Deathrattle

Chapters

Prologue: An ancient legend
A shadow upon Ponyville
The first impression is what matters
A common start?
What a wonderful night to get lost in the forest
A pleasant conversation
Strange Acquaintances
Strange Acquaintances pt.2
The curse

Prologue: An ancient legend

This story takes place in the kingdom of Equestria, the peculiar traits of the equestrians are the Cutie Mark placed on the back of the left hand and the soul gems, from the appearance of oval precious gems, which indicate the clan they belong to and also give particular magic power depending on the position of the gem on their body.

If the gem is on the chest the equestrian is called terrestre, they are able to use body reinforcement spells; furthermore, they are skilled builders.

If the gem is on the back the equestrian is called volante, they are able to activate wings which allow them to fly; furthermore, they can change the weather

Aspect of a volante's wings

If the gem is on the head the equestrian is called mago, they are able to use telekinesis; they are also able to learn other kind of spells through training.

Almost no one of the spells known to the equestrians is offensive; furthermore, the magi cannot learn the typical spell of the others two clans and these two cannot learn other spells.

Equestria is ruled by Princess Celestia, only member of the princess's clan, her particular traits are to possess all the three kinds of soul gems which has a rhomboidal shape, and a different aspect of her wings.

Aspect of Princess Celestia's wings

The gems of soul can be of any color apart one: black. Which is a color usually associated with misfortune and anguish.

About that the most ancient of the legends of this kingdom is the one about the Angel of Death. It is said that he decide to show himself during the period of peace with the only purpose of bringing tyranny, despair and death upon this world. He is recognizable as an equestrian belonging to the clan of the volanti but his soul gem is black as pitch and has a hexagonal shape, while his wings recall of eagle wings. Such is his enjoyment seeing other’s death that he was named Deathrattle.

It was a windy, clear night, one as many others. No, this is not true: that was the night before the sunrise of the Summer Sun Celebration; but this didn't matter for the boy with white and azure hair who was sleeping under the night sky and was called Shadow. He was wearing a white T-shirt under a dark grey shirt, which he usually used to keep open , light grey jeans and comfortable shoes.

"Meow.” said Nekuro who was a beautiful black cat with azure eyes.

“Leave me alone Nekuro, you know that I don’t want to watch the sunrise.” Replied Shadow without even opening his eyes.

“Meow.” insisted Nekuro clearly irritated from such behavior.

“It’s true! The face of the moon is changing.” noted Shadow smiling, who had convinced himself to open his eyes “Cheshire was right, Nightmare Moon is returning.”

“Meow.” said Nekuro.

“It's not that I doubted him, obviously.” claimed Shadow condescending; then, looking around added: “No doubt that his hunger is incredible, it’s hard to believe that until a couple hours ago this gigantic tortoise was alive; after all this time I’m still shocked about how much he eats.” In fact what he was sleeping on was not a hill as a untrained eye could thought, but what still remain of a enormous tortoise.

With a fluid movement Shadow stood up “Come on, let's go.” claimed resolute.

“Meow?” asked Nekuro unsure.

“But to meet the new ruler of Equestria evidently!” declared Shadow smiling happy “With a little luck we will be able to obtain some information about the Element of Harmony; this is our best opportunity to find how to release Discord.”

That said Nekuro jumped in Shadow’s arm and with a powerful leap they disappeared in the darkness of the night.

A shadow upon Ponyville

Contrary to the expectation of Shadow the sun had already risen and sunk (and it was rising a second time) before he managed to reach the vicinity of Canterlot.

“We should be landed far enough.” commented Shadow “Let’s see if we can get something anyway.” he added thoughtfully

The sun had already set by few hours and Shadow was waiting in a room of the castle for some time when a young girl with the hair of the colors of the night entered slightly hurry with a nice smile; Shadow recognized her as Princess Luna thanks to her two visible light blue soul gems, one on the head, the other on the chest; before the princess could even say anything Shadow knelt and solemnly said: “Your majesty, it’s an honor to make your acquaintance!”

“There’s no need to be so formal.” said Luna surprised “Just call me Luna.”

“This seems to me a bit excessive, at least allow me to call you Princess Luna.” answered Shadow.

“We come to an agreement.” approved Luna “Can you repeat your name? I don’t remember that someone has announced you.”

“My name is Shadow Smoke; I’m, sorry but I don’t like such exhibitionism.” expounded humble Shadow.

“I see.” said Luna “Oh, I’m so excited! This is the first time that I meet a citizen of the kingdom…”

“I guess it is because for the accident of Nightmare Moon.” added melancholic “But you don’t seem worried.”

“I’m not someone who gives real importance to such legends.” commented indifferent Shadow; then frowning (as if a weight had suddenly laid on his chest) said composed: “But this led me directly to the reason why I’m here.”

“If you are able, and if it does not give too much hassle, could you talk about the Element of Harmony and how they freed you?” said Shadow with a sigh.

“I’d like to know the whole story of how we recovered our lost princess.” completed with a friendly smile.

“Yes, I suppose that there’s no problems.” answered Luna after a moment of uncertainty (which seemed a century to her) “Talk about that will help, I imagine.”

And so she did; Luna explained what happened two nights before and also about Nightmare Moon as far as she could, since she didn’t remember a lot (the memories were too vivid and sad to be shared) and most part of the story was told her by others; but she was right about one thing: when she finished the narration she really felt a bit better as if to share part of the pain could help to attenuate it.

“It has been very useful and interesting.” judged Shadow in the end “I appreciate the time you have given me, but it’s time for me to go.” he ended with a smile.

“I'm happy to have been of assistance.” said tired Luna as Shadow started to go towards the exit.

But before Shadow opened the door, he looked back and said: “If you allow me, I think it’s better that you don’t talk with your sister about this conversation.”

“What? Why?” asked Luna very surprised by his unusual request.

“During this period your sister will be busy handling the matter of Nightmare Moon for sure, so I believe that tell her about our speech will lead to nothing good, in fact the news could stress her out even more and make her worry about you in vain. But this is just a humble suggestion.” explained gentle Shadow.

“I think you can be right, I will follow your advice.” concluded uncertain Luna, who got worried by the idea of giving others concerns to her beloved sister.

“Good. Now if you allow me, I will leave; I hope to see you again in the future.” Shadow took his leave closing the door behind him.

“Nekuro what are you doing here? The hag could see you!” were the worried words of Shadow as soon as he saw that Nekuro was waiting just outside the room of the interview.

“Meow.” sentenced quite Nekuro, as if the concern of Shadow could not be less justified; “Meow?” he interrogated Shadow.

“I have to admit that she is better than I firstly thought, better than the hag surely, she seems to be a friendly person.” answered Shadow as they started to walk down the hallways (which were enlightened by torch attached to the walls) whit the confidence of who fells at home.

A worried “Meow.” convinced Shadow (who could not hold back an irritated “Dammit!”) to follow Nekuro in a side hallway (one of those so miserable that doesn’t even have a room).

To alarm Nekuro were two guards who were doing the night patrol; when they reached the hallway in which Shadow had hidden, the younger (a young boy who probably was in his first year of training) glancing in that direction could see only darkness.

“Isn’t a bit too dark this hallway in your opinion?” he wondered a bit worried to the older guard (a man who probably was his tutor).

“Probably some torch went out, keep moving.” he answered bored continuing to walk without paying attention to his subordinate.

“I tell you here is way too dark in my opinion. Maybe we should check.” persisted the youth who almost hypnotized kept observing that black spot, which was supposed to be a hallway and seemed to swallow any light only a meter from him.

“No! It’s not our business, keep moving; moreover, our turn is almost over. And now I just want to go to sleep.” grumbled the other; the young one in order to not contradict his superior decided to listen to him, but not before to have glanced at that event, which in his opinion was very singular.

After that the guards left the light of the torch returned to light the hallway, without making the slightest noise, as nothing strange ever had happened, showing that Shadow and Nekuro were just staying here motionless against a wall all that time.

“It’s lucky that the guards here are pretty sloppy, at least we didn’t have to take care of them.” asserted Shadow, with a grin promising trouble.

Afterwards, they didn’t meet anybody again and as expected, they could get to undisturbed a window facing west; and there Shadow jumped into the void completing the leap without any hesitation or sound and from there he and Nekuro left the city without being seen from either people or animals, as if the darkness would help him.

It was already the sunset when Shadow was finally able to see his destination: Ponyville home town of the Element of Harmony.

“So this is where the elements are.” was the first comment of Shadow examining the landscape before his eyes “This city is even too peaceful. Pathetic.” was the sarcastic conclusion.

“How should I introduce myself?” he asked at no one in particular “Blue eyes and short brown hair? Yes, I like how it looks.”

And so it happened that a blue eye equestrian with brown hair knocked at the door of the library of Ponyville, which by now had become the home of Twilight Sparkle.

“Come on in.” said a voice from inside. Entering Shadow saw the female mago with blue, violet and pink hair and the violet soul gem on the head, who Shadow knew to be Twilight Sparkle, who was putting in order the books of the library cataloging by topic and name.

“Make yourself comfortable, a moment and I’m going to end.” apologized Twilight, but after a few seconds she felt uncomfortable and turning toward the newcomer, she saw that he was staring her amazed “Can I help you?” could asked embarrassed.

“Are you Twilight Sparkle the most faithful student of Princess Celestia?” asked excited Shadow.

“Y-yes.” answered hesitant Twilight.

“I’m so excited!” exclaimed Shadow. “You have to tell me everything about Canterlot and our beloved Princess Celestia.”

Twilight caught off guard by so much enthusiasm was unable to refuse and so she started to speak, and the more she spoke and more she wanted to tell, she found out that she loved to recall and speak about the life that until a few days before she had lived in Canterlot and particularly she enjoyed talking about the personal lesson with Princess Celestia, enriching without thinking of particulars that a non-mago as her interlocutor could not understand, she thought later. Her story had involved herself so much that when the guy left she forgot even to ask his name or where he was living, a great lack of hospitality she blamed herself.

Shadow instead didn’t care about such formalities and ended the conversation he considered himself satisfied with what he heard, didn’t hear, said and didn’t say. So when he exited the library he was happy to see Nekuro waiting him nearby.

“Meow?” asked Nekuro smiling.

“I will tell you, even more proud than we imagined.” answered Shadow “I think that it will be fun to deal with her.” added.

Shadow decided that the day had been quite profitable and it was time to move away Ponyville, it was evening anyways. He chose that they were spending the night outdoors, they were used to that kind of situation, anyhow the summer was just starting and the nights were pleasant temperature.

“Now I have just to decide which one of the other five I will meet tomorrow.” said talking to himself again.

That evening the last things that Shadow saw were a beautiful starry sky, and also Nekuro; who for some unknown reason was watching him fall asleep with a strange smile on the face.

The first impression is what matters

The light filtering in through the window woke up Shadow from a dream that he would never remember.

“Where the hell did I end up?” Shadow asked himself while he found himself watching the ceiling of a house on a comfortable bed. Instinctively he turned to the left so that he could watch the window from which the light was coming into.

“What the fuc...” was his first thought, barely able to not scream while his gaze went to the face of a young girl with pink hair, “I must get out of here quickly!” was his second, even more worried.

As slowly as possible Shadow got up and he just took a few steps towards the the door of the room when a weak creaking caused him to look behind; and so he saw that Fluttershy was getting up staring at him with sleepy eyes.

Fluttershy was looking around the room, not completely awoken, when her gaze went to a strange thing “It looks nearly like a person.” was the only thought that her tired mind managed to produce.

“Fluttershy, it’s as it seems...” scared Shadow tried to explain, worried that his presence could be mistaken. Unfortunately that phrase completely woke Fluttershy up,who, after she understood that there was a man standing in front of her, screamed both for fear and for surprise and embarrassment, and then she did something that normally would never think to do: she grabbed Shadow and threw him in the closet next to her, slamming the door.

“Oh my god, oh my god, what am I doing? What shall I do?” were the first meaningful words that Fluttershy, frightened, pronounced after realizing what had just happened.

“First of all…. lock the closet, so at least I will not be able to get out.” a Shadow answered trying to calm his inexperienced jailer after landing upside down in the closet; but his thoughts were centered on something else “This is your fault, right Nekuro?” picturing what had happened while he was asleep.

“Eh? Ah, right! Thanks.” Fluttershy said, not calm at all. Closing the closet helped her to calm down a little, but having no idea on how to continue she asked the intruder: “And now?”

“You should warn your friends; you can send one of your pets to Twilight Sparkle’s house and in the meanwhile you check that I don’t get out.” Shadow said disconsolate by the absolute uncertainty of Fluttershy.

“Sure, thanks!” answered Fluttershy who was so anxious that she still couldn’t realize that she was listening and was thanking a stranger who had appeared in her home. After writing the message Fluttershy sat near the closet to oversee the stranger waiting for the other girls.

Minutes passed and Fluttershy completely calm then and conscious that it would take some time for the girls to arrive, came out with an idea “While we are waiting, do you want to talk a bit?” asked to her prisoner.

Half-hour had already passed when Twilight, Applejack (a terrestre girl with orange hair and soul gem), Pinkie Pie (a terrestre girl with deep pink hair and soul gem), Rarity (a girl mago with violet hair and azure soul gem), and Rainbow Dash (a girl volante with rainbow hair and blue soul gem) knocked on Fluttershy’ door, worried for the news brought by one of Fluttershy’s pet.

