Shadow's Tail: A Dark Hero

by OstensorUmbra

Rating: mature
Tags: Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Other, Original Character, Tragedy, Adventure, Main 6
Length: 50932

I have entered oblivion, but that is far from what I fear I may deserve. I have to tell my story. I need to make sure I never forget what I have done. Did I really destroy everything, or am I just a lost shadow in a sea of darkness?

I see nothing but darkness, but that is far from what I fear I may deserve. I have to tell my story, even if I am alone. I need to make sure I never forget what I have done. I thought I was fixing the problem, but it seems I lost. Did I really destroy everything, or am I just a lost shadow in a sea of darkness? I have to tell my story, but where do I begin? Starting from the beginning will take too long, and I may forget the lives I destroyed. Starting from the end will leave so many questions. I know where to start. I should start with them. Those six ponies that led me to end everything, even though it is not their fault. If I never met them this probably wouldn't have happened though. I'm getting off track. I can feel myself forgetting. I must start now. I am Shadow, and this is what I have done.

Side note: I do occasionally go back and edit chapters.
I'd also like to thank arcanelexicon for making my cover art.

Published 2016-03-01 22:30:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-05-01 17:35:06 UTC

Prologue: This Is My Story

Floating through this void has given me much to think about. I can’t truly recall how long I’ve been here though. There’s not really a way to tell time when you’re drowning in a sea of darkness unable to actually, you know, die. I mean, I’m already dead. How could you kill someone twice? Well, technically I died and was brought back a few times. To bad there’s no one to bring me back now. Everyone who would be able to do that is dead… I think. They're either dead… or my plan worked. If that’s the case I never existed in the first place, but if that was true, I wouldn’t be alone in this void. I did destroy my entire race with me. I probably failed and just ended up causing the extinction of all life as we know it.

If that’s the case, Necromancer wins. He’s a zombie after all…asshole. The worst part of this punishment isn’t the constant agony of… you know… drowning. It’s the fact I’m truly alone for the first time. Ted isn’t here. He was supposed to be fused with my soul, so he should be here if it’s my soul being punished for all the wrong I did. Maybe Necromancer found a way to reverse that. That would mean he did that with the others. He would truly be a god right now…shit.

I always think of what I could have done better, but honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing. I made friends, lovers, and children. I had a beautiful life. I thought if I purged the world of all evil… it doesn’t matter anymore I suppose. Nothing I ever did matters anymore. I drown in this sea of darkness, without hope of a better tomorrow. For me, there is no tomorrow.

I feel warmth on my back. Is this the end of my torment, or am I entering the next level? I look around, “My…My hidden study.” I am no longer in the sea of darkness; I am in my old Everfree mansion. I remember when Inferno burned this place to the ground… with Tidy trapped inside. It was Applejack who saved me from him, but his sister didn’t like that too much. Fluttershy saved me from her. Thinking back on it now, those seven crazy ponies saved me a lot more than I saved them.

There is no fireplace now, no way to leave. I’m trapped her with all my memories, and my…my…my red…leather…book. There it is, sitting on my desk. I…I forgot all about it. I had never even opened the book, but there are so many chapters written by my friends…and by my enemies. Stony gave that to me. I should have listened to him. I never did write anything in it. Maybe now is the time. There’s a quill and a bottle of ink next to it, but I never brought that stuff in here. This place was for sulking in my past sins.

Sitting at this desk brings back memories of Khopesh and Khôra. It was made in my homeland, Drakonia. That place might not exist anymore. This house shouldn’t exist anymore. This must be… I know what must be done, “First my people, then my story.” I dip the quill into the ink, “I know this feather.” Celestia gave this to me, the phoenix feather. I touch the quill to the first blank page and begin my story.

As a whole, my people are called Drakonians, named after the land we once inhabited. There are several races however: The Angels, the Demonic, the Drakonians, the Draxe, the Rockskin, and the Royals. The Angels, Drakonians, Rockskin, and Royals look very similar to…mutated equestrians, i guess; and the rest… well, not so much.

The Angels are the smallest race, and my kingdom's equivalent to a Pegasus. They have a large city in the icy mountains on the northern part of our continent. They have bird-like tails, and pointy legs. The tips of their legs are made of bone, and are the strongest parts of their bodies, but the rest of them is very brittle. The wear masks to cover their entire face. They have mouths that are filled with two rows of razor sharp teeth, and believe they are superior to every other race. They can channel magic through their wings to launch their feathers, or give themselves incredible boosts of speed.

At First glance one might mistake a Demonic for a large feline. That's because that's basically what they are. They can’t use any magic, and are instinctively nomadic. The only race taller than them, are the Rockskin. They normally stay in the many jungles scattered around Drakonia. The jungles are one of the most dangerous places in my homeland, but they are the rulers. They are fast, deadly, and very agile. Their claws make short work of any enemy, and they can use their tails to grab objects or swing through the forest. They wear whatever they can make while they camp for the night. They are almost always criminals, forming bandit parties and preying on anyone who tries to venture into their territory.

The Drakonians are an odd race. They were the original rulers of the land, and named it after themselves. They are typically kind, but if you make it to their bad side… just try not too. They are our Unicorns. They have dragon like claws, and thin, scaly, tails. Every tail has some form of weapon on it, and they have two horns atop their head varying in shape and size. They tend to be the most intelligent race, and have formed many cities across our once great land. They wear all sorts of clothing, but unlike the other races, they cover their entire body in clothing.

The Draxe, well they are basically large, fire breathing, lizards. They’re basically wingless Dragons that can’t stand on their hind-legs. On average, they are the same size as Drakonians, Demonics, and Royals. Most of them hide away in caves, but some leave seclusion for a life of adventure. There aren’t many left after they tried to take over. They aren’t the brightest all around, but are always masters in at least one subject.

The Rockskin are the gentle giants of the desert to the east. They are our Earth Ponies. They literally look like giant Equestrians with a few tweaks. They have blank eyes, spikes for hair, massive, fleshy, tails, and gradient legs. Even though the vast majority live in the desert, they can be found all across Drakonia. It’s easy to tell where they are from since their appearance reflects it. Earthy colors, pointed spikes, and tails meant for crushing, are from the desert. Light or pastel colors, rounded spikes, and hooked tails, are from the mountains. Finally, Colors reflecting nature, thin or mossy looking spikes, and slicing tails, are from the jungles.

Finally, we have my race. I tried hiding what I was for the longest time. The Royals are the only ones who can obtain a Destiny Mark, our version of Equestria’s Cutie Mark. The Royals were originally created, they aren’t natural. They were made to fight of the Eternal Beasts, and the process of becoming a Royal is lost to all. Even I don’t know exactly why I ascended, or why Order did. Maybe it was just the universe saying ‘Fuck You’ to everyone. It was the Royal ironically named The Eternal, who defeated the Eternal Elements by removing their very souls from their vessels, and trapping them in several unnamed mortals. However, even then they could not die. Instead, they move down the bloodline. It makes no sense since they are supposed to be fused into one's soul, but logic doesn’t make sense in my land.

