before got up and walked over to Shadow, "Who are you?"

Shadow sighed, having just pointed this out, "I'm the Princess' adopted son, but I'm here with your sister, Twilight."

Shining Armour's ears perked up, "Twily?" he smiled, "Where is she?"

"She's just over there." Shadow pointed to the small filly waving at them."

Shining Armour ran at her, stopped infront of her and went in for a hug, but stopped mid-motion, "Um, I'd hug you but I'm covered in mud."

"It's alright." Twilight hugged her brother.

Shining Armour bent back up and looked at Shadow, "So, why are you guys over here anyways?"

Shadow looked down thinking, "Well, the Princess left for some business is Manehatten. So, she left me in charge of Twilight because your in training and Twilight wanted to come over here."

"Aww." Shining Armour hugged his sister again, "I really appreciate it."

"Well, like I said before, it was your sister's idea."

Shining Armour changed the subject, "Hey, I don't think I've ever seen you around before, did she, like, just adopt you or something?"

"No, actually. I've been at Flight School in Cloudsdale for the last year and a half."

"Oh, well we got here a year ago."

"When does your training end then?"

"In.... six months It think."

"That's pretty long for guard training. And you seem pretty young for it."

"We are the ROYAL guard though, and I'm fifteen. Obviously older than you shorty."

"Okay, okay. Point taken."

Shining Armour looked back at his training, "Looks like their starting a new session, I'd better get back."

Twilight's lip curved, shakily, "But you just got here!"

Shining Armour rubbed her head, "Don't worry, I'll sneak out later and talk to you."

"Oh, oh! I can show you my new teleportation spell I learned."

"Sounds good, talk to you later." Shining Armour sprinted back to his training.

Shadow looked at Shining Armour, "Wow, he's a cool pony."

"I know! The princess says he's got potential for Captain of The Guard!"

"Yeah, I bet. He's like four sit ups ahead of all the other ponies, and I bet their something like five years older than him."

"I don't know, maybe I should ask!"

Shadow put his hoof on Twilight's shoulder, "Maybe you ask him that tonight, I don't think that sergeant wants another interruption."

"Oh, okay."

"So, what do you want to do now?"

"I guess we could go to the gardens."

"Heh, sure. I haven't been there in ages."

Shadow and Twilight walked over to the gardens. The array of colours and smells was overwhelming. The statues too, there was a manticore, a statue of Celestia herself and some discombobulated, mixture of animals.

"That things pretty weird."

"I know I haven't read about it in my books yet and it looks SO interesting! I really want to learn about it."

"Eh, don't know if I'd be interesting in learning about something like that, or even learning at all."

Twilight looked up at Shadow, "Do you not like learning?"

Shadow tapped his head, "Never really had the brain for it."

Twilight giggled, "I love learning!"

"Yeah, I can tell."

The sun was starting to set and Shadow looked down to Twilight, "Looks like its getting late, we should probably go in. Get something to eat and later hit the hay."

Twilight looked at him curiously, "Why would we hit hay?"

"It's a metafore for going to sleep."

"Oh, I never read that!"

"Wouldn't imagine it to be something in a book."

"Oh."

"Well, lets head in now."

Shadow and Twilight walked into the castle, after eating a long meal of many gourmet foods they waited for the day to end and went to bed, or 'Hit the Hay.'