Fluttershy couldn’t even open completely the door that she immediately found herself surrounded by five agitated girls, screaming in the hall of her house, “Are you ok?! Where is he?!” were the only few meaningful sentences that she heard

“He is in the kitchen, but...” Fluttershy whispered before that the others rushed into the kitchen without letting her finish speaking.

When she reached them in the kitchen it was already too late for any explanation. Shadow was lying on the floor, tied up like a sausage “But, what are you doing!? He is not dangerous!”

“Not dangerous!?! But ……he sneaked into your home!” Rainbow Dash replied roughly.

“It’s not his fault, it has just been a misunderstanding.” said Fluttershy trying to justify Shadow and herself.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash has every right to doubt about me.” Shadow spoke politely as Fluttershy started to untie him.

“How do you know my name?” Rainbow asked confused to him.

“It’s not difficult to get information about the owners of the Elements of Harmony. Rainbow Dash, volante, who young performed the Rainboom; Rarity, mago, Ponyville stylist; Fluttershy, volante, who can talk with animals; Applejack, terrestre, offspring of the Apple family; Pinkie Pie, terrestre, best party thrower; Twilight Sparkle, mago, the most faithful student of Princess Celestia.” listed Shadow calmly watching each girl as he mentioned their name.

“Oook, you know us, but who are you? And where are you from?” Rarity asked surprised

“You can call me Shadow Smoke, volante.” Introducing himself “And about the second question… well it depends.”

“And on what should it depend?” Applejack asked perplexed

“Well, the question could mean: Where I was born; where I live or what is the last place I ‘ve been to” Shadow explained “Which of the three do you want to know?”

“But all of them obviously.” said joyful Pinkie.

“Damn, so much personal information! This should cost you a bit.” Shadow thought out loud

“What does it mean “cost a bit?” Twilight who did not understand how a question could cost something, asked.

“Gathering and selling information is part of my job, but do not worry, as a refund for the trouble I caused, I will give you all information for free.” Shadow explained calm

“Hold on a moment everyone! I have a question for this one.” intervened agitated Rainbow Dash “Are you a spy?” she asked with such seriousness that no one thought of a joke, causing the others to look at her speechless; though she didn’t notice it.

“You caught me, I am the spy of the most evil Celesta’s enemy and I am here to manipulate you for my purpose.” said Shadow with as much sarcasm as he could.

“I knew it!” exulted Rainbow joyfully “Did you see that? Found out immediately.” She triumphed.

After glances of discouragement, Twilight decided that it was necessary to sort the situation out “Rainbow, he was joking.” She explained.

“What?!?” Rainbow yelled shocked; “Good, I see that someone can still recognize sarcasm.” Shadow commented, earning a glare from Rainbow.

“Back to what I was going to say, I can tell you that I was born in Cloudsdale, right now I don’t have a permanent residence since I have been travelling for work so far . Are you satisfied?” Shadow answered to the true questions which had been asked.

“Not yet, tell us more about your job.” answered Twilight who wanted to understand more about that strange situation.

“I like to define myself as a free researcher of antiques and rarities.” Shadow answered seriously “In my free time instead I’m a handyman and an illusionist.” He added smiling.

“Can you be a bit more precise?” Twilight asked, not satisfied with the answer.

“Of course!” Shadow, who appreciated precision said, “Researcher means that I research information and items from ancient times, which are considered lost, like this one , he ended pointing out his Cutie Mark.

“What flower is it? I’ve never seen one like that.” Fluttershy asked with curiosity

“It is a Moonflower, a flower considered extinct 10000 years ago that I found when I was a kid.” Shadow explained with proud; “Handyman simply means that I do nothing for nothing. I need money after all.” He added in response to Twilight’s previous questions, “and illusionist because I entertain myself with a bit of illusionism.”

“Oh, you mean the fake magic.” was the sarcastic comment of Twilight who, since she had passed years to learn magic under the guidance of Princess Celestia, didn’t like that kind of frivolous tricks.

“Exactly!” Shadow said happily “Do you want to see it?” he asked hopeful.

“If we really have to……..” Twilight complained, while, instead, the other girls expressed their interest.

And so Shadow borrowed a deck of card from Fluttershy and he showed to the girls a classic card trick, setup at the moment.

“Stupefying” was Twilight’s sarcastic comment when Shadow ended.

“Thought crown, I see.” Shadow grinned who was starting to enjoy “Well, I suppose that our expert of magic wouldn’t mind acting as my assistant in the next trick.” proposed to Twilight, smiling. “What should I do?” asked Twilight unpleased

“Just close your right eye and stand still.” Shadow answered cordially; after Twilight did what Shadow had asked, he put one of his on Twilight’s right eye, and the same he did with his own left eye; after a few seconds he said: “Done!” then, inviting Twilight to turn towards the girls, he added: “Feel free to open your eye.”

Twilight had not felt anything in those few seconds, but she did as Shadow asked her, even if she doubted the possible result. But when she saw the amazed eyes of the other girls she was assaulted by a strange worry “What’s going on girls?” she asked instinctively.

“The color of your eyes!” Fluttershy exclaimed; “They changed!” Pinkie ended excited

“What?!?” Twilight shouted stunned; immediately she turned towards Shadow and saw that it was true: while his right eye was still green, his left eye turned purple as her owns “I have to admit that you are pretty good.” was the only reply to the pleased look of Shadow that she was able to say.

“Thanks, too kind.” Shadow; minimized and pointing to Rarity he said: “Now, for the grand final I’d like your collaboration.”

Rarity needed a moment to understand that he was talking to her, so unexpected had been the request, then she asked: “Mine?”

“Of course.” Shadow answered “I see that you have a beautiful jewel with you, can I see it?” he asked, referring to the necklace with diamond pendant that Rarity was wearing around her neck.

“O-ok.” she said, still astonished, giving the necklace to Shadow, who started to examine it closely, “But be careful,” Rarity said worried “that is a very expensive diamond

Without any warning Shadow tossed the necklace and astonishingly quickly he hit it with a hammer, which no one saw he took, and completely shattered it.

“It seems it was a fake.” he sentenced as the scraps of what was a diamond flew across the room; the only thing the girls were able to do was to watch those scraps with dazed looks, which for Rarity were combined with terror. When the girls tried to ask Shadow for an explanation they found out that he had disappeared “Where did he go?!” Applejack, yelled, the first able to recover from the shock.

“Where is it? Where is my necklace?!” Rarity asked desperate, throwing herself to the ground in of finding out enough scraps to repair the diamond.

“That Shadow broke it!” Twilight shouted irritated by the fact that she had lost sight of him.

“But I can’t find any fragment!” Rarity complained desperate; and really there was no sign of the scraps that had distracted them before.

“He had to have done this!” Rainbow sentenced angry “I knew that he was just a banal thief!” she said convinced to know what had happened to Rarity’s necklace.

“You are insulting me Rainbow.” the girls heard from the top of the staircase.

They ran to see who spoke and … they .saw Shadow getting downstairs quietly with Rarity’s necklace in his hand “Sure I’m not banal.” he said smiling “This is yours, I suppose.” He said returning the necklace to Rarity.

After a moment of general astonishment Pinkie exclaimed: “It was incredible! How did you do that?” “I have to admit that I was very surprised.” Fluttershy added with a whisper “An illusionist never reveals his tricks.” Shadow answered evasive “But I hope you all had fun.” ended showing a victorious grin towards Twilight.

“Yes, sure, it was quite impressive.” Twilight said trying to hide her total disorientation, then she remembered a particular “But because of all this confusion we forgot an important matter: what are you doing here, at Ponyville?”

“Right, I don’t think that there something interesting for you here.” said Applejack.

“Right.” Shadow contemplated figuring out that they did not ask him what got him to Ponyville yet.

“Since I heard that Ponyville was a peaceful city we thought it would be an excellent place where could live after the long recent journeys.” He started to explain quietly, and then he continued excited: “Moreover, this is the city where Nightmare Moon made his appearance after a thousand years of imprisonment!” at this point his eyes were shining for exaltation “I mean, A living legend! Do you understand how exciting it is for a researcher of ancient things as I am?!?” he ended in one shot.

“What do you mean ‘we thought’?” Rainbow asked surprised.

“Haven’t I told you yet?” Shadow asked perplex “Well, you have to know that I didn’t come to Ponyville alone, in fact…” “Meow.” he was interrupted by Nekuro who had just come into the house jumping through an open window.

“Here is my partner!” Shadow said happily as soon he saw him.

“Partner?” Rainbow asked perplex “So it’s him that you were talking about before?”

“What a beautiful cat!” Fluttershy exclaimed. Nekuro pleased by all that attention approached Shadow who, after picking him up, said: “That’s right.” then turning to Nekuro: “Come on, say hello to the girls.”

“Meow.” Nekuro said bored. “Nekuro! You can’t say such things!” Shadow yelled embarrassed “Now, apologize!”

At such reaction the girls looked at Fluttershy interrogatively because she was the only one still looking confused Nekuro; “So, what did he say?” Applejack asked since it seemed that Fluttershy was not going to give any explanation.

“Meow?” was the perplex amswer of Fluttershy.

“Even we get that! We want to know what he really says! Aren’t you supposed to understand animals?!?!” Rainbow exclaimed irritated by the fact that Fluttershy wasn’t still giving any explanation.

“But this is what I understood.” Fluttershy apologized intimidated.

Since Shadow couldn’t understand what exactly was going on, he looked interrogative at Nekuro who quietly said: “Meow.”

“It seems that for same strange reason I am the only one able to understand him.” Shadow explained embarrassed

“So you too can speak to animals, just like our Fluttershy!” Pinkie said excited. “Unfortunately no, I can understand only my Nekuro.” Shadow said timorously and continued “Anyway…. can I stay in Ponyville?”

“Why are you asking this to us?” Applejack wanted to know as she couldn’t understand the reason of that question.

“Well after all the trouble I caused, maybe you will not allow that.” explained Shadow with a weak smile.

The girls looked at Twilight as they were trying to lean the weight of the decision on her, Twilight caught off guard said: “Don’t worry; it has been an accident, right? I suppose that we can find a vacancy in town.” trying to act as cordial as possible.

“There’s no reason to worry about that.” Shadow replied “I’ve already seen an old house not far from the town that will be perfect.”

“Good, so everything is all right.” Rainbow stated.

“Actually, it needs a little work.” Shadow said looking at Applejack.

“So….?” Applejack asked already imagining what was going on.

“I’ve heard that the Apple are good manufacturers.” Shadow explained “I will pay, obviously.” He added right after.

“Really? How much? I don’t work for free, you know?” Applejack pricked since she would have liked earning something to help her family.

“My offer is one gold coin.” That was Shadow’s answer.

Now, considering that at the market someone could buy a box filled with apple with two copper coins and that a gold coin was equal to a hundred silver coins and so ten thousand copper coins, the Applejack’s astonishment for such an offer was pretty justified “What?!?” This was the only word he was able to yell.

“Isn’t enough?” Shadow asked worried to have offended her “Two coins are better?”

“No, no , one is more than enough.” Applejack laughed “Damn, for such an amount I would almost get into the Everfree Forest.”

“I’ve already made my offer of two coins.” said Shadow, then with a sharp smile added: “In any case I am happy for your affirmation, since the house is located at the edge of the forest.”

After a long moment of silence and disturbed look among the girls, they, almost simultaneusly exclaimed: “Whaaat?? Have you gone mad?”

“Do you have an idea of how dangerous is that place?” Rarity asked worried.

“Of course: chimeras, dragons, timberwolves; all things I’m not worried about’.” minimized Shadow.

The girls astonished by such bravery, or probably stupidity, didn’t know how to answer “If you say so…….” commented Rainbow after a while.

“Good, in this case we will see you tomorrow, Applejack.” Shadow said in conclusion.

After greeting one another everybody left Fluttershy’s house; Twilight and the other girls took the road to Ponyville.

“How fun! How fun! We will have a new fellow citizen, I have to organize everything!” Pinkie exclaimed excited starting running in order to have as much time as possible to organize the welcome party for Shadow.

“The same old Pinkie.” Twilight said to herself; then addressing to the others seriously said: “We should keep an eye on that guy, I don’t know why but I’m not convinced by him.”

Rarity and Rainbow nodded to Twilight’s warning, while Applejack was lost in her own happy thoughts “Two gold coins! It’s almost as much as I would earn with nine months of work!”

In the meanwhile Shadow and Nekuro were walking along the street that would have tken them to the hill where Shadow had fallen asleep the night before.

“Who had this brilliant idea?” Shadow asked bothered.

“Meow.” said Nekuro innocently.

“Yes, sure.” Shadow said understanding that Nekuro was behaving foolishly “It could end very badly, you know?”

“Meow?” Nekuro asked.

“They are a nice group: six nice girls, like the colors of the rainbow.” Shadow observed.

“Meow.” Nekuro giggled.

“And made of the same thighs?” echoed Shadow, not understanding what Nekuro meant, and then laughing out loud said: “I like this one.”

“Meow?” Nekuro asked with a malicious smile.

“You're in mood of joking today perhaps?” Shadow queried him “You know that it is impossible, how can I fall in love if I am heartless?”

A common start?