Speaking of my land, let’s give a very brief description. The capital, Drakonia, is in the dead center of the continent. The mountains are to the north, the desert to the east, the plains to the east, and the jungles to the south. The changes between scenery of each section is extremely gradual, there aren’t any sudden changes like in Equestria. Speaking of which, we should probably get to that story now. I could add more, but I feel as if being here is already making me forget. Okay. I am Chaos Ostensor Umbra. I am Chaos Shadowbringer. I am Shadow. And this is my story.

Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End

It was his second time visiting Equestria, and his first day in Ponyville. Shadow sat quietly at the café table in solitude, his waiter shakily trying to set Shadow’s drink in front of him. The waiter zipped away as soon as the tray hit the table. It was perfect, extra sweetened coffee, perfect amount of light to look around, and most importantly, he was by himself. Shadow was not like these Ponies, he preferred being alone and watching. He knew they hadn’t changed since his last time here. They all spouted peace and friendship, but none of them accepted him. He put his dragon-like claws around the cup and lifted it to his nose, “Dark roast, coarsely ground, and ten tablespoons of sweetener. Perfect.” He pulled a flask from his black hoodie’s pocket and poured the contents into the cup. He then proceeded to put the steaming cup to his mouth, gulping every drop.

As soon as his cup hit the table, a somewhat nervous voice broke his absolute silence, “E-excuse me. Are you Shadow?” He turned around to face a purple Unicorn with a small dragon riding on her back. She was…. beautiful, but a Pony nonetheless.

Shadow‘s face was expressionless, “Yes. Yes I am, and I have a question in return.” Shadow pulled off his hood and pointed his slender, black, pointy tail at her, “Who are you? And why are you here?” Shadow’s words came out annoyed and harsh, but the Unicorn seemed more put off by Shadows appearance. She knew Drakonians had fuzzy dragon-like claws and odd scaly tails, but she couldn’t help but stare. His long blue hair blew in the wind, his brown fur glistened in the sun, and his blue eyes drew the attention of everyone who looked at him. She was drawn in by a spot of brown in what would be his left eye. For a moment she thought time stood still, but when Shadow snapped his claws in front of her face she was awoken from her trance.

She stumbled on her words, but managed to speak understandably, “Princess Celestia asked me to check on you, and make sure that our Drakonian guest was doing fine. I'm sorry if I interrupted you.”

Her apology sounded truly heartfelt, but that didn’t matter to Shadow. She needed to learn her place, “As you should be. I do not need to be checked upon by the errand Pony of Celestia.”

“Hey, stop being so rude to her!” The little dragon on her back finally piped in. “Twilight hasn’t done anything wrong! So far the only one who should be sorry is YOU!” Shadow took pause. No one from Equestria has ever spoken to him in such a manner since he was a child. They were always too afraid.

“SPIKE!” The purple Unicorn silenced the dragon with a stern look. “I'm truly sorry for his outburst.”

Shadow gave an almost unnoticeable grin, and his tone lightened, “Oh, not at all, I've never had anyone in this spineless kingdom stand up to me, well, not in a little over a… very long time, but that’s not the point.” He pointed his claws to the dragon, “You there. What is your name?”

Again, the Unicorn looked shocked, but the dragon barked back, “My name is Spike, and this is Twilight, faithful student to Celestia, not her errand Pony.”

Again, Spike was treating Shadow like the jerk he was. “You know what Spike, I like you. I do believe you and I will become good friends. I'm not so sure about the spineless Unicorn though.” He gave an annoyed look at the Unicorn before she stormed off, dragon on her back. As Shadow sat alone once again, he could feel in the air, things are finally going to change, and he wasn’t sure if he liked that.

Shadow headed home, and spent the rest of the evening preparing for the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration. He cut and styled his blue hair, so that the front was long enough to end just above his eyes, and the back to end at the base of his neck. He took off his hoodie and stared into the mirror. His wing bindings were loose since he had his hoodie on, so he tightened them down hard for his suit. He then put on the suit the king had sent him for events such as this. It was your standard maroon prince dress jacket with golden accents and black pants. He stood in front of the mirror and adjusted it with his hands and tail. The suit hid his wings well, and he didn’t have to worry about his two stubby horns poking out from his hair. They were too short to show no matter how he wore his mane. He looked into his baby blue eyes. “Now if only there was a way to remove you.” He looked at the brown spot in the right corner of his left eye, and let out a heavy sigh, “Well, closer to perfect than any of those Ponies can get. I suppose it is good enough.” At that moment there was knocking on his chamber doors. “What is it Tidy?”

An old, brownish-grey, Drakonian opened the oak doors to Shadow’s chaotically messy room. “You seem to have an invitation to some sort of housewarming party.” His hair and mustache had turned white with age, and the mustache moved as he talked so you couldn’t quite see his mouth. He had two small horns poking from his combed hair. The only thing about him that wasn’t antique was his new, black, butler uniform and golden monocle.

Shadow turned and eyed Tidy, “Shouldn’t butlers ask before entering?”

Tidy chuckled before retorting with, “I helped change your diapers. I think I can enter of my own volition.” Shadow knew he was right. Tidy was really the closest thing to family he had left.

“That may be true, but…..” Shadow had nothing, so he shouted angrily, “Just give me the damn letter.” Tidy chuckled as he handed the letter to the grumpy Shadow. “Let's see. Yada yada yada, surprise party, yada yada yada, library, yada yada yada, Twilight.” Shadow thought back to his encounter with her and sighed, “Yeah I’ll go. Not for the spineless horse, but for that dragon, Spike.” Shadow finished the adjustments and headed to his Library for a housewarming gift.

Shadow had no clue what she liked or wanted, so he simply brought his biggest book “The Complete History of Drakonia.” He just knew she would love it. Who doesn’t love Drakonians? He walked through the forest surrounding what he called a manor. In actuality it was the size of a small castle. He walked through town slightly upset since his suite wasn’t tailored to his measurements. The neck was too tight, the midsection was to loose, and he had to roll his front and hide sleeves up so it wouldn’t drag in the dirt. He saw the large treehouse mentioned in the letter, “Who would ever want a house built into a tree? Whatever.” He approached its large doors and knocked. An odd, bright-pink Pony opened the door, looked around, and then dragged him into the dark house. Weird, there was no shock or fear, she just dragged him in. They all sat in the quiet darkness, but that was nothing for Shadow’s cat-like vision. Shadow spotted the gift table, and threw the book towards it. He heard it land on top with a soft “Thunk,” and looked around for the snack bar, hoping it would be loaded with barbecue or some other kind of meat.

