Shadow

‘Owwwwww’ thought Shadow as he started regaining consciousness and feeling the biggest migraine ever forming in his head. He tried to open his eyes but he quickly shut them back when the bright light of the hospital room quickly blinded him and he thought ‘Ack for the love of...ok calm down shadow and just think about where you are’ listening to his surroundings he heard a steady beat of what sounds like a heart monitor and concentrating on the smell it smells like a bunch of medical supplies. He then thought “ok I'm in some sort of hospital or in a strange looking jail cell either way it doesn't seem like anyone is nearby so that's good...actually I should check what I can sense before I can think that with confidence’ Shadow then started sensing his surroundings by emotions and through it he sensed a strong amount worriedness coming off from the right, curiosity from his front but faint so it's a good bit of distance away, and two more hidden emotions as if someone was trying to hide what they were feeling. After feeling that he then thought ‘ok I was wrong on the fact that I was alone...and judging from the way everyone's supposed positions are I'm not gonna be able to sneak my way out of this one. I guess there is only one course of action I can take and that’s the type of action my dad normally takes. Winging it like there's no tomorrow.’ Shadow soon started groaning as he shifted himself in his bed and when he shifted to the right he soon heard the sound of Scootaloo shouting “SHADOW!” Scaring the changeling so bad he quickly screeched and jumped out of the bed and latched onto the ceiling shaking from the sudden scare.

When the changeling looked upwards away from the ceiling he saw the filly trying hard not to laugh from the sheer ridiculousness of Shadow’s reaction to the sudden loud noise the changeling quickly said “WHY would you do that Scootaloo!” upon saying that Scootaloo lost all composure and started laughing hysterically and it was only until Shadow managed to climb off the ceiling that two guards head into the room to quickly check on the commotion and when Shadow saw them he quickly thought ‘Oh great first mother why.’ Shadow then started backing off but Scootaloo quickly put a hoof on shadow’s shoulder and said after calming herself down from her laughing fit “...Don’t worry Shadow they won’t hurt you in fact they just want to ask you some questions.” It sort of calmed Shadow down but he still kept his guard up and thought ‘That's easy for you to say Scootaloo but right now I can’t afford to leave my guard down these days’ he then simply said “ok...if you say so buddy.” It definitely brought a smile to his friend which also helped calmed Shadow down. Shadow then quickly sense his surroundings while thinking ‘good thing I can sense emotions without tipping someone off’ when he scanned the surroundings for emotions he quickly sensed someone heading to where Shadow is and is producing a great deal of worry and curiosity while the guards were sending waves of blocked off emotions which is throwing shadow off on pinpointing who was feeling what and after a few minutes of awkward staring and Scootaloo attempting small talk with the guards the door opened and Princess Twilight trotted in and increasing Shadow’s nerves and causing him to start looking around the room for a way to escape the situation how found himself in but not seeing one at all.

Twilight soon said “Sorry for the wait I was looking over some of my notes before I heard that loud screeching noise and I see that he is awake now, say guards mind heading outside the room for a bit.” The guards silently nodded and headed out the door and stand guard over there causing Shadow to be relived a bit but he was still intimidated by the princess. Twilight then quickly smiled and said “Alright that's a bit better anyway hello Shadow my names Twilight and I was wondering if you can answer some of them” Shadow shakily said “O...ok” Shadow then look at Scootaloo and seeing her calm expression and her reassurance Shadow calmed down a bit and Twilight brought out a list and asked “Ok Shadow I have a list of questions to ask of you and you don’t have to answer them and if they are to personal please let me know, anyway here's my first question. What were you doing in the Everfree forest?” Shadow stayed silent on that question and thought ‘there is no way I'm gonna tell them that I'm trying to find my family and I was looking for leads on where they disappeared’ Twilight then got a little sad on the silence but decided to ask the next question “ok I guess you don’t want to answer that one then can you tell me what you like doing?” Shadow perked up on that question and said “My favorite thing I liked to do is playing some music either I'm listening to it or just playing random tunes that I thought of on any type of instrument but mostly on the piano” Twilight written down something and shadow guessed that it was what he said and she asked “That's good to know can you answer me this then can you explain to me how your magic works” Shadow was silent for a bit but said “I'm not too certain I should answer that question can you ask me something else?” he also thought ‘I also rather not anger my dad whenever he gets back from whatever he is doing’ and before Twilight asked shadow a different question he changed his mind and mentions “Actually unlike my brothers and sisters the way my magic is...well different than normal considering who my dad is. I don’t mind demonstrating a few spells that I know and what spells are normal for a changeling but the majority of my spells I learned are mainly taught by my dad and he can be rather secretive on what he teaches to others.” Twilight nodded and written down what shadow said and they heard a strange growling noise head through the air and when Twilight looked up she saw an embarrassed changeling rubbing the back of his neck with a hoof. Twilight then said with a slight chuckle “I'm guessing we should hold out on the rest of these questions later and we should go somewhere and get something to eat.”