The next day Applejack, with everything she needed, got to the edge of the Everfree Forest, where she would help Shadow to repair the old building that was going to be the house of Shadow; probably the building was what was left of the home of the warden of the forest, if ever there was one.

Applejack and Shadow had already been working on that for some hours, and Applejack was keeping glancing towards the forest, which was a few meters from them, when she couldn’t hold on anymore and said: “I still can’t believe that you want to live in a place like this.”

“I’m happy that you are worried for me;” said Shadow understanding Applejack’s concerns “but I can assure you that I slept in places a lot worse than this one; and, as you can see, nothing has happened to me so far.”

“I don’t think that searching old items can be so dangerous.” said perplexed Applejack thinking that the fragile Shadow couldn’t face a real danger.

“I may actually be exaggerating.” joked Shadow; then after reflecting for a while said: “I must admit that I am a bit disappointed; I hoped to meet the Apple family today.”

“I will be honest with you.” said Applejack, who, as soon as she heard the name of her family, stopped working and got extremely serious, “I still consider you a suspicious man and I don’t trust you so I think that is not a good idea that you meet my family.” Applejack, partly, really believed what she had just said but she used that kind of words because she was interested in Shadow’s reaction at the moment, so she could understand what kind of man he was.

“It seems reasonable to me.” was the peaceful answer of Shadow.

Such genuine and quiet answer shocked Applejack so much that for several seconds she was unable to say anything until, almost to apologize for her words, she said: “Anyway, there’s the possibility that you will meet them at the party, this evening.”

“Party? Which party?” asked Shadow not less surprised than Applejack was a few moments before.

“The one that Pinkie is preparing for your arrival to Ponyville, evidently.” explained Applejack, as it was the most obvious thing.

“A party, for me?” Shadow whispered embarrassed to no one: “I forgot that she throws one for everyone.”

Then, after calming down at once, she said: “There’s something that surprises me anyway.”

“What?” inquired Applejack; who, in the meanwhile, had started again to work on the house.

“Before you said that you don’t trust me.” said Shadow repeating Applejack’s words “And still you come here alone, isn’t that a contradiction to your words?”

“It would be if you could hurt me in any way.” answered Applejack confident of her own strength.

“Isn’t it a bit too cocky an affirmation like that?” asked Shadow smiling politely.

“What about a nice challenge in this case?” suggested Shadow peaceful.

There was no way that Applejack could refuse a challenge proposed so directly; but before she could accept it, she was interrupted by Nekuro, who from the inside of the forest yelled: “Miao!”

“It seems that I’ve been called.” said Shadow diverting immediately his attention from Applejack “Would you be so nice to wait a moment for or little challenge?” he asked Applejack smiling.

“Sure.” answered Applejack.

After a little Shadow found Nekuro, who was waiting for him a few meters inside the forest, and annoyed Shadow asked: “What is the problem now? Things were getting interesting back there.”

“Meow.” explained Nekuro looking towards the inside of the forest.

“Five.. No six timberwolves.” counted Shadow looking where Nekuro had shown to him, despite the fact that the creatures were still too far to be seen by a common equestrian, “And so?” he asked bored and not worried at all.”

“What’s the matter? Shall we call Cheshire to give you a hand?” asked Shadow mockingly Nekuro.

“Meow!” exclaimed offended Nekuro.

“I was joking, just joking.” laughed Shadow; then after reflecting a few seconds, before going back to Applejack said: “Yes, why not, capture a couple of them for me, there is a couple of things that I’d like to test.”

Back to Applejack, who in the meanwhile had already finished repairing the old house which was almost complete, Shadow said: “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“What was the matter?” inquired Applejack who still couldn’t realize how Shadow could enter and leave the forest with no worries at all.

“No, no he just wanted to show me the last mouse he caught.” answered Shadow a bit hasty “He thinks he is a great predator.” he added laughing.

“Weren’t we talking about a challenge before?” asked Applejack trying not to give the impression of not accepting the idea of a challenge “What were you thinking about?”

“Nothing special: just an arm wrestling challenge.” explained Shadow with a smile “But we gamble your pay.” she added just to give Applejack a reason to be serious.

“Whaaat? And why on earth would you choose that?” said loudly Applejack who didn’t understand why someone like Shadow would challenge a terrestre like her to a strength competition.

“It was you who stated to be stronger than me; and so I decide to challenge in a strength competition to prove that you are wrong.” explained Shadow serene, “What’s the matter now? Don’t tell me that you are afraid to lose.” he provoked Applejack.

“Lose? Against someone like you? It will never happen!” replied Applejack who now really didn’t want to lose for any reason in the world.

And so the two found a stump of a tree, tall and wide enough to be useful for their purpose, Applejack gave Shadow the honor to start the challenge, who was very happy to accept it.

“Three, two, one...” Shadow started counting down “...Go!”

Even before Applejack could move a single muscle the challenge was already over, Shadow with an outstanding speed had already beaten her without any trouble.

“What’s the problem?” Shadow asked with a mocking smile “Was it too fast for you?”

Applejack shocked was not able to respond to the provocation, instead she said: “Another one! I wasn’t ready!” and, thinking that Shadow was using some kind of trick, she added: “And this time I’ll count.”

But contrary to Applejack’ expectation’ the same identical scene repeated.

“At the best of three!” yelled Applejack who at this point had no more ideas of what thinking about that absurd situation and forgetting also that Shadow had already won two matches.

“Fine, you can have it.” said Shadow bored, repositioning himself again for another challenge “But, at least, try to be a bit more serious.”

“Damn, I heard that you are the best of your family, for sure, if the voices are correct, I must conclude that the rest of the Apple family is just a punch of complete losers.” Shadow thought out loud without even looking at Applejack.

“Don’t dare to insult my family again.” Applejack raged, hearing such offensive words towards her beloved relatives.

“It seems to have worked pretty well.” thought Shadow; finally Applejack would have taken the challenge seriously after all.

“Three, two, one...” Shadow, started to count since Applejack was too focused to win the match to count.

At the “Start” the soul gem of Applejack lit up of a bright orange light, the sign that she was using the typical spell of her clan, and with all her strength, that she was able to impart to her arm, Applejack slammed the back of Shadow’s hand against the stump with such a strength that the stump was not able to bear it and it split in half with a loud ‘CRACK’.

As soon as Applejack realized what she had done, she yelled worried: “Sorry! I didn’t think that, no what I mean is I didn’t want to…”

“Damn Applejack, that could really hurt.” joked Shadow drawing swiftly back the hand as soon it hit the stump.

“..Do you mean that it didn’t hurt you at all?” asked Applejack stunned from the face of Shadow serene despite what had happened just in that moment.

“Meow?!” yelled worried Nekuro appearing from behind the house.

“Don’t worry, just a little challenge.” answered Shadow.

“Sorry for what I said earlier.” he apologized to Applejack “But I just didn’t want you to lose your pay.” explained.

“And about that, here it is.” Shadow said to her, throwing the two gold coins promised to Applejack with his left hand” he greeted her.

Applejack feeling guilty and too confused was able to say only: “Sure, thanks.” before leaving with a bitter taste in her mouth.

After Applejack left, Shadow affirmed: “It seems that almost every information that we were able to gather is correct.” then massaging his right hand, which was starting to bleed, probably there was some micro fractures also, added: “I’m optimistic about the success of the mission.”

Soon Nekuro approached Shadow, and after a couple of friendly licks at the wounds of Shadow they disappeared healed.

Pinkie Pie organized the welcome party for Shadow at Twilight’s home; since it was the only available place, big enough to receive all the guests “Are you having fun?” Twilight asked to Shadow after a while the party had started and realising that he didn’t seem really interested to know the other guests.

“More or less.” Shadow answered.” I don’t feel comfortable surrounded by all these people.” explained.

Understanding his feeling Twilight said “Pinkie enjoys organizing this kind of things as big as possible.”

“Shadow, come here!” suddenly Shadow was called by Pinkie “There’s still a lot of people that I want to introduce to you!”

Shadow was not really in the mood to meet other people, but he didn’t want to contradict Pinkie so he headed towards her; but he was intercepted by Rainbow Dash who said determined “Hang on a moment! We must have a drinking contest!”

Shadow surprised and confused at the same time said “O-ok? I guess.” and so he was dragged by Rainbow, who could not wait much longer to show once again that she was the best, to a table with a lot of beer mugs on it, where Applejack was already waiting for them.

Applejack, who didn’t forget that she had lost temper that morning, asked a bit embarrassed “Hi, how is your hand anyway?”

Shadow, sitting at the table, noticed the puzzled look of Rainbow and so said “I’ve hurt myself working on the house this morning.” without revealing anything more; “But now I’m all right.” he answered to Applejack showing his right hand.

Rainbow was not interested to know more and so she enthusiastically exclaimed “Good, so... let’s start the!” drinking her first mug at the same time.

The three of them were still equal, there was someone starting his fifth mug someone who was finishing his fourth, when Shadow stood up and left the table without even saying a word; seeing that Rainbow, who was starting to feel the first effects of the alcohol, exclaimed “What? Quitting already, loser? And you call yourself a man?!” then she got on drinking her mug, without thinking of any possible provocation caused by her words.

Anyway Shadow, in his opinion, had nothing to prove and so he approached Twilight asking, not without a little embarrassment, “Could you tell me where the free burp area is?”

“What?!?” exclaimed Twilight surprised by that bizarre question.

“Beer causes me a lot of air and this could lead to some little problems.” Shadow explained worried.

“Ah, yes sure.” Well, I suppose that you can go there.” Twilight said, pointing to a door that leaded to a still unused room; thinking at the same that the request of Shadow, even if a bit silly, showed some kind of respect towards the others.

“Thank you.” Shadow answered walking towards the door.

Shadow was outside in the street looking at Twilight’s house, where the party was still going on, when he heard “Meow?”

Without looking back Shadow said “I stayed enough, anyway I don’t think that they will notice my absence.”

“Nobody ever notices that.” whispered turning back with the intention to go away.

Nekuro melancholic said “Meow.” understanding also what Shadow didn’t want to say; and so he started to follow him, but suddenly jumped away disappearing in the night.

“So that’s where you disappeared!” said a voice coming from behind Shadow; turning back, he saw that the voice he had heard was Fluttershy‘s, who was coming towards him, so,confused ,Shadow asked: “What are you doing here?”

“I was looking for you.” explained Fluttershy as it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“You were looking for.. me?” Shadow answered.

“Obviously!” Fluttershy exclaimed almost indignant for such a question; and now already close to Shadow he added “Where are you thinking to go ? The others are waiting for you.”

At that thought Shadow turned back to the library, and then he suddenly felt a strange sensation: something was lying on his back exercising a slight pressure. Looking back Shadow saw that Fluttershy was trying pretty hard to push him towards the library.

“Are you trying to tickle, massage or push me?” Shadow asked unimpressed not understanding if Fluttershy was really so weak or was just faking.

“I’m pushing you towards the party!” Fluttershy who was starting to turn red for the effort exclaimed embarrassed.

“Oh!” exclaimed Shadow “In this case I suppose I should move towards that direction, right?” said pointing the library.

“If you don’t mind.” Fluttershy said smiling.

“Fine.” sighed Shadow faking that Fluttershy really could push him with her miserable strength.

As soon as Shadow entered the house, Rarity went to him and she said snickering. “So that’s where you are! You almost lost the end of the challenge.” pointing the table where Rainbow Dash and Applejack, both of them almost drunk, were keeping drinking beer in order not to give the satisfaction of the victory to the other one.

Suddenly Shadow was grabbed and dragged away from Pinkie Pie who exalted, as usual for her, exclaimed “Come on! There are still a lot of people that want to know you!” Shadow could not help not to crack a happy smile.

Walking away from the party already over , Fluttershy and Shadow together went down the street that excited from Ponyville and, at the moment to separate Fluttershy said happly “It has been a really good party, right?”

“Right.” answered Shadow not knowing what to say more.

“It’s always a pleasure to spend some time with friends; am I right?” Fluttershy added

“Sure.” Shadow replied.

After that Fluttershy left Nekuro approaching Shadow who melancholy whispered to himself “Friends, eh?”

“Meow.” Nekuro said serious.

“I know it!” Shadow answered irritated “And go to tell Cheshire not to worry, I will complete the mission.” then he continued bitterly “It has been years since we have worked on it why can’t he wait some months longer?”

The next morning Shadow went to Twilight’s home and he knocked on the door.

“Hi, please come in.” said Twilight opening the door “Why are you here?” she asked since she was waiting for no one.

“I’m here to offer my help to clean the mess after yesterday night.” Shadow explained.

“But there’s no reason for you to do so!” Twilight said gently.

“The party was thrown for me, it’s just right that I help to clean.” replied Shadow “I don’t have to do anything anyway.”

“Ok, in this case thanks.” Twilight said accepting the help of Shadow.

“Twilight where do these go?” they heard yelling from upstairs.

Once Shadow reached the upper level, accompanied by Twilight, he found out that a baby green and purple dragon had yelled.

“Thanks Spike, they should be the treaties on the Western wildlife, so…” Twilight started to explain, when she was interrupted by Shadow who enthusiastic yelled “But that’s a baby dragon!”

“I’ve never seen a baby dragon before!” continued, running to see Spike closer.

“Please, not this again.” Twilight sighed because she remembered that a similar situation had happened not long time before.