But before he could find it, the door opened. With a flash of light, everyone, including Shadow, yelled “SURPRISE!” With the lights on Twilight wasn’t the only one gasping. There were several conversations going on around him, and probably about him, but he finally spotted the snack table, and made his way over to it. He didn’t see any meat, so he settled for the Chips N’ Dip. Eventually Twilight walked over and, unknowingly, began pouring hot sauce into a cup. Shadow decided it might be the right time to warn her, “You might not.”

He was cut off by Twilight, “Might not what?!” She was finally showing some spine, so Shadow watched her. He was silent and expressionless, as she chugged the hot sauce, and then ran screaming to her room.

Shadow shook his head, “I tried warning her. Oh well,” and went back to eating. After eating most of the Chips N’ Dip, Shadow walked over to the punch bowl and poured a cup for himself. Just as he raised it to his mouth, someone bumped into him and spilled the punch all over his suit. Shadow crushed the plastic cup in his claws and turned to face the cowering, yellow, Pegasus. He tried keeping his voice low so only she could hear him, but he was quite angry, “What is wrong with you, you clumsy idiot!”

The yellow Pegasus cowered and in a hushed voice squeaked out “I'm sorry.”

She was spineless, just like the rest of them. Shadow stared down at her angrily, “You had better be!”

Just as Shadow was about to verbally, tear this Pegasus new one, a new blue Pegasus swooped down in between them, “Why don’t you pick on somepony your own size?!”

Shadow butted heads with her, but she pushed back with equal force. “Listen, Blue, your friend here made me spill punch on my suit, so this is our problem. Not yours. Back off.” With that, Shadow slid to the side so that she went crashing into the ground, and turned his attention back to the yellow one. She was quivering, and on the verge of tears. For some reason, Shadow couldn’t bring himself to yell at her.

Shadow’s anger faded and he turned around just as Blue got in his face again, “Listen here!”

Shadow put a single claw on Blue’s mouth to silence her and calmly said, “You two aren’t worth my time. I need to get a new suit before the celebration, so why don’t you pick up the coward and leave me be.” He put his hand down and walked past them.

As he waded through the crowd toward the door, an elegant voice piped up. “Pardon me, but I heard you were in need of a new suit, and I thought I should offer my services.”

Shadow turned to face a white Unicorn that had a beautiful, yet questionably impossible, mane, “Really? Exactly what kind of service would that be?”

The Unicorn spoke with a smile, “Making you look fabulous, darling. It would be completely complimentary, of course.”

Shadow eyed her. Why would she just offer up her services for free? She did have a nice dress on, so he thought maybe she knew what she was doing. He accepted her offer and followed her to a beautiful boutique, which she claimed to be hers. The interior was impressive and he could see many finely crafted dresses hanging from racks lining the walls. The white Unicorn ushered him to a stand in front of several mirrors, “I’ll need you to remove your suit for this.”

Shadow grimaced; he didn’t want anyone knowing about his wings, or even worse, seeing his Destiny Mark. He turned to her with his blank face, “If you are as fine a craftswoman as you say you are, then you should be able to get my measurements even if I am clothed in this terrible suit.”

The Unicorn grinned slyly, “What’s the matter? Don’t want me to see you exposed? I suppose we can do it your way though. I like a challenge.”

Shadow held back a grin, and began thinking to himself, “That was almost too easy.”

The Unicorn circled him, and then started walking to a desk on a nearby wall, “What’s your favorite color?”

Shadow thought for a moment, “I suppose if I had to choose, my favorite color would be black, or maybe gold.” The Unicorn glanced back at him and smiled, then took some black cloth from her desk and began sewing. Shadow stared into the mirror, completely spacing out. He thought of his true mission here. Sure the invitation was a great scapegoat for being here, but he wondered if anyone would know why he was really here. Rarity’s squeal of excitement broke his trance. She said nothing, but levitated a black suit with gold accents in front of him. “Is there a room where I can change in privacy?” Rarity nodded and pointed to her fitting rooms. When Shadow had entered, he stripped of his stained attire, and stared at the mirror for a moment. He thought of loosening the brace he had put around his wings, but decided he’d rather keep them concealed than feel comfortable. The new suit fit much better, and Shadow loved the color scheme. This one was made of silk, and looked far more fit for royalty than his previous suit. As he exited the fitting rooms, he saw the Unicorn had also changed into a very elegant dress, “Remarkable. I simply must know the name of such a fine clothier.”

The Unicorn blushed and flipped her hair, “My name is Rarity.”

Shadow’s raised an eyebrow, “Why exactly did you offer your services free of charge?”

With this, Rarity smiled, “I make it a point to know anypony who’s anypony, and that includes Drakonians.”

Shadow was a little worried, “Who am I then?”

Rarity smiled as she walked toward him, “Your name is Shadow. Princess Celestia personally invited you to the Summer Sun Celebration. I must say, I was happy you had your suit stained. It gave me a reason to introduce myself.”

Shadow looked stunned, “How did you find all this out?”

Rarity walked past him and opened the door, “The celebration will start soon, shall we depart?”

Shadow’s face returned to its normal blank expression, and walked next to Rarity, “Only if you go with me.”

Rarity held her smile, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“I think you’re probably the first friend I’ve made in Equestria.” As they walked to the celebration, they made small talk, but there was only one thing on Shadow’s mind. He was no friend to Celestia. In fact, he hated her. He was hoping she wouldn’t see him; otherwise, he’d be forced to talk with her. They arrived to the celebration fashionably late, and took a spot in an opening near the middle of the floor. Shadow looked around at the decorations, “Beautiful.”

Rarity followed his gaze. “Thank you, darling. I did them all earlier.” Shadow looked impressed. His mind was drifting to where the nearest dessert table could be when the sound of startled gasps filled the room. Shadow looked around and saw many Ponies looking up at the balcony, so he followed their gaze. Atop the balcony stood a massive armored, black, Alicorn. She was giving some long boring speech, but Shadow couldn’t care less since it wasn’t about him.

When she finally stopped speaking most Ponies began running away. He stared angrily at the panicked crowd and mumbled to himself, “Great, more spineless Ponies.” When Shadow turned to Rarity, he finally realized there was no Rarity next to him. He wandered around the building for a bit, looking for her, but gave up and heading outside. As he began heading home he saw six Ponies heading to the forest, and he had seen all but two of them before. He ran toward them, wanting to find out why they were headed toward what was supposed to be the most dangerous forest in Equestria. He was finally a few steps behind them when he shouted, “Where are all of you headed?”

Simultaneously Twilight and Blue shouted back “None of your business!”

“Well that’s rude.” Shadow tried sounding hurt but it came out more sarcastic.

The odd, pink one spilled the beans immediately after, “We’re off to collect the Elements of harmony and defeat the evil Nightmare Moon and save Equestria from eternal night we’re headed to the old castle in the forest wanna come?” Twilight and Blue seemed a little upset at her after this.