Shadow nodded and said “Ok I would definitely liked that. I feel like I haven't gotten anything really good to eat in a great deal of time but I would like to know where we are going though first.” Twilight smiled and said “We're going to be heading to my home. I have a guest room prepared for you when you woke up and I informed everypony what's going on through both the town and my castle so hopefully nopony will be...surprised about your temporary stay in ponyville” Shadow noticeably cringed when Twilight mention about both the town and how everypony knows that he is there and thought ‘crud just my luck that I get the attention of an entire town. Hopefully they aren’t out the door with pitchforks and torches’ after that thought they started hearing muffled shouting and shadow went over to the window and noticed both how fast the time went and how the almost everypony from the town carrying pitchforks and torches outside the door shouting something the changeling can’t quite hear but he did heard princess Twilight gasping at the scene before she said “Oh sweet Celestia why...ok Shadow and Scootaloo can you both wait here for a minute while I defuse this situation” she then left the room leaving behind a annoyed changeling who looked over to Scootaloo who had a nervous smile and soon said “Come to ponyville she said, I would have a great time she said, I would make lots of friends she said” Scootaloo was wincing and the smile was more forced upon hearing that and shadow then took a deep breath and said both coldly and with a strained voice “I reserve the right to say I told you so buddy”

Scootaloo then said “Ok, ok, ok I get it the town might need to just get to know you first but I pinkie promise things will get better” Scootaloo then proceeded to do the moves but shadow quickly grabbed her hoof to stop her and said “Scootaloo it's best to not promise something that you can’t control. If things do get better then you can just tell me you told me so instead but one things for certain I'm not going out there right now until the hatred goes down. Seriously the last thing I need is to start getting sick and then puking from the amount of hatred in the air” Scootaloo nodded and said “Like I said Shadow you will be having fun just you wait. Hey I’ll introduce you to my friends first as well.” Shadow then chuckled then nodded and said “Alright Scootaloo I’ll try to give the town a better shot when things calm down” They both then looked out the window seeing Princess Twilight who was clearly giving the town a good stern talking about what they were doing.

“Again I'm really sorry about how the town acted and I do promise you Ponyville is very nice place to be” said the princess who was obviously upset over the ponies action against the changeling. They were almost at the castle now and Shadow said “It's ok princess I understand why they reacted the way they did but if you don’t mind when we get to your home is it ok if I stay within my room for a great deal of time just to let things calm down.” Princess Twilight nodded and said “Certainly I understand and please call me Twilight. Even though it's been a few months since I became a princess I just normally prefer ponies treating me like who I am and without putting my title first” Shadow nodded and Twilight soon asked “Say Shadow do you mind telling me what changelings eat. Judging from your fangs I think you are all carnivores but I would like to know instead of assuming”

Shadow smiled and said “Certainly but you might find a certain part that's strange. My diet is actually an omnivorous diet so we can eat a great deal of things so meat isn’t a important part of changelings diets and well actually food in general isn’t necessary for our diets and this is where things get weird….ok I really don’t know how to say this without sounding weird but an actual important part of a changeling's diet revolves around emotions but mainly positive emotions” upon hearing that Twilight stopped and looked at the changeling with a curious but unnerved look and before Twilight said something shadow continued “I don’t really know the process since I was still in school before I had to leave the hive but it's only positive emotions that are necessary since bad emotions tend to have interesting effects on us. A good example would be anger and if the changeling senses that emotion it actually leave us with a small headache that increasingly gets worse and worse till it actually physically hurts the changeling. We can train to ignore the pain since it's psychologically induced but even then we all have our limits. As for what happens if we don’t have a intake of positive emotion then our bodies start to basically cannibalize our own brains until we become brain dead.” Shadow then looked down and said “Changelings normally don’t hurt anyone when they take in the positive emotion and it's also the only way for us to do our magic and we also try to respect those who we chose as our food source since we basically stole who they truly loved. I should mention this and it's that we can do other positive emotions but love is the most powerful emotion that we try to gather”