“Hi Spike, I am Shadow Smoke, talk me about yourself.” Shadow said in one shot for the enthusiasm.

“It seems that around here everybody likes dragons.” Spike replied to Twilight, evidently pleased with that situation

“What would you like to know.” Spike asked gently to his new fan.

“Absolutely everything!” Shadow said smiling.

“This will take a long time.” Twilight rumbled “It means that I’ll have to clean everything alone.” she ended resigned.

“And that’s the story of all and entire life, up to today.” Spike said ending his long long story, in which he hadn’t left out any particular.

“So you act as intermediary between Twilight and the princess?” Shadow asked smiling extremely interested.

“You are right.” responded promptly Spike “Thanks to my green flame I can send and receive letters directly from Princess Celestia.” explained proudly.

“And from what I’ve understood..” Shadow started to say giggling “you have got a crush for Rarity!” exclaimed mischievous.

Spike caught off guard, faltered “W-what?! No, I mean it’s not as it seems, no sorry what I mean is…” then resigned said “would you mind not to tell it to anyone?”

“Do not worry; your secret is safe with me.” Shadow said comprehensive “On the contrary, I think that we could reach an agreement.” proposed.

“Agreement? What are you talking about?” Spike asked as he didn’t understand what Shadow could talk about.

“Well, I have only thought that a dragon and an equestrian are a strange couple.” said thoughtful Shadow “I could do some researches and see if something like that is possible, or even if it has already happened.” Shadow explained to Spike.

“Would you really do something like that?” said Spike surprised and happy for the unexpected request; considering also those thoughts like that had worried him in the last days.

“Not for free obviously,” Shadow pointed out “as payment for my work you could let me study these flames of which you are so proud and that charm me so much.” said Shadow with the eyes shining for emotions.

After a moment of uncertainty Spike answered “Sure! Why should I say no?” not finding any good reason to refuse the proposal.

“Excellent!” said Shadow concluding the agreement; then starting to go downstairs yelled loud “Twilight we have finished here, do you still need help?” since Shadow didn’t know if she could hear him from where she was that moment.

“You two have been talking all the morning!” Twilight exclaimed irritated “At this point I have already finished.”

“In this case I will leave.” Shadow said goodbye happily.

After Shadow left Twilight’s home he met Nekuro, who was waiting for him, and together they headed towards their new home leaving Ponyville.

“This is a true damn problem.” Shadow said worried “How long do you think it will take to understand how the baby dragon works?” he asked gloomy to Nekuro.

“Meow.” Nekuro answered calm.

“In this case we are going to lose one or two letters, at least.” observed Shadow not happy at all “We can only hope that Twilight will not write anything compromising about us to the hag.”

What a wonderful night to get lost in the forest

Author's Note

Warning! The next chapter includes scenes related to blood and death.

Now I’d like to ask you one thing: considering that this kind of episodes will be rare, in your opinion should I change the Content Rating from Teem to Mature? Otherwise I could put the same warning sentence before each chapter with this kind of contents.

What a wonderful night to get lost in the forest

The next days Shadow became acquainted with the large majority of the inhabitants of Ponyville, finding out that they were all nice and friendly people; Shadow said to everyone to call him if they ever needed any help for something, though just a few had asked for his help so far .

Those days Twilight and the other girls went on keeping an eye on Shadow; just to be sure that he wouldn’t do anything suspicious, like waking up in other people’s bed. But Shadow was behaving absolutely perfectly, even if they could not admit it: no matter where he was going or what he was doing, the girls never saw him flying or activating his wings, even if he had claimed to be a volante the day before, but maybe he simply preferred walking than flying and so the girls didn’t really care about this oddity.

But even if the girls didn’t notice it, Shadow was getting more restless each day, and at the same time a feeling was growing inside him, a feeling both strange and familiar, desired and despised, waited and feared.

And so one night Shadow and Nekuro were alone in the offing of the Everfree Forest on their way back to their new home, when suddenly it happened what Shadow knew had to happen and that had already happened many other times.

Shadow was suddenly hit by violent pains and collapsed onto the ground with a wail of grief, holding his stomach with his arms.

“Meow?!” Nekuro exclaimed jumping worried next to him.

“It seems that time has come.” said Shadow through his teeth while trying to control the pain “I’m going to have an abstinence crisis, the Hunger has returned.”

Nekuro understanding immediately what was happening started to run towards Ponyville saying: “Meow!”

“No!” Shadow stopped him “I’ve already said it,” he whispered between wails of grief “the people of Ponyville are untouchable, no matter what.”

Nekuro turned around to look at him and nodded understanding, but since he didn’t know exactly what to do, he asked “Meow?”

“There should be one or two cities near the forest.” said Shadow standing up with difficulty “You and Cheshire know the parameters, we will meet later.” Shadow ended while the pain was decreasing slowly.

Nekuro didn’t need to hear anything else, he knew perfectly what to do, and so with a jump he disappeared into the vegetation of the thick forest.

The forty years old Stone Burst opened his eyes with a terrible headache, the last thing he remembered before fainting, or maybe falling asleep, he couldn’t remember well, was… actually he didn’t remember anything at all of the last few hours, “It’s already night-time.” As he realized that it was all dark around him.

“What happened?” he thought staring to what seemed trees crowns for him, Stone Burst tried to stand up but something was blocking his movements, confused he looked at his arms and legs and found out that his wrists and ankles were tied to a sort of table.

“What’s going on?! Where am I?!” Stone Burst yelled worried trying to break free in vain; the ropes were tight enough to prevent even the smallest movement.

“Why everyone asks always the same, trivial questions?” said a voice extremely bored; Stone Burst looking towards the point where the voice came from saw a young man with green eye and white and azure hair.

“Quick, untie me!” Stone Burst shouted at him, pointing with a movement of the head to the ropes that were tying his wrists.

“Untie you?” asked confused Shadow “Can’t you really understand it yourself?” he said disappointed shaking his head.

“Understand what?” Stone Burst, who wasn’t in the right mood to solve stupid riddles asked irritated.

Shadow approached Stone Burst and lowering his face, until it was a just a few centimeters from Stone Burst’s, he said “Obviously that I was the one who tied you.” then raising Shadow concluded with an evil grin “So It doesn’t make any sense that I free you now.”

“What?” Stone Burst asked starting really to worry, but still not understanding what was going on, “Why would you do such a thing? What do you want to do to me?” he said hoping that it was some kind of bad joke.

Shadow with a sigh of resignation complained “Again with the same boring questions. Never something original.”

“But who are you?” Stone Burst, who started to be very scared by the extremely relaxed and yet threatening behavior of his interlocutor, asked.

“That’s a question!” exclaimed happily Shadow “See? If you put your mind to it, you can do it!” he said mocking Stone Burst.

Then becoming suddenly serious Shadow said “You have to know that I’m called by different names: shadow, dark, crazy, assassin, mad, psycho.” then turning around, showing his back to Stone Burst, peacefully said “Ah, and if you really want to know, I’m going to kill you now. No hard feelings I hope.”

Hearing such news Stone Burst winced surprised, then since his darkest fear had been confirmed he shouted angry “You are a monster!”

Shadow, hearing him, stopped a moment, then he started approaching Stone Burst from behind , getting out from his line of sight, Shadow cold said “Right, they call me that too.”

Shadow’s totally apathetic answer was too much for the poor Stone Burst; who started having have a nervous breakdown, whined “Why me? I don’t even know you!”

Shadow reached the table, which he had prepared behind the one where Stone Burst was, and picked up a sort of medical chart lying there and read “Stone Burst, terrestre, fourty years old, brown hair, orange eyes, he has recently lost his job because of big financial debts, as a consequence he has been left by his wife who took their only little daughter with her, he is now considered a homeless.”

Smiling satisfied Shadow ended “Practically no one will miss you.”

“You won't get away with it!” Stone Burst, driven by a sudden wrath yelled “Someone will notice my absence and then they will find you!”

“Why should they notice?” asked innocently Shadow, entering once again in the line of sight of Stone Burst, and then checking the chart said “After all there’s at least three…”

“Meow.” Nekuro quietly interrupted Shadow, appearing silently from the dark wood.

Shadow checked the chart once again and corrected himself “... Sorry, four witnesses saw you drunk going into the Everfree Forest at night.” Then looking at Stone Burst with a sneering smile he giggled “Not the smartest idea …if you allow me to say.”

“Please let me go.” Stone Burst, totally terrorized at this point, begged him “I promise you that no one will know about this.”He smiled, anxiously trying to convince Shadow to free him.

“I’m sorry, but I really can’t do it...” said Shadow with a so sad expression on her face that even Stone Burt, for a while thought that Shadow was really sorry; then approaching the other table Shadow continued “Trust me, this is going to hurt me more than…”

Shadow was unable to complete his phrase as he exploded into a maniacal laugh and yelled “Sorry, sorry, I really can’t keep going…” after drawing breath Shadow continued “Who I’m trying to fool?! I’m going to enjoy it so much!” sentenced while picking up from the table a giant black meat cleaver ,covered with orthogonal red lines, so easily as it was light like a feather, even if it was a metre and a half long.

Shadow stood right next to Stone Burst, who by that time was completely petrified from that sudden behavior, and with a slight smile Shadow asked “Tell me, do you know how does an Equestrian to which an arm is cut off sound?”

Stone Burst was terrified and, being convinced to have misheard , tried to ask “Wha...” but he was interrupted by Shadow who with a swift movement hit Stone Burst with his meat cleaver cutting off cleanly Stone Burst’s arm with a thud.

“Exactly.” said Shadow ecstatically licking off some blood drops that had spattered on his lips, while Stone Burst started to yell for pain and surprise.

“Oh my... please Celestia, help me!” prayed Stone Burst through his tears.

Shadow preparing to hit again, bothered said “I’m sorry, but your alleged god can’t help anybody, and for sure can’t save you…”

It was almost sunrise and Shadow, still covered with Stone Burst’s blood, was peacefully sleeping with his back sustained by a tree when Nekuro approached him and said “Meow.”

“Already?” Shadow asked opening his eyes “Well, I suppose it is normal, after all he was bleeding a lot.” He reasoned standing up.

Turning around the tree Shadow saw again the same scene of when he had gone to sleep: Stone Burst without his arms and legs hanging from a tree ,tied with hooked chains, the only difference was that Stone Burst wasn’t yelling or moaning anymore , as he was doing up to a few minutes ago.

“Disgusting.” commented Shadow, without specifying the subject.

“Meow.” Nekuro sad said, trying to raise his partner’s spirit.

“We have already discussed this!” answered hasty and rusty Shadow “I am not like you, so don’t push on, please.” he said melancholic, looking at Nekuro.

“Call Cheshire.” Shadow told him getting off the subject, and watching the corpse again “Tell him that his meal is ready.” then walking away from that place he seriously exclaimed “We must clean up everything; we can’t afford errors or distractions.”

Nekuro nodded keeping staring the corpse, as hypnotized from its oscillation caused by a light breeze that was able to pierce the dense Everfree Forest.

A pleasant conversation

One morning Fluttershy and Twilight went to visit Shadow Smoke at his new home to ask him if he liked to go out with them and the other girls, Fluttershy would have gone even alone to invite Shadow but Twilight had thought that it was better to go with her.

“Do you think that he would like to come to the pic-nick?” Fluttershy asked to Twilight; Fluttershy thought that Shadow and the other girl had got off on the wrong foot and so she organized that event to pacify everyone.

“I don’t know.” answered Twilight “In my opinion he doesn’t look like someone who has something better to do.” she said, not too enthusiast with the idea.

As soon as they reached the house Fluttershy smiling knocked at the door, but nobody answered from the inside; the two girls waited for a couple minutes then knocked once again heavily, but there was still no answer; starting to worry they both went around the house hoping to find any sign of presence of Shadow or Nekuro; but at the end they had to give up, and Twilight exclaimed “It seems that nobody is at home.”

After a couple days Shadow and Nekuro came back to Ponyville after a business travel out of town.

“It was just a waste of time.” said Shadow bothered, remembering the last events of that travel.”

“Meow.” said quietly Nekuro.

“We didn’t find anything interesting.” Shadow kept complaining.

“So there you are!” Shadow heard someone yelled from above his head; raising his look he saw Rainbow Dash flying with her azure wings some metres over him.

With a couple of powerful wing beats Rainbow Dash landed close to Shadow yelling “Now, you ‘ll come with me!” grabbing his arm and starting to pull him.

Shadow was so surprised from this series of events that he didn’t even think to show any resistance, instead ,shocked he asked “Where are you taking me?” but Rainbow didn’t give any answer to his question while she pointed towards the centre of Ponyville.

Shadow didn’t ask any more questions since Rainbow was looking particularly irritated, for same reason; and so Shadow found out their destination only when he and Rainbow reached it: the Sugarcube Corner Pinkie Pie‘s working place.

Rainbow Dash opened the door, not without being a bit rude, and dragging Shadow inside she exclaimed “Look at who I’ve found!” showing Shadow to the other five girls that were all gathered there together.

The girls looked astonished at Shadow, who after some moments of embarrassing silence said uncomfortable “Hi, how are you doing?” greeting them with a shy gesture of the hand; while Nekuro was coming into too.

“How are you doing?!” yelled nervous Applejack “That’s all that you can say?” she said resented.