“Yes. Yes I do.” Shadow took another step forward before Blue stopped him.

“AAAAnd why should we let you, of all things, come with us?” She looked very pissed.

“Well for starters my mansion is in the forest, I hunt there, I know where the castle you're probably looking for is, and I don’t know about any of you, but I was once a soldier. In other words, I could be an incredible asset to this team.”

The Ponies looked on in shocked silence for a moment before Twilight spoke up, “Do you really know where the old castle is?” Shadow nodded with his typical straight face. “Well then we have no choice girls, come on Shadow.”

Shadow began walking with the group for about a minute before asking, “So it seems as if everyone in this town who has any importance whatsoever knows my name, but I only know two of your names. I think as a teambuilding exercise we should all get to know each other. For those unimportant enough to know my name, I am Shadow.”

The first one to speak was the one he hadn’t met before, “Yer kinda fulla yerself, ain’tcha. Well mah name is Applejack. Me and mah family own Apple Acres down yonder.” Her thick country accent almost bothered Shadow, but knowing she ran an apple orchard more than made up for it.

Next was the odd, pink one, “And I'm Pinkie Pie! And I just know we’re going to be the bestest of friends. I mean I'm friends with everypony, so why not every Drakonian?” She was bouncing around, and smiling the widest smile Shadow had ever seen. He had no clue how she could say all that in one sentence, but he was impressed.

Finally, Blue spoke up, “And I'm Rainbow Dash, the best flyer in Equestria, probably Drakonia too. Actually, you know what, I am. No doubt about it.” Shadow found her cocky attitude kind of nice.

Yellow never spoke up, so Shadow was forced to ask, “Okay, so what’s the quiet one’s name?”

She put her head down and whispered, “Fluttershy.”

“I'm sorry, what was that?”

She lowered her head more, and whispered again even quieter than the first time, “Fluttershy.”

Shadow gave her a confused look before Rainbow Dash spoke up, “Her name is Fluttershy. She’s not very loud, but she has a knack with animals.” Shadow was annoyed with her lack of noise, but thought it was cute in a weird way.

Shadow rolled his eyes, “Great. There’s six of you, and combined you all have about half a spine.”

Applejack gave Shadow an angrily confused stare, “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

Shadow forced back a grin, “Two of you have spines, three don’t, and you get negative points because of Fluttershy.” He thought it was funny, but held his composure. He was holding back his grin and laughter so much he thought he was going to explode. Instead, the ground beneath his feet gave way.

Everything happened so fast. Shadow focused on jumping from rock to rock, but when he heard Applejack yelling, “Let go.” He took his eyes off the ground to check on them. Big mistake. He slid from atop his rock, and then there was darkness.

For a while, he only heard silence until finally a high-pitched Pinkie voice squeaked out, “Where’s Shadow?” Shadow was relieved, “Well at least no one’s dead.” He had somehow landed in a pocket amongst the boulders. He pushed up on the massive boulder trapping him with ease, and it rolled down the rest of the pile.

The first thing he heard after that was Rarity’s panicked scream, “It’s ruined!!!”

Shadow noticed her stare and looked down to his suit. His nice suit was torn in various places, but luckily, it was still intact enough to hide his wings and Destiny Mark. He however seemed virtually unscathed. Twilight stared in awe, “How are you alright?”

Shadow could feel a great lie coming on, “That’s easy. I’m Drakonian. We are superior in every aspect. That landslide was more fun than dangerous to me.” He looked down at them with a straight face, before hopping next to Twilight, “We are stronger, faster, smarter, more endearing.”

He was cut off by Rainbow Dash who had flown up to see where he had landed, “And total liars. There’s a hole in here that you must have landed in.”

The rest of them all started giggling. “You’re a total buzzkill, you know that right.” Shadow took the lead and ushered them to follow, “The castle is this way you technicolored weirdos.” They all followed him in relative silence, and everything looked clear. Well everything but the sky, the path, and the woods. Okay nothing looked clear, and that was made blatantly obvious when Shadow nearly walked head first into an angry Manticore’s paw. Luckily, Twilight pulled him back by his tail. Everyone took battle stances except Fluttershy and the somewhat stunned Shadow. He watched their failing attempts to beat a Manticore with slight amusement. From behind him, he heard the soft squeak of Fluttershy’s voice telling everyone to wait, so Shadow did. He sat down and made himself comfortable until Fluttershy finally got them to listen.

She walked right up to the Manticore and began speaking with it. He roared and hissed, but with Fluttershy’s soothing voice slowly dissolving its anger, the Manticore revealed its paw. From it, stuck a massive thorn, and she just pulled it out. She didn’t even think about it, just yoink, gone. The creature let out a thunderous roar, but instead of ripping her face off, it happily licked her. “Huh, I thought for sure she was about to be the first casualty.” Even the Manticore looked at him in shock, “Oh don’t give me that look. Besides, she just proved she’s got more spine than the rest of you combined.” With that comment, the shocked, open mouths slowly turned to grins and giggles.

Shadow waited for the laughs to stop before encouraging the group to continue. “Okay, we’re back on track… again, this time let's not let anything in our way stop us.” As they continued on the trail, the forest grew darker, and the trees were packed more tightly, “Okay, I am ninety percent sure we’re headed the right way.” Suddenly monstrous faces appeared on all the surrounding trees. “Oh sweet, they have faces.” Shadow thought this was somewhat amusing, but five Ponies behind him disagreed. Their screams were only drowned out by a somewhat uplifting laugh. Shadow was studying one of the faces closely, and trying to ignore the Ponies behind him, but all the sounds of the forest were drowned out by incredibly loud singing. He turned to them annoyed, “Really, really! You’re just gonna start singing now, huh? Oh, yeah, no need to save Equestria or anything.” Shadow couldn’t tell if they were ignoring him or just couldn’t hear him over their own singing, so he gave up yelling at them. As he followed Pinkie and the gang, he let out fake laughs every now and then, mocking their whole song and dance routine. The singing finally stopped when the trees were thinning and the sky was clearing. The group fell on the ground laughing, so Shadow took the lead once again, “Okay, if you ladies are gonna make a habit out of spontaneous singing and dancing, warn me.” The group just continued laughing, but eventually got up to follow Shadow.

Shadow heard them talking amongst themselves, so he looked up to the sky and began thinking to himself. Why did he care? Why is he helping them? He really shouldn’t care about them. The only thing he should be focusing on is his mission. The reason he was here, not saving this worthless kingdom. Shadow was too lost in thought to pay any attention to where he was headed, and nearly fell head first into the raging river. This time, Rainbow Dash was the one who saved him, “And if you’re gonna make a habit out of us needing to save you, warn us.” Again, Shadow stood there straight faced while the rest giggled with glee.