After hearing that Twilight looked like she started worrying about the changeling so Shadow said “Since I'm a royal halfling I have the ability to store a great deal of emotions and produce them but I still have to gather like every other changeling which is why I survived mostly in the Everfree by myself.” Upon hearing that Twilight calmed down a bit but she gotten curious and asked “Royal Halfling is that a special type of changeling?” They soon went through the doors of the crystal castle and started heading down through one of the halls to where the dining room is. Shadow realized what he said and winced real quick and said “crud, ok there are four types of changelings. Pupas, Drones, Halflings, and Royals. Drones are the normal type changelings and come with different types that being regular drones which is a male and nymphs for females. They make the majority of the hive and they mainly have different paths to take and to save time I’ll just say what the paths are there Workers, Warriors, and Nursery. Pupas are simply a changelings equivalent of a colt or filly but they are all called Pupas until they come of age. Halflings like myself are literally what the name suggest they are normally part changeling and part something else. When a changeling falls in love with someone and decide they want a child with whom they consider that they love the results is always mixed considering us changelings are actually compatible with anyone. We’re offered the same positions as a regular changeling but some changelings are sort of prejudice against Halflings and some are outright terrible to those like me. Last we have the Royals and they tend to the hive itself and are our leaders. There is our queen and if she chooses a consort then the next Royal is born. Considering me my mom is a Royal and decided to fall in love to someone outside of her species.”

The changeling looked down real quick and his ears flatten a bit and hesitantly said to Twilight who was amazingly walking and writing at the same time to what Shadow just said “I...I can tell you my mom's name but my dad doesn't want his name out there so I won’t say my dad’s name until he tells me otherwise but well I can actually show you a picture of them but well what I will show you might be a bit shocking to see” They managed to head into the dining room and they all took seats while Twilight ordered some salads and when the person serving them left Shadows horn glowed purple real quick and a quick purple flame appeared causing a few of Twilight's guards to immediately ready to attack the changeling but instead of burning something it actually brought a picture in front of shadows face like some version of dragon fire. He then looked at Twilight who was writing down on what Shadow just did and when she looked up he then hesitantly gave her the photo and upon seeing it she was quickly shocked at both the quality and who was in the photo. The first being she saw was a strange fully armored Biped who was crouched over and a arm over a smaller changeling and judging from the scar was Shadow who was smiling greatly.

The strange biped had a helmet that covered its face but judging from the armor the being is greatly unknown to her and seemed like something out of a sci-fi story. The last figure didn’t help keep her growing nerves from getting any higher. The last person was smiling happily and judging from her face she seemed to be trying hard not to laugh at something but the changeling queen in the photo was none other than queen Chrysalis herself. When Twilight looked at the changeling in shock Shadow shifted in his seat and said “Look I know what my mom did looked evil but it was for a good cause and i’ll happily explain it later” Twilight handed the photo back and Shadow used that same spell he used to summon it to put it away they then all wait for their food which arrived shortly and when they finished Twilight brought shadow to his guest room which was a decent sized room with a potted plant, a window overlooking the town, a circular carpet in the center of the room that has the elements of harmony on it and a nice sized bed to accompany the room. There was also a bookcase which was empty, a chest at the foot of the bed and a table with writing utensils at the ready right next to the bookcase.

When shadow managed to get to the center of the room he soon realized that he forgotten something and he quickly said “Oh crud I forgot something” he then proceeded to turn around and getting ready to run when Twilight stopped him and asked “Shadow what did you forgot and I'm sure I can get it for you” Shadow then stopped and said “Remember that piano in the center of the room you found me a Scootaloo in?” When Twilight nodded Shadow continued “I tend to bring that piano with me wherever I go so I placed an enchantment on it that allowed me to do just that. I really love that piano and is it ok if I can go back to get it” Twilight smiled and said “It's ok Shadow but I do want you back here as soon as possible so I’ll send captain Fast Shot to accompany you in getting your piano back and I would like to see that enchantment as well when you bring it back here”

Shadow smiled and he saw one of the guards next to Twilight stepped forward and said with practiced ease “Hello Shadow Light my names Fast Shot and I'm going to be with you on our brief stroll through the Everfree.” Shadow told Fast that it was nice to meet him and also told him “We can use one of the paths I used to get through the Everfree without any trouble so that way we can get there and out without a scratch” the guard nodded and they both get ready to head back into the Everfree.