“Do you have any idea of how much were we worried about you?” Twilight said finally making it clear to Shadow the reason of such a bustle.

“Worried?” Shadow asked boggled “Just because I’ve been out of city for a couple days?” he said expressing his perplexity “Nobody ever worries for my absence.” he said more to himself than to the girls.

“It’s just normal that we get worried if you disappear.” said Rarity “Fluttershy particularly cared about you.” she said giggling mischievously.

“Stop with that Rarity!” exclaimed Fluttershy embarrassed, because she had got the insinuation of Rarity, “I was simply worried because the forest might have hurt him.” Fluttershy said trying to give a motivation to her concerns.”

“Oh, it’s that the reason?” Shadow said finally understanding the main reason of the girls’ concerns “I thought to have already told you girls that I’m not afraid of the Everfree Forest since there’s nothing there that can hurt me.” he ended with a reassuring smile that was showing a lot of self-confidence.

“Where have you been this time?” asked Pinkie Pie with the usual energy that marked her and that made her so unique, particularly to Shadow’ eyes.

“I was working.” answered quiet Shadow “But it didn’t go too well” said slightly irritated remembering his own mental speech that he was having before being taken away by Rainbow “all what I was able to find has been this.” he explained placing in plain view the ancient book that he had conserved under his shirt all this time.

“Really? A book?” asked Rainbow Dash unimpressed “Boring!” she commented extremely bored.

But, Shadow noticed that another girl had a completely opposite reaction to Rainbow’s and actually she seemed pretty excited by his recent discovery. “It is an original book of Star Swirl the Bearded, isn’t it?” Twilight, who could hardly believe her eyes, asked.

“It’s not the manuscript, but it belongs to that right period, probably it’s a first or second edition.” said Shadow showing false indifference, while, on the contrary, he was pretty happy to have caught someone’s interest.

“Oh, I must have it absolutely!” exclaimed Twilight, extremely happy for excitement.

“I guess we can find an agreement on the price of this piece of story.” Shadow said smiling, already foretasting his next, forthcoming profit.

“Eggheads.” whispered Rainbow.

After that conversation the girls let Shadow go, who was very happy to go back home with Nekuro to have a rest after his travel.

On his way back Shadow said to Nekuro “Can you believe that? They got worried so much for someone they have known just for nearly a week!” almost incredulous for what had happened.

“Meow.” answered Nekuro.

“Right, they really are some foolish girls.” confirmed Shadow, but with a smile showing happiness for the treatment received.

The next day Shadow and Nekuro went to Fluttershy’ home, but before knocking on the door Shadow looked at Nekuro.

“It’s really necessary?” asked Shadow him very nervously “I’m sure that…” he started saying, trying to assert his opinion.

“Meow!” Nekuro yelled against him, irritated from Shadow’ indecision.

“Ok, ok don’t get angry.” exclaimed Shadow raising his hands as a sign of surrender and resigning to what he wanted to do.

And so Shadow knocked on Fluttershy’s home door and when Fluttershy opened it he greeted them “Hi Shadow, hi Nekuro.”

Shadow extremely anxious said “H-hi, yes.... right....... I was wondering.....,” Shadow was feeling warmer and warmer with each word spoken “if it’s not a problem for you obviously,” for some odd reason Shadow desired that a meteorite hit him that very moment “if you like....., no...., yes........, I mean if…”

“Meow!” Nekuro shouted at him, irritated by his pathetic show.

“And wait a moment!” shouted Shadow in turn, then addressing once again to Fluttershy he said all at once “I was wondering if you are free this evening for a dinner with me!”

Fluttershy shocked and a little embarrassed by the unexpected request, and not knowing exactly what she could answer, started to say “Oh my....., I don’t know…”

“No? Good!” Shadow answered hurried, interrupting Fluttershy before she could finish and almost relieved from the way things were going “It doesn’t matter. See you soon.” He said turning back to go away forgetting the matter.

“Wait!” exclaimed Fluttershy, trying to stop Shadow, she was worried to seem rude by not answering immediately, “I don’t have any engagements,” and a little embarrassed she ended “so it won’t be a problem for me to accept your invitation.”

“Really?” asked Shadow extremely surprised, while he turned around to look at Fluttershy’s eyes to be sure that it wasn’t a joke, “I mean, good, see you later then.”

On the way home Nekuro satisfied asked Shadow “Meow?”

“It hasn’t been as bad as I had thought.” said Shadow “it was even worse.” He added with a weary expression.

And so, later that evening, Fluttershy and Shadow went to a restaurant for dinner. Nekuro decided not to accompany Shadow this time.

After they had ordered, Fluttershy decided to get rid of a curiosity that had been storming in her mind since that morning and asked “Can you tell me the reason for this invitation?”

“It has been Nekuro’s idea,” answered Shadow quickly, since he was still nervous finding himself in that situation so unfamiliar to him, “He said that after all the trouble that I caused to you and the other girls this is the least I can do.”

That answer was so unexpected to Fluttershy that she couldn’t hold a light laugh of amusement.

“What's funny about that?” asked Shadow embarrassed, thinking of having just said something stupid.

“You two are very close, aren’t you?” said Fluttershy, when she stopped laughing, happy she could say such a true thing.

“I can admit that, so far, we have known each other for all life.” said Shadow relieved, then watching behind Fluttershy said “and despite this he still treats me as a kid,” and extremely irritated said “look at him; just now he is watching what I’m doing!” pointing to the window behind Fluttershy. She turned back for a moment and saw Nekuro watching them from outside, then he fled away as soon as Fluttershy saw him.

“Why is he here around?” Fluttershy asked confused to Shadow.

“He is controlling that I don’t cause any trouble.” Shadow said irritated from the behaviour of Nekuro that in his opinion was definitely exaggerate and distracting.

“Oh well, let’s forget him.” said Shadow promising himself not to think about Nekuro for the rest of the dinner “rather, tell me about you and the other girls, I bet that it must be exciting to be one of the carrier of the Elements of the Harmony.” he said affably.

Fluttershy happy to answer to Shadow started: first she told of when Princess Celestia gave Twilight two tickets for the Grand Galloping Gala and the other girls did almost everything to be the second guest.

“I hardly believe that you girls can do such a mess for just one ticket.” giggled Shadow delighted imagining the scene.

“It was for the Grand Galloping Gala after all..” Fluttershy justified everybody with embarrassment.

Then Fluttershy told Shadow of when Trixie, a mago who performed street performances, got to Ponyville and caused a lot of problems.

“I hope that this Trixie is not the one that asked me where to find a magical artefact not long time ago.” Shadow thought not really worried for the possible consequences of that action.

At last Fluttershy told him of when Twilight led the other girls to talk with a dragon to ask him to change place to rest, on behalf of Princess Celestia.

“And so Princess Celestia sent you to challenge a dragon, alone?” asked Shadow even if he wasn’t really convinced by the whole story.

“We didn’t have to challenge him.” said Fluttershy smiling “We had just to kindly ask him to change home, and it worked.”

“Yes, sure.” Shadow, who was querying more the methods of Princess Celestia then the story of Fluttershy, thought to himself.

At the end, when it seemed that Fluttershy had finished her stories, Shadow, still interested, said “That’s all very interesting, but you still haven’t told me of when you all defeated Nightmare Moon, and freed Princess Luna from her curse.”

“If you really want to know it...” said Fluttershy without enthusiasm, but since she didn’t want to say no to Shadow she told him the entire story that she had personally lived.

“It sounds really dangerous.” commented Shadow at the end of the narration, amazed by the events described by Fluttershy.

“You have no idea of how scared I was.” confessed Fluttershy, still shivering when she thought about Nightmare Moon.

“Now, why don’t you tell me something about you?” she asked after some moments of silence, curious to know more about Shadow.

Shadow, surprised by the unexpected request, tried to minimize “There isn’t much to know; I’m just a normal person who does a boring job.”

“I can’t believe you,” said Fluttershy as she wasn’t convinced by that explanation that was too vague “come on, tell me about your job, please.” she insisted, trying to seem very interested and so to convince Shadow to speak.

“There isn’t much to talk about,” Shadow started to say slightly embarrassed by that demonstration of true desire, “I spend most of my time looking for information on possible artefacts and legends, and then I control the truthfulness of the information I gather.” he explained briefly, describing shortly the main characteristics of his job.

“It sounds pretty interesting to me.” said Fluttershy imagining all the strange and funny stories that Shadow may have heard during his numerous trips.

“It may sound like that,” confessed Shadow “but actually, most of the times they are useless trips,” he said sighing and explanting the main source of annoyances “finding reliable information is the hardest thing in the world.” he complained.

“But sometimes, you find something interesting.” Fluttershy encouraged him, thinking of having ruined his good mood.

“I suppose I can’t say that you are wrong.” Shadow said thoughtful; then as he suddenly remembered something important, with a swift movement of his right arm, done so naturally that Fluttershy thought that he probably was used to do that movement almost every day, Shadow took out from the sleeve of his shirt a small black cylinder adorned with orthogonal red lines about fifteen to twenty centimetres long and with a diameter of about three centimetres, and pretty happy, almost proud, Shadow showed it to Fluttershy saying “This is the kind of things that I look for.”

“This is... a stick.” said Fluttershy not excited at all, on the contrary she was pretty unimpressed.

“Exactly,” affirmed Shadow full of enthusiasm “but a thousands of years old stick, it probably belongs to a civilization of which there are no trace and memory left. I’ve named it Webor.” he explained the peculiarity of that object that looked so insignificant but that still was able to emotion him a lot.

Then looking with melancholy face at the stick he added “Furthermore it has a significant meaning to me.”

“Of what kind?” asked Fluttershy confused wanted to know.

“It was the first artefact discovered by me and Nekuro together.” said Shadow smiling happily remembering that event.

“I understand,” Fluttershy said smiling happily to herself “now, tell me more about you.” she requested starting to really enjoy that conversation.

“I’m sorry, but any other information about me are “reserved”.” said Shadow smiling, but with a tone of voice that let Fluttershy understand that what h ehad said was the truth.

“What do you mean?!?” exclaimed Fluttershy surprised and a bit confused.

“I’ve already told to you girls some days ago, haven’t It?” Shadow asked quietly “As a rule I make people pay for information considered as “reserved”, and most of the information about me are like this.”

“But, why?” asked Fluttershy sad and frustrated by the strange reaction of Shadow.

“Sometimes there are things which is better not to talk about, and sometimes there are others that I don’t want to talk about.” Shadow explained sad without even been able to look Fluttershy’ eyes.

“Alright,” Fluttershy said comprehensive noticing some pain in Shadow ‘eyes and trying not to change the pleasant mood of the dinner, but still asked “but at least, can I know when is your birthday?” still wishful, now more than ever, to know more about Shadow and believing that such question wouldn’t have caused any trouble.

“If you really want to know, it’s on 2 September,” said Shadow, still continuing not to understand the great interest Fluttershy had on him “this reminds me that I have still not used my discount coupon this year.” he said thoughtful.

Then noticing Fluttershy’s questioning look, Shadow explained “It is the birthday present that Nekuro gives me every year: every time he gives me this discount coupon lasting one year, this allows me to make him do whatever I ask him, without any possibility to say “no”, otherwise there wouldn’t be way to convince him to do anything!” he sighed thinking to the stubbornness of Nekuro.

When Shadow stopped talking Fluttershy looked at him for a few seconds with an expression of surprise painted on her face, then suddenly a soft laugh burst out.

To this reaction Shadow became all red for embarrassment, feeling at the same time very hot, and nervous exclaimed “ you are laughing again!” with an offended tone.

“Sorry, sorry,” apologized Fluttershy wiping away a tear and she stopped laughing, then she smiled happily and said “it’s just that I find very pleasant to see someone so bound with his animal, you have also to admit that what you have just said was pretty strange.”

After that the dinner between Fluttershy and Shadow went on without other issues, the two talked about this and that.

When she finished eating Fluttershy ,after many changes of mind said: “Tomorrow I’m going to visit the rabbits that live near my house to control if they are growing well,” and after gathering up courage she asked Shadow “so I was wondering if you’d like to come with me to help.” worrying to bore Shadow with the request.

“I thought I had already stated that,” said Shadow slowly shaking his head annoyed “I do this kind of tasks only if the employer pays me.”

“Is money really so important for you?” asked Fluttershy sad, disappointed by Shadow ‘answer that showed superficiality and insensibility.

“It’s necessary for my personal sustain and it is also essential to keep on my information network.” explained Shadow extremely quiet with an attitude that could let think that he had made that kind of conversation infinite times before.

Then, changing his expression so quickly that Fluttershy was really surprised, with a big warm smile said “That being said, I could still accept this job and consider the pleasant conversation we have just had as my reward.”

Fluttershy unsure about what to say could only look at Shadow with surprise, as a matter of fact she was convinced to have misunderstood him since what he had just said and what he had said only a few seconds before were contradictory in her opinion.

“I’ve never said that payments must be with money.” Shadow continued keeping his warm smile, he was even delighted to read astonishment in Fluttershy’ eyes, then a little embarrassed he proposed “So, if is still ok for you, I will be glad to help you tomorrow.”

“Of course it is!” Fluttershy exclaimed smiling happily back to Shadow, understanding that what Shadow had just done was nothing more than a joke.