“Is no one gonna pay attention to the river that we can’t cross? See that over there?!” He yelled as he pointed to the other side, “That’s where we need to be!”

They all looked toward the river, contemplating how to cross it, when the Ponies started walking up the river a bit. All Shadow could hear was the rushing water, but he could tell they heard something else. When he finally got up next to them, he saw a massive, crying, well-groomed, purple serpent. He wailed in what Shadow assumed was horrible pain, “What a world, what a world!”

Twilight was the first to speak with the serpent, “Excuse me sir, why are you crying?”

As the serpent spoke, his hands never seemed to stop moving, acting out what had happened, “Well I don’t know. I was just sitting here, minding my own business, when this tacky little cloud of purple smoke whisked past me and tore half of my beloved mustache clean off, and now I look simply horrid!” he began to cry again as he finished speaking. Apparently, Shadow was the only one smart enough to move out of the way of the waterfall of serpent tears.

Rainbow Dash stepped forward, “Oh gimme a break.”

Next to step up was Applejack, “That’s what all this fuss is about?” Shadow didn’t even have to look; he already knew who would pipe in next.

“Why of course it is!” She raised her nose to the air and walked toward the serpent, “How can you be so insensitive? Oh, just look at him, such lovely luminescent scales.”

She began petting his chin as he whined out, “I know.”

She looked up to his hair, “Your expertly coiffed mane.”

With that he rose, “Oh, I know, I know,” pushing his hand through his hair.

She turned her head, “Your fabulous manicure.”

He was eating this up, “It’s so true.”

He looked almost happy again, until Rarity ruined it, “All ruined without your beautiful mustache.”

He threw his arms around his head and wailed out, “It’s true I'm hideous.” Shadow rolled his eyes and mumbled to himself, “Maybe we should just put him out his misery.” A purple elbow poked his left wing. Shadow turned to see if she noticed them, but she didn’t let on that she did. Still he still kept a cautious eye on her for a few more moments.

Rarity wore a determined look on her face as she spoke, “I simply cannot let such a crime against fabulosity go uncorrected.” Finishing her statement, Rarity jumped forward and ripped a scale clean off the serpent.

He threw his hands into the air, “OW! What did you do that for?”

She raised the scale to the air, and paused long enough for Twilight to start a question, “Rarity what are you?” and with one mighty swing, chopped almost her entire tail clean off. The serpent gasped and fell to the ground while the rest of the gang, minus Shadow, looked on in shock. She tossed the scale and levitated the detached tail to the serpent’s face, fusing it with the remnants of his mustache.

The serpent shot up with glee and giggled, “My mustache, how wonderful!”

Rarity smiled, “You look smashing.”

Twilight walked up to her with a concerned face, “Oh Rarity, your beautiful tail.”

The rest of the gang walked closer to her, “It’s fine my dear, short tails are in this season. Besides,” her gaze fell to her tail in sorrow, “It’ll grow back.”

Shadow walked past them and stood in front of the now calm river, “Come on ladies, quit lollygagging. We’re burning…” he looked to the sky again, “Moonlight. Yeah, we’re burning moonlight.”

The water in the stream began to ripple, “Allow me.” The serpent raised a path across the water with his own body, and the smiling Ponies hopped across his back with Shadow.

They had been walking for a few more minutes when Shadow let out a heavy sigh, “I swear, if we keep getting side tracked like this.” With that he shook his head then looked up to the sky.

Pinkie popped up next to him, “You swear what?” Shadow turned to stare coldly at her, but she kept smiling and waiting for a response.

Finally, Shadow rolled his eyes, “It’s an expression. Haven’t you ever heard it before?” Pinkie shook her head no but kept smiling and bouncing. Shadow thought back to how each of them kept getting sidetracked, especially her. He faced forward and angrily shouted, “Imsubyfuid!”

All the Ponies looked confused except for Twilight who shouted back at him, “Hey! We didn’t ask you to be here! So far you haven’t even been much help, so stop acting like a complete jerk.”

Shadow stopped dead in his tracks and turned to her wide eyed, “You speak Drakonian?”

Twilight got right into Shadow’s face, “Yes I do! I learned it because the princess asked me to check on you, and I thought ‘Huh, maybe he’d like to speak his own language’, but so far the only thing you like doing isbeacoas!”

Shadow was even more shocked, she really did know Drakonian. Everyone was shocked at Twilight’s outburst, especially Shadow. She seemed so…. meek until now. The forest was now awkwardly silent. The group stood around in the awkward silence for a few minutes, not knowing what to say. Twilight was upset for a moment, but looked more sorry than anything else now. Finally, Shadow turned and began walking again, “We can either bicker or get moving. I don’t know about all of you, but I plan on becoming a hero of Equestria. They will sing songs of me here that will go perfectly with the ones about me in Drakonia.” He didn’t actually plan on anything like that, but it was better than awkward silence. Although all still silent, they followed Shadow. For the first time it was quiet. Pinkie’s springy jumping had stopped and the whole world seemed as if it was on mute. It was odd; for the first time in a very long time, Shadow hated the silence.

He needed something to break it, any noise would do. So he began humming an old lullaby, ‘Mockingbird’. He saw the road went on straight for a while, so he closed his eyes and hummed louder. After the first few verses, another hum came from behind, then another, and another. Soon they were all humming the same song, even though Shadow, and maybe Twilight, was probably the only one who knew the actual lullaby. When Shadow opened his eyes, Twilight spoke to him, “Why don’t you ever pay attention to where you’re going?”

Shadow opened his eyes and realized she was right next to him, “Simple really. I’m not afraid to fall.”

Twilight looked a little confused, “But you’ve already nearly killed yourself twice.”

Shadow turned his head to face her, “And all of you keep catching me, so why should I be afraid?”

Twilight was just ahead of Shadow be a nose length before she stopped. Shadow stopped as well, and took a single step back. Her breathing got heavy, and she jumped back. Shadow followed suit, but was curious about what had happened. One by one, the Ponies in front of him became too engulfed by what Shadow assumed was fear to move forward. Shadow only the one in front seemed affected by it, so he stood his ground, preparing for what came next. Finally, after even Rainbow dash fell victim to it, it was Shadow’s turn. The Ponies beside him had vanished and in front of him was no longer the Everfree Forest, but the Drakonian Forest of the Damned. He took one deep breath, “I'm not sure if you can hear me, but I need you to follow me. Okay?” there was silence again, the silence he now hated. He remembered his time in the forest all those years ago. The memories were forced into his mind; the enslavement, the death, and all that he had done in his grief. The most vivid in his head was the murder of his father before his very eyes. It was so strong he had to focus most of his energy on just seeing past it. He stumbled on roots and faces fused into the blood stained soil.