Fast Shot

“So Shadow why is it that you enchanted a piano like that.” Asked Fast shot. They were heading through the Everfree and they were almost there and since they traveled in silence Fast decided to break the ice and say something. The Changeling hummed for a minute in thought and said “My hive tends to move a lot mainly to make sure we can’t be found easily by rival hives but even then we have a center place to stay but I normally want to be ready to move with my stuff oh and the reason why I wanted to lug that piano around is mainly because that piano was my first instrument that I created by myself...well actually I had a bit of help from my dad” Fast nodded and said “yeah I noticed on the photo you gave to princess Twilight...that strange bipedal creature, is that your father?” Shadow simply nodded and didn’t say anything else about it until they reached the cave where Shadow used to live. When they entered the cave Fast couldn’t help but noticed that something else was there at the cave and left a strange track like pattern on the ground but he choose not to point it out in fear of being right. Shadow soon said"Say Fast while were here we might as well also grab some of my music books that I kept with me and my saddlebags if you want to help gather some of them you can if you want."

Fast shakes his head and said “Ok” and they went to work gathering over at least 12 musical books and they don’t seem to be limited to the piano but Fast wasn’t sure since he never played a musical instrument so he asked “Hey Shadow mind telling me what instruments you can play?” Shadow looked over to Fast and smiled while saying “Any type of instrument and I can play it as well as tune it but I prefer a piano or a string instrument like a violin. I also heard of this new thing that you ponies invented...can’t remember what it was called though” Shadow thought for a bit before he remembered “Aha! I remember now I think you ponies called it Dubstep or Techno. I heard it once and thought it was interesting” Fast was surprised upon hearing that and said “Wait you never heard of Dubstep or techno? Except that one time.” Shadow nodded and said “Yeah it was thanks to my dad that I discovered that type of music. I believe we went to some sort of club and there was a pony who went by the name DJ Poni3 with a number 3 instead of the normal spelling anyway that's where I was introduced to this strange type of music that I just couldn’t get out of my head. I even tried to recreate it but I just couldn’t go fast enough” Fast laughed and said “Yeah that's something that can’t be created with normal instruments I think it uses some new technology that creates the music but how it works is lost to me since I never used anything like that” Shadow nods and Fast goes back to grabbing and looking over the books Shadow was going to bring and he noticed some of the books are enchanted to where it won’t open so he asked “Hey Shadow did you enchant these books to not open?” Shadow nodded while putting the last of the books in his saddlebags and then said “There are some tunes I keep in certain books that are majorly personal to me so I keep them lock with a special lock anyway that's the last of them so now we got a piano to shrink”

Fast looked at Shadow with speculation as he went over to the piano and he thought “How the heck is he just going to simply shrink a piano” when Shadow looked over to Fast he sported a shit eating grin and his horn started glowing real quick revealing a strange enchanted purple lock with a series of unknown symbols floating around it on the piano and he touched several symbols in a particular sequence and they hear an unlocking sound before the lock disappears and the piano was growling brightly and when it dimmed down the piano itself is shrunk down to a miniature version of itself with a latch on it which is what Shadow used to put it on his necklace. Upon seeing that Fast just simply stared at Shadow and simply said “What...the...buck” Shadow just laughed and when he calmed down he said “Like I said my dad taught me the majority of spells that I can do but for some strange reason the way my dad teaches magic tends to make it somewhat flashy and eye catching so I had to tweak it in order to actually use it but some spells I do keep the flashy effects mainly because it's fun.” Fast nodded and they both get ready to leave and head back but before they did Fast couldn’t help but ask “Ok after hearing and seeing how you changelings normally act why did you all attack us?” Shadow simply stayed silent and looked down before saying “I’ll tell you all soon just not now. Judging how I know princess Twilight I think she let princess Celestia know about my existence and I'm more than likely going to have to go and talk to her and the biggest question she more then likely have would be what you just asked me so I'm going to be silent about that until that time ok.” Fast nodded and they both exited the cave and head back to the castle and they split paths when they reached Shadow’s room both saying their goodnights and heading off to finally rest and look forward for tomorrow but Fast couldn’t help but look back to the strange changelings room and thought “I do hope you can explain to us what's really going on. I don’t buy that invasion being simply that easy when we almost lost and all of a sudden we were able to force them back.”

Author's Note

Things seem to be going well so far...to well...*Starts grinning deviously* lets fix that why don't we