After saying goodbye to Fluttershy at the end of their dinner, Shadow was nearly at home when he saw Nekuro in front of him who asked him “Meow?”

“A lot of valuable information but nothing crucial.” answered Shadow shrugging since he hadn’t got any information relevant enough to be shared immediately.

Then ending with a light smile Shadow said “I’m afraid that it will take a lot of time.” and even Nekuro couldn’t say if Shadow was smiling for the good challenge that was waiting for them or for the possibility to have other entertaining interactions with the Elements of the Harmony.

And so the next morning Shadow accompanied Fluttershy to a bright meadow near Fluttershy’s house; there Shadow helped Fluttershy to count and examine the health state of all the rabbits in the area; the whole task was pretty easy since the rabbits, after some moments of indecision when they saw Shadow, followed Fluttershy’ instructions

“And with this we should have ended,” said Fluttershy smiling letting go the last cup rabbit, which asked to be visited last since it was the first time for him and he was afraid, “thanks for helping me.” she said to Shadow, by whom Fluttershy was nicely impressed thanks to his professionality: he had executed exactly what she asked him and also with an incredible precision despite being the first time that Shadow had done something like that.

“Helped?” asked Shadow showing a shocked look; “I’ve already told you, this is just a mere job for me, I’ve just done what you asked me,” he said trying to be annoyed, even if he couldn’t feel that he had really done that job . After all Fluttershy did almost everything and her ability to speak with animasl was so good to impress even Shadow; “anyway, I must say that I feel a bit disappointed, I thought that also the other girls would have come here to help us.” he said looking around and slightly disappointed because he couldn’t get other information about the Elements of the Harmony.

“They didn’t have time to help me,” Fluttershy said a bit sad, but accustomed to that kind of situation. The other girls were very busy and they just didn’t have time for her; then going back to think about the present she said “instead I haven’t still seen Nekuro here around.”

“I bet that he is passing the day trying to find a female cat to importune,” joked Shadow, since he didn’t want to even think to the kind of trouble Nekuro could have put himself into, “but I’m really relieved that he decided not to come here, I was a bit afraid that with all these rabbits around he could have got hungry.”

“Hungry?” asked Fluttershy surprised, doubtful about the meaning of this affirmation, and after a moment Fluttershy realized what Shadow meant by this and worried she exclaimed “You wouldn’t mean that…”

“That he eats other animals?” Shadow slightly sad ended Fluttershy’s sentence, “Unfortunately yes, I’ve tried to convince him to stop doing so, but he keeps on hunting on his own;” Nekuro himself told Shadow that there would be no hope to change, and he was very clear about that matter, “he has had this behaviour since he was a stray.”

After a moment of awkward silence Shadow felt obliged to say something since he had the impression that the last speech had upset Fluttershy; so smiling softly he said “Anyhow I must say that this is a very lovely place, I’m not surprised that the rabbits feel so comfortable to live here.” and he really meant what he said: that meadow was so nice that was able to inspire him a sense of safeness and pleasure that hardly he had ever felt elsewhere.

Fluttershy looking at Shadow noticed his smile and she couldn’t stop herself from saying “Then, you too can make a true smile.” smiling happily herself too.

“What do you mean?!” Shadow exclaimed surprised, feeling once again an uncomfortable heat, despite being a nice day not hot at all.

“I’m not quite sure,” answered Fluttershy, recognizing that she had said spoken without really thinking, “It’s just that most of times your smiles look bit forced.” she said smiling without any bad intentions.

Shadow was so shocked by that answer that for a moment he stared at Fluttershy speechless, then embarrassed said “It’s just that I’m not comfortable where there are people around, so I feel always a bit nervous.” and saying so Shadow laid down feeling a false tiredness.

But after a while Shadow felt as something was touching his hair, not only that,..... the sensation was just that something was gently eating his hair, “What’s going on?” he exclaimed surprised and a bit worried.

“It’s their way to let you know that they like you.” said Fluttershy chuckling happy, referring to the couple of rabbits that were gnawing Shadow’s hair; which was something that rabbits usually do to each other to clean themselves, so practically it was almost as the rabbits had accepted Shadow in their community.

“It’s quite enjoyable.” said Shadow smiling and deciding not to interrupt them.

“You really love animals, don’t you?” said Fluttershy very happy for the relationship that Shadow had been able to create with the rabbits.

Shadow feeling suddenly gloomy whispered “Animals don’t hate, and we’re supposed to be better than animals.”

“What did you say?” asked Fluttershy as she saw Shadow’ lips moving but she was unable to hear a word; “I’ve not heard well.” she informed him trying to let him repeat what he had just said.

Fluttershy couldn’t do anything but stay quiet while looking at Shadow leave, feeling a strange sadness, as if she was feeling some kind of pain in Shadow that she couldn’t understand.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Shadow and then he got up with a sigh, “it's getting late, I must go and check where Nekuro is and what he is doing.” he said walking away.

Strange Acquaintances

The next days were normal for everyone in Ponyville, even if the six girls kept noticing that Shadow still never used his wings, no matter what; one day, trying to force him to use them, Pinkie Pie and Applejack even asked Shadow to recover a ball that they had thrown up on a tree; but instead to help them he started a debate, on why he had to do so and on the fact that the two girls were able for sure to recover the ball themselves, the debate ended when Nekuro, appearing from nowhere, gave the ball to Shadow who handed it to Applejack without the girls even noticed the cat had approached the tree; so the girls decided to give up trying to discover the secret of this little strangeness.

Rarity was contemplating satisfied the sketches of her last work when she heard knocking on the front door “This must be Shadow who has ended.” she thought; she had hired Shadow to fix a pipeline in the garden for three coppers.

Rarity was already opening the door when she noticed Opalescence, her cat, jumping onto the desk where her sketches were “Opalescence!” she screamed “I’ve already told you not to do a mess with my work!”

“I’ve finished, can I have my money as agreed?” Rarity heard, recognizing immediately the voice of Shadow but too distracted by Opalescence to watch towards him.

“Here it is.” said distracted Rarity handing the three coins to Shadow, determined to catch Opalescence as soon as possible; but as she turned her back to Shadow she realized that she had seen something unacceptable “In the name of Celestia! What have you done!?!” she shouted turning suddenly at Shadow “You are a disaster!”

Shadow confused looked at himself and his clothes completely covered with dirt as a result of his work “I’m just a bit dirty, but your reaction is a quiet excessive, I just need to go home and wash the clothes, after that everything will be ok.”

“Absolutely not!” exclaimed Rarity resolute “I simply can’t accept, and neither allow, that you roam around the city in this awful condition!” she said anxious with such a drama that Shadow though that she would have laid on a couch, if only there was one within reach, “Let me help you with this mess.” Rarity proposed to Shadow dragging him inside without any hesitation.

“What? No! Really ,it isn’t necessary,” Shadow tried to refuse Rarity proposal, even if he didn’t dare to physically resist her, “it will take me just…”

“Nonsense! Now let me do my work, you don’t have anything to worry, after all you are in the hands of the best stylist of all Equestria!” Rarity reassured Shadow as they walked into the room where her works were shoiwn “You are going to be spectacular! You will see!” she kept saying picturing already the best outfit for Shadow as she was trying to undress him starting from his dirty shirt.

Shadow, completely caught out of guard from that situation, at first tried to resist to Rarity then realizing that she wouldn’t quit with that madness , he gave up “Alright, alright you ‘ve won!” he shouted red-faced for embarrassment, “You can wash my shirt if you really want! Just show me a dressing room where I can undress.” he ended clutching himself in order to show his resolution.

Obviously Nekuro was looking at that scene from the very start, and in that moment he was enjoying very much that awkward series of events.

“With pleasure!” smiled Rarity satisfied of that arrangement and conducting Shadow to a dressing room in her shop.

After a few seconds; Shadow, still red-faced, opened the door just enough to throw the dirty clothes to Rarity, who was waiting outside the door, and irritated he shouted “Here they are! Are you happy now?” then in a lower voice he said “Now would you mind hurrying up, please? I don’t feel comfortable this way!”

“He is even shyer than Fluttershy.” thought Rarity unable to withhold a malicious smile as she picked his clothes up, but while she was holding them she surprised thought “What kind of fabric is this? I’ve never seen or touched anything similar!” then pushed by curiosity and also worried to damage the clothes she asked Shadow “Do I have to wash them in some special way? Are they made with a kind of delicate fabric?”

“You can just put them in a bowl full with cold water, and they will wash themselves.” answered Shadow still uncomfortable; that’s not exactly the answered that Rarity was looking for but she decided to give up the topic for the moment, first of all she had to rescue those poor clothes from dirt..

And so Rarity did as Shadow had told her. She put the clothes in a bowl full of cold of water and after a couple of minutes she decided to pick the shirt up to check how they were.

“Incredible!” she exclaimed as she saw that the shirt was perfectly clean, without any trace of dirt, but her surprise didn’t end there “And it’s almost dry already.”

“Extraordinary, isn’t it?” Rarity heard the calm voice of Shadow behind her.

Rarity surprised turned around and saw Shadow at the entrance of the room completely dressed up, with shirt and jeans identical to those she was washing at the moment; Shadow smiling happily walked towards her and said proudly “And this isn’t all: this fabric is also breathable, water-resistant, thermal insulating and tear-resistant; and it’s so comfortable that I can easily sleep with all the clothes on.”

“Impressive!” exclaimed Rarity without any reason not to believe him “Bur I’ve never heard of such a fabric in my life, tell me who invented it?” she asked anxious, already imagining all the fantastic dresses she could make with a so versatile and light fabric; suddenly her reputation for Shadow raised, he wasn’t as raw as she had thought when they first met.

“invented?” asked a bit confused Shadow “You must have guessed wrong, these clothes are hundred percent natural, no one invented it.” he explained smiling pointing to both the clothes he was wearing and the ones in the hands of Rarity.

“Such things dson’t exist!” almost shouted Rarity shocked.

“Free to think so, but I know what I’m wearing.” cut short Shadow not very interested to start a useless debate.

“Anyway… where these clothes come from?” asked Rarity haughty pointing to the clothes that Shadow was wearing then, trying to take back control of the situation.

“Nekuro went home and took them for me.” answered Shadow innocently looking at his clothes trying to find a reason for the tone of Rarity.

“And your clothes look all the same?” kept going Rarity mocking Shadow.

“Do you have any problem with that?!” exclaimed Shadow embarrassed by that meaningful tone “It was cheaper this way!”

“Sooo why don’t you bring me some of this fabric you are talking about?” asked Rarity with her eyes sparkling for the excitement “Then I can take care of this little problem.” proposed taking the opportunity that she was able to create.

“No way.” replied Shadow roughly, regaining immediately his coolness, and showing perfectly his resolution on that topic.

“What? Why not?” asked Rarity disappointed by Shadow’s behaviour and thinking about the failure of her plan “I could make fabulous dresses with this.” she grumbled sad.

“I’ve no doubt about that, really.” said Shadow trying to raise Rarity’ spirit “I’m sorry but I don’t want that someone else comes to know this type of clothes.” he said trying to give a motivation to his denial.

“What does it mean?” asked Rarity confused “Everyone would love to buy something so refined.” she tried to convince Shadow.

“The truth is that the raw materials are located in a pretty dangerous place without the right knowledge, and I don’t want to feel responsible if someone hurts himself.” explained Shadow in the hope of a quick ending of that conversation.

“But there must be some way I can have that fabric! Right?” almost cried Rarity for the anxiety, refusing to accept the fact that she would not be able to use that fabric, as she now knew of its existence.

“Well, there may be a possibility, I suppose that I could take the raw material myself and…” started to say Shadow, understanding that Rarity would never give up.

“Oh thank you! Thank you!” Rarity jumped incredibly happy trying to hug Shadow for the excitement.

Shadow nimbly avoided the hug relieved because they had come to a conclusion, but he said seriously “But only under specific and necessary conditions: you mustn’t sell the dresses you are going to make, use them for fairs and shows or either tell anyone how you got the fabric.” with a tone that showed clearly his resolution and decision about his conditions.

“Whaat?!?” shouted Rarity dumbfounded almost unbelieving to her own hears “And what should I use them for then?” she asked indignant by the dictatorial conditions of Shadow that had left her with no possibility to use the fabric to make the beautiful dresses she had thought to, apart from leaving them in the dust somewhere.

After thinking for a while Shadow came up with a good and simply solution “Fluttershy told me that you are going to the Grand Galloping Gala, so you could create your dresses with this fabric, in this way they will be the most perfect, so not only you would be pleased but also all the other Elements of Harmony.”

After thinking about this for a while Rarity said “Ok, I suppose it will be fine this way.” happy to have found something good to use for the dresses she was going to make but still a bit sad for the restriction not to show them to anyone else.

“Perfect!” replied Shadow very happy to have come to another arrangement, then after a quick mental calculation he said “In this case it will be twenty silver coins for the fabric for each dress.” he wasn’t sure of the right price for what he was selling, since he had no experience in fabrics and clothes sales but he thought it was a good estimation.

“Twenty!?!” shouted Rarity surprised by the high price “I sell silk dresses for ten silver coins! How can it be so expensive?” she said thinking that anyone else would have felt indignant if she had to pay that price for a usual supply, but since she was talking to Shadow she felt generous enough to let it go, obviously the fact that they were talking about a new and fantastic fabric had nothing to do with such a generosity.