He continued to walk forward, never hesitating, never wanting to turn back. All Shadow focused on, was moving forward. Finally, he thought his nightmare was almost over. The trees began thinning, and the forest he feared so much disappeared behind. Then he gazed upon the one thing he thought he feared most in the world, his home, Drakonia, burning. His eyes began watering, but he continued on without letting a single tear escape. He could smell the smoke from the buildings from what seemed like miles away, and when he got closer that smell was replaced by the pungent, disgusting scent of burning flesh. He stopped at the gates of his once beautiful city. He tried to believe none of this was real, but whatever it was, it was to strong for him. In his mind, he had failed, and everyone he once protected, were now dead. He allowed a single tear to escape his eyes before continuing on with a new goal, revenge. He walked through his beloved city, all of it in ruins. He wanted desperately to turn back, and run away from everything, but he wouldn’t allow himself to do it. This was his city, they were his people, he inhaled the horrendous smoke, and all his fear was replaced with bloodlust.

He did not see the bodies from which the smell came from, but he knew he was getting closer. He turned a street corner and saw corpses lining the streets. He couldn’t tell if he knew them or not. This was the Marble Square, the most beautiful section of his city. He once called this place home, but now it was all in decay. Again, a single tear fell from his face. The bodies became more abundant as he walked but it wasn’t until he got to the castle in the center of the city. He gazed upon the massive golden doors to the Spiral Keep, and couldn’t force back any more tears. All of those he had loved, his caring mother, encouraging father, adventurous brother and sister, beautiful wife, and loving daughter, were nailed to the castle walls. Their bodies were burned and mutilated. The tears were streaming now, but he moved ever forward. He stopped before the door and looked up, “I wish you were all still here. Well two of you are, but you’ve changed. I hope one day we’ll all meet in the Eternal’s embrace and become a true family once more.” He pushed the golden doors open expecting freedom, but then faced his final test. As the doors opened the memories of the Ponies he had been traveling with returned. He looked past the open doors and saw all of them once more, but not in the way he had ever wished. He saw them hanging from a tree, their entrails spilling from massive gashes in their midsection.

Of all the things he had seen, this one was the one that made him collapse and burst into tears. It was a silent crying, the one’s you have when you truly can’t stop. For a moment all his will faded away, “Why does this hurt so much? I barely know these lunatics.” Then a strange notion popped into his head. “Why am I stopping?” He remembered all of their smiles; he remembered their goal, their mission. He stood up and for a reason that escaped Shadow, he began smiling. He stared at the bodies on the tree, “Don’t worry girls, I remember what this place is now. It’s nothing more than a silly little nightmare.” The tree from which the Ponies hung stood up too, “Oh, look a tree monster, How dreadfully terrifying.” He roared with laughter and suddenly charged the creature. The creature must not have been expecting this because it took a step back instead of defending itself. Shadow leapt into the air and spun his body sideways, using his tail as a club. He slammed his tail into the creature’s side with all the force he could muster. The tree never stood a chance, and wooden shrapnel exploded everywhere. He raised his hand and grabbed the large chunk, “Touchdown!” he threw the shard into the ground, and slid into the dirt like it was butter.

The bodies that had been thrown away from the exploding tree quickly stood up, rotting flesh and maggots dropping from their face, “And now Zombies? Oh dear Eternal it’s like Christmas.” He watched them approach him, and waited until they were all a step away. With a lightning fast whisk of his tail, they all dropped. He sang soulfully, “Decapitation!” He saw the city and bodies dissolve into purple smoke. With all that out of the way, he walked past the hole in the ground where tree once stood, and found a single oak door. When he grabbed the handle, he was back, and so was his blank expression. He could feel his face was dry, so he happily addressed his companions, “Well that was easy. I guess I’m the only one brave enough to do anything for his.”

He paused for a second, not wanting to make any assumptions, but Pinkie jumped with glee yelling, “Friends!”

Shadow didn’t express it, but he felt joy. He didn’t want to; he wanted to continue hating every Equestrian, but these ones were different somehow. Then Shadow heard an unfamiliar voice, “So what was that back there?” He turned his head towards the quiet noise to see Fluttershy.

Shadow shrugged, “It was some kind of nightmare making spell. Also, I'm not sure, but if I had to guess I’d say these are all traps made by Nightmare Moon to stop us from reaching the Elements of Harmony. All these things happening back to back are just her style. Weaken the enemy, and then finish the job personally. Luckily I have all these handy meat shields to keep me in top shape if that happens.”

Rainbow hovered above Shadow, and gave him a suspecting glare, “You sound like you know her, do you?”

Shadow looked up at her then back at the road, “It’s a long story; in a way, yes, but at the same time, no.” Rainbow Dash landed behind Shadow and rejoined the group, but none of them questioned his answer. It was a little weird for Shadow, so he tried to entice them to ask something, “I knew her when I first came to Equestria as a child. She was…. different back then. She’s just one of the reasons I'm not a fan of Celestia.” Yet again, no one questioned his answer.

Instead, Twilight shouted out, “There it is! The ruins that hold the Elements of Harmony, we made it!”

She ran ahead of the others and Applejack hollered, “Twilight, wait for us!” They all began racing toward the castle, and following Shadow’s previous examples, Twilight nearly fell off the edge of another cliff. Luckily, Shadow grabbed her tail and dragged her backwards.

He held a serious look, “Weren’t you talking smack earlier about how I don’t pay attention to where I'm going?” he heard a few laughs from behind him which again made him happy. He still refused to smile though.

They all looked at the busted bridge which was the only way across the cliff, and Pinkie screeched, “Now what?!”

Rainbow Dash fluttered her wings at Pinkie before taking off to get the bridge back up with a cocky, “Duh.”

A few moments passed, but the bridge wasn’t fully up, “Rainbow, what’s taking so long?” Suddenly Twilight's face grew worried as she looked across the gap, “Oh no, Rainbow...” Shadow tried following her gaze, but the forest’s natural fog suddenly thickened, “Don’t listen to them!” A few moments passed, and then suddenly Rainbow Dash swooped over the fixed bridge, clearing away the fog.

Everyone cheered and as they crossed the bridge he heard Rainbow say, “See, I’d never leave my friends hangin.” Shadow shuddered at the word hanging, but when white hoof held his shoulder for a few seconds, the painful memory of what he had seen dissolved. Once her hoof was off his shoulder, they set off for the castle t.

It wasn’t long before they stood before the ruined castle. They took a moment to look at the ruins, when Shadow let out a heavy sigh, “I really hope we don’t have to fight Nightmare Moon.”

Rainbow flew next to Shadow, “Why? You scared of a Pony?” Rainbow Dash smiled and poked Shadow with her elbow.

Shadow’s face grew cold and angry, “No. I'm afraid if we do, there’ll be nothing left of her when I'm finished.” He walked past the now concerned Rainbow Dash, and opened its half intact doors.