“Really?” asked Shadow who hadn’t paid attention to the shop prices and, if he had taken into consideration them he could have asked twice the price “Anyway I can assure you that’s a reduced price. And I’d like to have half price paid now and half to work done, you know for consumables and others things.” he ended smiling friendly.

“Fine.” said Rarity still not totally convinced by Shadow’s speech but decided to have that fabric.

“I’m going to leave tomorrow and it will take me four days,” Shadow informed Rarity “in the meanwhile I would suggest you to create some sketches, I will not be able to bring you enough fabric for two dresses each.”

Shadow was walking in a very ancient and gloomy forest, the big trees looked heavy and weary to the monstrous cobwebs, filled by bones and prey’s corpses, that were covering them but nothing of these things really bothered Shadow who in that moment was trying to remember the name of that forest unsuccessfully, but even this was something unimportant. The only thing that he cared was that there he would have found the fabric for Rarity. From Ponyville a normal volante would have taken almost a week to reach the forest but Shadow managed to reach it in less than two days.

In contrast with Shadow’s calmness Nekuro was instead very anxious “Meow?” he asked to Shadow almost shivering.

“You should know better than me that we are close,” said Shadow keeping calm “and one more thing, I’m warning you right now but I’m going to use my coupon, and you are not going to like it.” he said looking at Nekuro with an evil smile.

“Meow?” asked Nekuro showily gulping even more anxious than before.

“Fine.” consented Shadow a bit bothered but unable to say nothing to his cat; and so satisfied Nekuro climbed up on Shadow’s leg and hid himself between Shadow’s shirt and T-shirt from undesired glances.

So Shadow kept walking through the forest always looking around trying to find what he was there for, but he found almost nothing rather than cobwebs and bones, suddenly he saw something out of space: an equestrian’s skull, apparently someone had gone there for some unknown reason and obviously didn’t end well, but apart from this consideration no other thought or feeling touched Shadow who impassive stared at it for a couple of seconds.

Shadow was about to continue his walk when suddenly he heard a tempting voice behind him “What a pleasant surprise! I would never imagined to see an equestrian today, and particularly not you.”

Shadow turned around, ready to face the source of those words with a ready answer; but when he saw the naked female figure behind a bush Shadow blushed and covering his eyes with his right hand agitated exclaimed “Aracne! Please, could you put something on at least?”

“Shy as always, aren’t you?” giggled Aracne, who was a unique creature: her top half was mostly human, while her bottom half was a huge spider. Then amused by Shadow’s reaction covered her breast with some web that she created on the spot, “Happy now? I bet that you are still virgin, right sugar cube?” she provoked him with a malicious smile.

“That’s nothing of your business!!” shouted Shadow very embarrassed and blushing even more shooting an angry glance to Aracne, who seemed not to have any intention to stop chuckling.

Deciding that it was enough, Aracne watched around, like she was looking for something, but soon she exclaimed ashamed “Look at this place! It’s all a mess! I’m sorry but I don’t receive visits very often.”

“I wonder why.” joked Shadow glancing the skull of the equestrian behind him and kicking slightly some of the bones to his feet.

“I wonder it too.” said Aracne thoughtful unable to catch Shadow’ sarcasm, or just ignoring it, “But back to us again, what brought you here?” she asked interested by that unexpected visit to her home “Don’t tell me that your clothes got tighter already! You know that it’s a pain to sew all of them.” she complained recalling all the clothes that she created for Shadow during his life.

“No, it’s not about that,” Shadow reassured Aracne “but still I’m here for your skill web, the kind that you use for your eggs.” he said smiling cordial, happy to have finally been able to obtain Rarity’ s commission.

Strange Acquaintances pt.2

“And why should I?” Aracne asked a bit bored to Shadow’s request “If I really have to do such thing, you should at least give me a good reason to do so, you can’t come here uninvited and requiring!.”

“ In short,” started Shadow deciding to spare Aracne all Rarity’s fuss “we can say that I’ve commissioned the evening clothes for six girls.” he said casually, satisfying Aracne even if he thought that it wasn’t necessary.

“Oh, even six?” asked Aracne naughty, both surprised and amused by such a revelation “Are you planning to create your own harem?” she pressured Shadow, while covering her mouth with a hand to hide a little laugh, excited to see his reaction.

“What?” asked Shadow initially confused, and then after he realized what Aracne had actually said he yelled “Noo! I mean… how can you think such a nonsense!!” obviously embarrassed by that insinuation which would never have slipped in his mind.

“Sure.” laughed Aracne; then ,becoming serious “You know that it’s not free, right?” she asked serious , reminding Shadow of the reason of his visit.

“Of course, I’m not a fool after all.” said Shadow immediately regaining his coolness; “Here it is!” he proclaimed showing her the bottle of wine that he had brought with him for that moment.

Aracne studied the bottle; it had no label, since the glass was green she was unable to say for sure but it seemed to contain a red liquid “Red wine almost for sure.” she guessed, then slightly disgusted she complained “I hate wine.” a bit offended from Shadow’ forgetfulness and bad decision.

“I know.” was Shadow’s simple answer, while handing the bottle to Aracne with a confident smile.

Aracne a little hesitant, but encouraged by Shadow’s behaviour, opened the bottle and sniffed the content “Blood!” she exclaimed surprised, “You surely know girls like!” she smiled happily closing the bottle for a later event.

“I don’t know if I can call you girl, but at least I know what you like.” thought Shadow smiling, careful not to say it out laud; then he started to explain “It’s a mixture of the blood of different species, recently I’ve found out that timberwolf’s blood can be used as a good sweetener,” he proclaimed proud “I’ve also added a little amount of caffeine, if I remember well it may replicate the effects of alcohol on arachnid’s creatures.” he said to show Aracne the attention and the specificity of that drink, “I also made sure that it will not coagulate for a long time, obviously.” he ended with a big smile.

“All great,” congratulated Aracne delighted by that present and charmed by Shadow’ speech “but you should know that this is not sufficient for all the silk that you are asking me.” she smiled trying to raise the stakes.

“And that’s the reason why I’m here with a second offer:” grinded Shadow expecting that turn of events and already enjoying what was about to happen “I’m also going to offer you a dinner with Nekuro.” he proclaimed and then waited for her reaction.

Immediately Nekuro jumped out from Shadow’ shirt grabbing to his left shoulder with a shocked look shouting displeased “Meow!?!” evidently contrary to that idea.

Aracne was still surprised when that happened but, as she saw Nekuro, her face became joyful “Sweetheart!” she yelled energetic, happy to finally see the cat that she was looking for since she had met Shadow, “So there is where you were hiding!” she giggled picking up Nekuro with incredible speed and starting to hug him so fast that Nekuro was unable to do anything to avoid that; then looking to Shadow, Aracne said “You convinced me, I’m going to give you what you want tomorrow morning.”

Shadow nodded calm in response, everything had gone as expected.

Aracne turned around heading towards her home where she and Nekuro would have had dinner soon, Nekuro could have at least tried to escape but he knew that Shadow had used his coupon preventing Nekuro to refuse the dinner invitation “Meow!” he yelled in a desperate attempt to convince Shadow.

“Sorry.” whispered Shadow, his hands crossed, but Nekuro could tell for sure that Shadow wasn’t sorry at all, because the big smile on his face, barely able to withhold a laugh.

“Sweetheart, I knew that you were here around, you and Shadow are always together after all; but why didn’t you show up early? Is there anything that is worrying you?” asked Aracne with care, Nekuro decided that it was better not to answer, not that it really mattered, since even Aracne could not understand Nekuro’s speech.

The next morning he met Nekuro just outside the forest where Aracne had left the silk promised to Shadow, after a nice night spent with his “sweetheart”.

“That’s it.” said Shadow happy for the good result of his mission, and also for the funny prank against Nekuro “One day you will tell me what you did to her to make she behave like that.” He giggled to Nekuro.

“Meow.” grumped Nekuro offended and not in the right mood to have that kind of conversation, not even in the mood to listen to Shadow.

“And so? Don’t you tell me anything? What happened?” kept pressuring Shadow enjoying too much the possibility to annoy Nekuro with something that he was embarrassed about, and not the opposite for once, “Did you have… FUN, last night?” he asked suggestive.

Nekuro had enough of that behaviour and looking at Shadow furiously, he raised his fur aggressive; and was in that moment that Shadow knew he fucked up “Maybe I’ve gone too far this time.” whispered to himself worried, starting to think a way to escape, knowing already that it was too late for anything.

It was already the beginning of the sixth day since the Shadow’ departure and Rarity was walking evidently worried up and down the dining room , while Twilight, who had come for a visit, was sitting calm at the table with a cup of coffee in her hand.

“Calm down” suggested Twilight sipping the coffee, first of all because she felt bad for Rarity, and second because Twilight knew that Rarity had the tendency to overreact for every problem and this was probably one of those times.

“But he told me that he would be back yesterday at worst!” ruffled Rarity who couldn’t get out of her head Shadow’ warnings about the dangerousness of his trip even after all the reassurances he had given her and the confidence he had showed before leaving.

“He has probably just taken a break during the way back.” replied Twilight peacefully, unaware of Rarity’s conversation with Shadow, and yet’ even if she had known, she wouldn’t have been worried about it since it would have probably been some kind of joke from Shadow’s side.

“You don’t understand.” complained Rarity concerned “Shadow mentioned something about a kind of danger or something like that…” she continued sharing her worries with Twilight whose tranquillity was making Rarity even more anxious; “what if something bad happened to the fabric?!” exclaimed Rarity scared trying immediately to get rid of that horrible thought.

Not receiving any answer Rarity slowly looked at Twilight who was staring at her disappointed, as she was silently judging her “Really? The fabric?”

Immediately realizing her mistake, Rarity tried to correct herself “Shadow! … I meant Shadow, obviously.” then feeling even more embarrassed she explained “It must have been a slip of the tongue....; I’m so concerned about Shadow that I got confused and misspelled it.” showing her best smile.

“Obviously.” sentenced Twilight seen right through Rarity’s weak show; yet Twilight was a still disappointed seeing Rarity’s sigh of relief as if everything had gone as planned. Right then they heard someone knocking at the door and Rarity went and opened it with a serene smile as if the recent conversation had never happened.

“Here I am at last,” said the clear voice of Shadow “sorry for being late, but I slipped on my way home.” he giggled.

“what the fuck happened to you?!” yelled Rarity with a mixture of surprise and fear at Shadow’s appearance. Shadow had cuts all over his face and hands, some still bleeding but his clothes looked still perfectly fine.

“Do you mean these?” asked Shadow pointing at the cuts “Nekuro did them, I made him angry and he decided that I would have been a perfect scratching post.” he joked looking behind him where an arrogant Nekuro were patiently waiting, then Shadow went on talking to Rarity, who was no more scared but still very confused, “But you have no reason to be worried, I made sure that none of the fabrics were dirtied in this accident” proclaimed Shadow pleased, showing to Rarity three big bolts each with enough fabric to make two dresses, but nothing more, the fabric was still white but Shadow knew it was really easy to colour it with the dyes that Rarity already owned.

Forgetting everything else Rarity ran to check the delivery with joy, to Shadow she seemed almost hugging the fabrics such was her great enthusiasm , that he felt a bit uncomfortable; after that, turned to Shadow saying “here is the money; just as we agreed.” handing the coins to Shadow with a friendly smile, she was so anxious for this delivery that in the last days she had prepared the exact value just to be sure to pay as quick as possible.

“I’m sorry, but I cannot accept money;” Stated Shadow refusing to take the coins, as he required pre-payment from his customers, he also required the complete fulfilment of the commission by himself, otherwise he would feel like he had failed both with the customers and himself; “ We agreed that I should have been back yesterday, I’m late with the delivery.” he explained seeing the confused look of Rarity.

“Oh, who cares?!” exclaimed Rarity at the top of her lungs, too excited to accept a refusal “Take it, consider this a presents from me.” she decided grabbing Shadow’s hand and forcing him to take the money.

“Thanks.” said Shadow accepting the coins showing his best smile, at this point he had no other reason to refuse and he wasn’t the kind of person who would refuse “easy” money anyway; “And someone call me crazy.! ” he thought putting the money in his pockets while watching Rarity cuddling the fabrics.

“So the great danger you told Rarity was just your cat getting a little mad for..... whatever reason?” asked sarcastically Twilight leaving the house; Twilight was not the kind of person who liked annoying people with sarcastic comments, but there’s something unknown about Shadow that drove her to have a passive-aggressive attitude towards him.

In response Shadow shrugged silently, showing a thin guilty smile, after all that was partially the truth but, in Shadow opinion Twilight wouldn’t need to know about the real kind of danger it was.

Twilight, satisfied with that apparent silent confession, left Rarity’s house, she had work to do at the library and since Shadow had come back from his trip, calming down Rarity, she had no reason to stay there anymore.

Then Shadow helped Rarity to carry the fabrics inside, Rarity used a levitation spell so it was easier , and he was just about to leave when Rarity all excited proposed, or more correctly forced, Shadow to go upstairs to see the prototypes of the dresses she was going to make with the fabrics.