Rarity looked around the interior of the ruins, “This place is so big; it’ll take us forever to.”

Shadow cut off Rarity there, “This is the main entryway. The Elements will be in the Armory to the far left.” By now, the group knew not to look shocked. They had come to terms with the fact that Shadow had some sort of connection with Celestia and Nightmare moon, and even though he said terrible things, he probably cared about them. Shadow took the lead, as usual, and by now his suit was torn enough to notice two things: a half-covered, red, mark on his hindquarters, and some kind of ropes on his sides.

Twilight walked closer to Shadow to get a better view of the red mark, “Shadow! Are you hurt?”

Twilight was studying the red mark closely before a tail whipped in front of her face, covering it, “I’m fine.”

Twilight walked to his other side, “Are you sure? It looks like a cut.”

Again his tail moved to cover his mark, “Firstly, my blood is black, not red. Secondly, it’s a Destiny Mark, please stop staring at it.”

Twilight switched sides again, “Destiny Mark? My books didn’t mention anything about those.”

Shadow turned to meet her eye to eye, “Not all Drakonians have them. They are a very sacred mark. Those like me who have them wear clothes constantly to hide them because the only ones who are supposed to see them,” he moved his face closer to hers, “Are the ones we…” their faces were nearly touching now. Twilight started to lightly blush, but Shadow held his naturally expressionless form, “…allow to see them.” With that, he whipped his tail around, flicking Twilight in the forehead.

Twilight began rubbing her forehead, “Ow! What was that for?”

Shadow turned around to continue walking, “I asked you not to stare. Besides you could have moved your head back anytime.”

He heard several giggles behind him, but paid no attention to them this time. Next to speak was Rainbow dash, “Okay, so what are those ropes on your sides?”

Without looking back he started leading them through the winding corridors of the castle to the armory, “It’s an undergarment in case my over wear is destroyed. You see, a Drakonian is never to be naked unless they are alone or mating.” Shadow felt proud of his answer; after all, he wasn’t lying completely. He stopped in front of two doors and pulled Rainbow Dash to the side, “Let the ladies go first, Blue.” Rainbow Dash punched Shadow in the shoulder as Twilight and the rest entered the room.

Finally, he let Rainbow Dash go, and with a smirk she waved her hands for him to enter, “Well Shadow, ladies first.”

Shadow held his head high and entered, “What a gentleman you are. Thank you.”

“There they are, The Elements of Harmony!” Twilight shouted with glee. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash grabbed them and set them down in front of Twilight.

“Not to sound pessimistic or anything, but there’s supposed to be seven. I count six,” Shadow stated with a straight face.

Twilight looked to the rocks with glee, “My book said when the six Elements are united…” She paused, and gave Shadow a confused look, “Wait. How do you know about them?”

Shadow turned and evaded the question, “We should give her some space to work her magic. I’ll be just outside.”

Applejack followed and ushered the rest to follow, “He's right y’all. Let’s wait right outside.”

When the rest of the gang caught up to Shadow, Pinkie finished asking Twilight’s question, “How is it you know all of these things? The location of the ruins, the number of Elements, the trail here, and how do you know Nightmare Moon and Celestia?”

Luckily, Shadow didn’t have to answer because of the flash of light coming from the Armory. “Well, we should check that,” Shadow yelled back as he ran to see what had happened. When he and the gang got there though, the room was empty. The gang looked around, but Shadow sprinted out shouting back, “Left tower, NOW!” the group followed as best they could, but only Rainbow Dash and Applejack could keep up.

As they ran up the stairs to the tower they heard villainous laughter. The next thing Shadow heard was Applejack’s concerned yell, “Don’t worry Twilight, we’re coming!” Shadow knew Applejack was worried now, so he ran as fast as he could. He was the first to enter the room, and see the sudden realization in Twilight’s eyes.

Twilight turned to face Nightmare Moon, “You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that? Well you're wrong!” Nightmare Moon looked confused and slightly worried, “Because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right here!” Shadow and the group stood behind Twilight, ready to fight.

Shattered crystals from around Nightmare Moon’s hooves began glowing and levitating. Nightmare Moon looked to them with fear, “What?!”

Twilight looked to each of her companions as she spoke, “Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of, Honesty,” as Twilight finished which Element each of her companions possessed, the shards of the broken Elements began circling their necks, “ Fluttershy, who tamed the Manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of, Kindness. Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of, Laughter. Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift, represents the spirit of, Generosity. Shadow, who walked through hell and back never running from the fight, represents the spirit of, Bravery. And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart’s desire, represents the spirit of, Loyalty. The spirits of these six heroes got us through every challenge you threw at us.”

Nightmare Moon looked extremely worried now, “You still don’t have the seventh Element. The spark didn’t work!”

Twilight looked at Nightmare Moon triumphantly, “But it did. A different kind of spark,” She turned to the group, “I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all,” she turned to face Nightmare Moon once more, “are my friends!” With a flash of light, the seventh Element, still encased in stone, appeared above Twilight, with beams of magical light shooting from it. “You see Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the, the spark that resides in the heart of us all; it creates the seventh Element, the Element of, Magic,” With that she raised her head, and the room filled with blinding light. The fragments of the broken Elements fused together to form a crown above Twilight, and amulets for the rest of the group, each one in the main shape of their Cutie mark. Shadow quickly covered his with his hands.

A double helix of mesmerizing color shot from the elements and formed a beam heading towards Nightmare Moon. All she could scream as she was enveloped in the ray was a long, scared, “No!” The room was again filled with a blinding light and as it slowly dissipated Shadow left the ruins, his Element on the floor, wrapped in the tattered remains of his suit. He knew Celestia would show up when the battle was over, and he didn’t want to be there when she did. He made it to the thick forest just before the sun rose above the mountains. He stayed behind a tree eavesdropping on the conversation. He nearly returned when he heard the mention of Luna, but knew if he did he would be forced to converse with Celestia. He heard Celestia asking them to keep his Element covered since that’s what he would want, and began walking home, alone.

When he made it home Tidy was waiting for him on the other side of the drawbridge. “I take it there were some mishaps at the party,” He asked the now nearly naked Shadow. Shadow strolled by him as he raised the bridge with the twitch of his mustache, and headed for his room. Once there he tore off his wing bindings and stretched his wings, “Dear Eternal that feels great.” He glanced at the mirror and saw his Destiny Mark. A pair of spread, tribal-style, wings with an infinity symbol between them, and a crown above. He grabbed his bindings with his tail, and threw them at the mirror with enough force to shatter it and crack the wall behind it.

He pulled a black hoodie from off his floor and put it on, shouting to Tidy, “Have you made breakfast yet?!” Tidy opened the door with a steaming plate of scrambled eggs. He waded through the disastrous room, and set them on Shadow’s dresser. As he left he noticed the broken mirror, but said nothing. He knew why Shadow had shattered it.