Rarity showed Shadow six mannequins wearing fascinating dresses each designed and created personally to match and show off each owner’s personality. She had started to work on them the exact moment she knew that the six girls would have gone to the Grand Galloping Gala but the idea to use an unknown type of fabric had trilled her so much that she had worked on the dresses with a speed that had surprised even herself; “So? What do you think?” asked Rarity excited “Obviously there is still a lot to improve, but I’m pretty satisfied.”

“Pretty.” was the concise reply of Shadow not exactly impressed by the dresses, they were pleasant to the eye but, even so, they were unable to sparkle any real feeling in Shadow.

“Pretty?!” shouted Rarity as if Shadow had insulted her personally “But they are supposed to be beautiful.” she mumbled suddenly depressed, she had worked so hard and yet the reaction of Shadow was everything but what she would had desired or even expected.

Surprised by that reaction, and unable to really understand the reason behind it, Shadow clumsy tried to save the situation “Sorry! Let’s see, how can I say it? It’s just that I never use the expression ‘beautiful’ to describe something, so we can say that ‘pretty’ is my best compliment.” but just as he pronounced those word they sound incredibly stupid to Shadow himself “Besides, I’m total ignorant about fashion, I'm sure that everyone else will find your dresses simply gorgeous!” he tried to recover hoping that that was enough.

“Do you really think so?” whimpered Rarity.

“Sure!.” said Shadow hoping to end the conversation as soon as possible “Why it has to be so difficult to deal with people?” he thought nervously.

“Good!” exclaimed Rarity after hearing exactly what she wanted “Now sorry, but I have to work on my gorgeous dresses!.” giggled while leading Shadow to the door leaving him so stunned that he was unable to do or say anything about that sudden humour change.

“What the fuck has just happened?” wondered Shadow a little after Rarity closed the door.

“Meow.” said Nekuro aloof.

“It is easier for you, you don’t have to deal with crazies.” puffed Shadow still a bit confused.

“Meow.” giggled Nekuro as they started their way home.

“But I feel that you enjoy my craziness ,don’t you?.” pointed out Shadow.

The curse

A hooded figure was walking through the Everfree Forest calmly as there was no possibility of danger around; Zecora was almost back home and she felt satisfied with the way things had gone that day. She had collected a lot of samples and the particular ecosystem of that forest was perfect for her researches, she had left her home since almost half year but that wasn’t a problem for her.

“BEEP!” alerted the safety radar that Zecora was wearing on her right arm; that version of safety radar was a prototype device created by Zecora herself, able to identify the approaching of anything emitting ML radiation within the radius of twenty metres and it could even show the direction which the potential threat was coming from on a little display.

The ML radiation was a particular kind of energy emitted by every living being, some creatures were even able to manipulate this energy for a large number of application even if unconsciously; “Like the inhabitants of this reign, who ignorantly just call this phenomenon ‘magic’.” as Zecora usually liked to remind herself each time she was working about it; but in that moment she had other thoughts..

“What’s going on?” wondered Zecora checking the radar “I should have used enough disturbers to secure this path; did I mess up anything ? Did anything go wrong?” she considered starting to get anxious.

After identifying where the danger was coming from, Zecora turned to face it pointing the teaser that had as personal defence towards her, holding it with her left hand revealing a dark skin arm; the teaser should have been powerful enough to surprise at least any beast in the forest, giving her the time to escape.

Surprised is not enough to describe Zecora’s reaction when she found out that what she thought to be a dangerous beast ready to attack her, actually was a young equestrian with white and azure hair and green eyes, who, caught off guard by Zecora’s reaction, put his arms up in a gesture of surrender, stopping about ten centimetres from the teaser.

“Whoa, whoa, easy with that thing.” slurred nervous Shadow recognizing the teaser and not interested to deal with it, particularly if in the hand of someone who thought to be attacked from behind.

“I was not exactly expecting company today.” replied suspicious Zecora keeping the teaser in a high position, there was something wrong with that situation even if her mind still messed up couldn’t grape what .

“And I wasn’t expecting to see a suddista so far from his reign and in such a dangerous place, Zecora.” smiled Shadow. From the information he had collected he had already imagined that Zecora should have been a suddista but the absence of the Cutie Mark on her left hand removed any doubt “By the way, I’m Shadow Smoke, why don’t we try to be friend?” he asked politely; now that he was so close to her he could clearly see the dark skin, the hair of different shade of grey and the dark eyes, moreover Zecora was wearing a rustic dress all typical characteristics of the suddisti.

The suddisti were a population living in a reign south of Equestria and physically they were not particularly different from the equestrians; they had darker skin and no Cutie Mark, the biggest difference was the absence of the soul gem that precluded the use of the magic in the way that the equestrians thought, on the other hand the suddisti were marked by a developed mind making them expert scientists and inventors to the point that someone theorized that they had a soul gem in their brain, hidden to any research.

“How did you find me?” asked confused Zecora realizing where that sensation of uneasiness was coming from; the disturbers, that she had planned should have hidden herself and ensured that she couldn’t be found, was the exact reason why they were created. She had tried a couple times to interact with someone at Ponyville but her strange look had always scared everyone; these two factors together made almost impossible to meet someone even accidentally and yet the young equestrian that introduced himself as Shadow obviously was looking for her.

“Oh, that’s what is troubling you?” asked relieved Shadow, which surprised a little Zecora but at the same time tranquilized her; Shadow said “If you really want to know, I wasn’t the one to find you, it was him.” pointing towards the ground at his right.

Looking down Zecora saw a black cat near Shadow that she hadn’t noticed until then, “By the way, his name is Nekuro.” Shadow informed her; “A cat?” thought Zecora “It could make sense, both the radar and the disturbers were meant to work on creature with strong ML radiation, maybe a cat can bypass this system, I wonder why I have never thought about that.” considered Zecora lowering the teaser and feeling safer.

“Meow.” yawned Nekuro visibly bored.

“You can’t blame her, this situation has developed because you rushed to her.” complained Shadow in return; most of the times Nekuro protested because Shadow opted for the slowest approach but sometimes Nekuro was too impatient.

“You can talk with your cat?” asked surprised Zecora, she knew that some equestrians could use what they call ‘magic’ to naturally perform a lot of activities otherwise impossible, but what she witnessed could have been possible only by the clan of the magi characterized by a gem on their forehead, which her interlocutor was clearly lacking.

“Yes.” responded quietly Shadow.

“That’s it!” thought exited Zecora “I’ve found someone worth to study.” to study the flora e fauna of that forest was interesting and already gave her some results but she had always been very interested about the unique equestrians’ ability to use the ML radiation but particularly be the extreme limitation of the clans of the terrestri and volanti inexistent for the magi; “So what do you want?” asked Zecora acting as cool as possible “It’s pretty obvious that you were looking for me.”

“You are right,” admitted Shadow “I was just wondering if you could help me with a little problem I have.” he said remaining vague on his words, tone of voice and look.

Zecora nodded considering her option “My house is not far from here, we can talk more calmly there.” after all they were still in the Everfree Forest and she had to check the disruptors in that zone before feeling completely safe after that unexpected encounter.

“That’s a great idea.” agreed happily Shadow following Zecora and followed himself by Nekuro who still looked incredibly bored.

The house of Zecora was a single big tree, just like the Ponyville’ library, but Shadow could easily tell that it was made recently and that for sure it wasn’t made by terrestri, it just lacked of the stability that only they were able to give to buildings allowing them to resist centuries even without maintenance; so Shadow supposed that that house might have been be made by Zecora herself using some of her creations typical of the suddisti.

But if the outside of the building was nothing spectacular the inside really hit Shadow; the main room was dominated by two long desks on which he could be immediately notice a lot of pages filled with notes, tubes and ampoules containing all sort of things; there were only a few seats but enough for just a person, the windows were big and bright allowing the light to rebound on the light coloured walls Upholstered with bookshelves; all in that room recalled efficiency and effectiveness.

“Nice house.” commented Shadow not trying to cover his amazement.

“Thanks.” answered quietly Zecora; to her eyes that was a simple room with barely the necessary stuff for her complex experiments but he was sure that to the eyes of an equestrian that had to be an impressive view, probably that room could reveal even the biggest scientific association of Equestria considering also that this reign was a very ‘magic’ focus; “So what do you want my help for?” asked sitting on the nearest seat.

After a moment of uncertainty Shadow talked “A curse; I know that must be difficult for a suddista to accept it, but I’m affected by a curse, simply there no other way to describe it.” he explained so seriously that even Zecora doubted him for a second

“A curse?” asked interested but unsure Zecora “I’m not sure what do you mean by that; you should try to be more specific.” she was still sceptical about magic and curse but at the same time she was sure that if a problem existed it could be dealt with the right approach.

Shadow handed Zecora a bunch of papers that he was holding under his shirt saying “This is the summary of the results and study I’ve already obtained, hopefully they will help.” without any trace of emotion; “I’ve already tried various types of magic, but nothing seems to work as it should.”

“What you equestrians call magic it’s nothing more than scientific principles with a side of popular beliefs that you accept because it’s easier than finding the true answer.” puffed Zecora sarcastically; maybe a bit too rudely, but she just could not help herself, she found absurd that idea that ‘magic’ could help to solve any problems without knowing either the problem or the solution.

“I’m happy to hear that you have a so different approach.” smiled Shadow entertained by that demonstration of pride “Hopefully this will lend to better results.” he said politely.

Zecora in the meanwhile started to look at the papers provided by Shadow; at first glance she could tell that it wasn’t the work of a single man and yet all the pages were written with the same handwriting “Probably Shadow had re-written all the information he had had by himself, this proved his attachment to this thing.” she considered; “What do you want me to do about this curse?” she asked casually already imaging the answer.

“I’d like you to remove it, obviously.” confirmed Shadow “Or at least weaken it to the point that it can be controlled.” he said with a tired look; “I will provide all the raw materials myself.” he added.

“Good, since it seems to be a long work.” said Zecora continuing to study the papers, it looked as if most of the efforts had been concentrated to contain some kind of energy, that in the papers was called obviously magic; “First, before I start working I have to know what this ‘curse’ is about; it is not mentioned in the papers.” she said calmly. After all she had nothing to worry about , a simple superstition about curses.

Shadow needed more than a moment to consider his possibility “Fine, I’ll show you,” he sighed anything but excited “but I’m warning you: brace yourself this is not going to be pretty.” he warned her getting seriously but with a melancholic look.

In that moment a big portion of the Everfree Forest was filled with a single simple emotion, the most primitive and overwhelming of them all, the emotion called terror, and Zecora’s house was its origin; the bravest of the creature that felt it started to run for their lives, the smartest feigned death in the hope not to be noticed and the rest were just too traumatized to do anything apart from shivering and waiting ,because every single beings that felt that terror knew exactly one thing: their lives were at the end and there could be no choice by their part; but as fast as this emotion spread, it ended after a second.

Zecora was trying to realize what had happened, but she was sure of one thing: she was no longer seated, she was lying, fallen on the ground bringing with her a couple of ampoules that she had grabbed trying to hold to the first thing at hand, resulting in the destruction of one of those despite their resistance, and throwing the papers she was holding all over the place; and now she was shivering uncontrollably staring at a perfectly normal Shadow.

“Sorry, sorry, it was my fault.” said humble Shadow starting to collect what had fallen without haste or surprise, every single movement followed by the scared eyes of Zecora who couldn’t dare to move any others muscle; then when he had finished he walked to Zecora “Wait, I’ll help you up.” whispered reassuringly offering his hand to help her.

Zecora hadn’t taken her eyes off Shadow’s face for the entire time he had cleaned up, but when he offered his hand a glance to that hand approaching her was enough to cause a new reaction of fear, but her feet couldn’t quite find the grasp on the ground allowing her to slide only for a couple of centimetres on the clean floor; seeing that Shadow drew back looking in Zecora’s eyes with a sad look, there were no surprise or rage nor resentment in his eyes just understanding saddens.

“So, you can do something about it?” asked a bit embarrassed Shadow, after a long second of complete silence just as the animals restarted their normal lives filling the forest with its naturals sounds.

That simple question was the safety for Zecora; in fact it forced her mind to reactivate, to think, to remember who she was; she was a scientist, a woman of intellect that was able to face any problem with clear mind until she could find a rational solution; she had no reason to be scared of something called curse just because she didn’t know how it worked “I’m not sure, but surely I’ll try.” she said with trembling voice while slowly getting up.

“Good.” exclaimed Shadow happy; then he started to make his way to the door, where Nekuro was waiting still with a bored expression on his face, “I have big hopes for our cooperation; I’ll wait to know what you need, don’t let me wait too much.” he said excited.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll tell you soon.” smiled Zecora without been able to sound too excited about it.

Shadow was just about to cross the door when he stopped and turning his head to Zecora said “I think it’s unnecessary but, you know what will happen if you tell anyone about what you saw, right?”

Zecora could see only the right eye of Shadow but that was more than enough, not rage, not sadness nor sympathy just an iron determination and t a promise that gave her the chills in the back “Yes.” she answered looking down at the floor; then Shadow left without adding a word, followed by the silent Nekuro.

Short after Zecora was studying the papers that Shadow had provided her ,trying to understand a possible curse of action “This time you get yourself turned around very troublesome, right Zecora?” she asked to herself “But damn if it’s something thrilling!.” She thought excited; she knew that she had found something unique, something that no one had never studied before; and that was enough for her to ignore that whisper of her mind wondering about those who had provided the information she was reading.