A few moments after Shadow had finished his eggs there was a knock on the door. Shadow listened to the voices, “Yes, Master Shadow is home. If you would like to wait for a few moments in the foyer, I shall retrieve him.”

Pinkie’s voice cheerily shot back, “Okie Dokie Lokie.”

Shadow began heading downstairs, and met Tidy halfway. Tidy knew what Shadow had done, “You shouldn’t eavesdrop sir. What if that had been my lover and we were discussing ‘sensitive’ information?” Shadow did not respond; instead, he climbed atop the stair rail and slid down into the entryway.

He walked to the visitor waiting room to see Pinkie “oooooo” ing and “ahhhhhh” ing at his decorations. The second Pinkie saw him she began her friendly interview, “What’s this? Where did you get that? What are these, and these, and these, and wow, this house is biiiig! It’s like a castle! How did you afford this? Are you like super rich, or something? Who was that super nice butler looking dude? Why are you in a hoodie? How do I know what a hoodie is? We don’t have those in Equestria. Well we do know since you're in Equestria and you have them. How did no one know about this place? How did I know about this place? ”

Shadow cut her off so they could get to talking, “Hello again Pinkie, what brings you to my smallest home?”

Pinkie’s jaw dropped with that statement, “How rich are you?!”

Shadow evaded her newest question, “How can I help you?”

Pinkie looked a little angry that he kept dodging her every question, “Well for starters, you could answer my questions, but I came to ask if you wanted to partay in Ponyville. Everypony will be there, even the Princess!”

Shadow grimaced when he heard the Princess would be there, “I’m sorry Pinkie, but I’ll have to pass on today, maybe tomorrow?” Pinkie looked slightly sad when he said he couldn’t attend the party, but perked right back up when he said he could tomorrow.

“Alright! Sugarcube Corner, tomorrow, high noon, be there or be a square.” Pinkie tried acting intimidating in her usual goofy way. Shadow resisted smiling, but let out a slight grin, and chuckled. She spent the next few minutes laughing before dashing away so she wouldn’t miss the party.

Tidy walked next to Shadow and turned to face him, “Sir? Was that one of your friends?”

Shadow allowed himself to fully smile as he looked toward the door, “Yeah. I suppose she is.”

Tidy watched Shadow walk away, and when he was alone he let out a sigh, “I sure hope so, my dear boy. Maybe they can make you like you where. If not, I fear this may just be the beginning of the end."

Chapter 2: Stone Pone Killer

Shadow sat in front his marble sink, and looked at his broken toothbrush. He let out a heavy sigh, “Third one this week.” On cue Tidy handed him another. Shadow clenched his razor sharp teeth together and began brushing again. When he was finished he spit out a mouthful of toothpaste and shredded toothbrush bristles. Tidy pulled a comb from his pocket, and handed it to Shadow who started combing his hair so that it swayed just above his eyes. Tidy took the comb back and him a large brush. Shadow began polishing his hardened, black tail with it. As he polished the arrow shaped tip of his tail several bristles fell to the floor. Shadow let out another sigh, and turned to face Tidy.

Tidy could see that Shadow was upset with himself, “Worry not sir, we have a vast supply for when that one is finally unusable.” Tidy walked across the wooden floor to a large cabinet. When he opened it, it revealed a vast collection of brushes.

Shadow gazed into his mirror, staring into the brown spot in his left eye, “A filthy stain of darkness in a pure blue sea.” Tidy said nothing, he knew Shadow well enough to know that right now, nothing he could say would cheer Shadow up. Instead, Tidy handed him a black hoodie and his wing bindings so he could finish getting ready for Pinkie’s party, and left the room.

Shadow held the bindings in his dragon-like claws. He clenched his hand, and the ropes were sliced apart. He tossed the remains into the large glass shower at the end of the room. After finishing his preparations he went to the dining hall where Tidy had made breakfast, eggy in the basket with apple flavored herbal tea, “This is early, even for you Master Shadow. Why are you preparing for lady Pinkie Pie’s party before the sun has even risen?”

Shadow had a mouthful of food when Tidy asked, so he waited a few moments with Tidy staring at him so he could speak without sounding disgusting, “I’m going to pick up some things from around town. Stretch my claws.” Shadow raised his right arm and flicked his five claws around.

Tidy grew a concerned look, “Sir, please tell me you are not implying that you are going to steal anything like when you were a teenager.”

Shadow rolled his eyes, “I need some bits from our treasury. Could you collect some for me?” With that Tidy left, and Shadow returned to eating, after spiking his tea his with his hoodie flask of course. He saved his tea until the end so it was nice and cool, and went to his Zen Garden behind his massive home. He sat on his favorite bench the center of the garden. He took a deep breath, smelling the beautiful scents of the many exotic plants decorating his little slice of heaven. He sipped his tea slowly, savoring every drop, “Oh, by the Eternal, I love apples.”

When Shadow entered the house again, he started for the door. Tidy put two saddlebags full of bits onto his back, “The Equestrian currency you asked for, sir.” Shadow adjusted the bag with his tail so he was comfortable, thanked Tidy, and left.

Tidy twitched his mustache to lower the drawbridge, when Shadow reached the other end Tidy twitched his mustache again to raise it. “Oh Eternal, I love being rich,” Shadow said to himself with glee. He strolled through the forest without a single problem. He heard the Timberwolves whining and running away along with the flutters of the native bird’s wings. Shadow had studied a map of Ponyville before he even arrived, so he knew he was already close to Sweet Apple Acres. He skipped along the path with his usual blank face.

Applejack saw him leaving the forest before he even saw her. She rolled on the ground laughing until Shadow finally made his way to her, “Ah’m sorry, but that has gotta be the funniest thing I have ever seen. Anyway, I didn’t know ya knew where Sweet Apple Acres was. What can I do you for?” She took her hat in her hoof, and gave a half bow.

Shadow threw one of the saddlebags in front of Applejack. Bits spilled across the ground, “How many apples can I get for that,” then with a terrible country accent, he added, “Pardna.”

Applejack’s jaw dropped, “Big Mac! Load our biggest with apples. I just made the biggest sale a the season!”

Shadow strolled into town with the massive cart full of apples. He didn’t much care for dragging a cart around, but it made it easier to carry all the apples. He grabbed one from the cart with his tail and brought it to his mouth. He heard what sounded like a small child yelling, “LOOK OUT!” Then something smacked into the side of his cart, hard. He turned his head and saw a young, orange, filly with purple hair lying on the ground. Next to her was a bent scooter. Shadow took a bite of the apple, waiting for some kind of response from her. She sat up and rubbed her head, “Aw man that hurt.”

Shadow was thankful she wasn’t hurt, and grabbed the apple that was in his tail with his hand, and then used his tail to help the filly up, “You okay kid?” His voice was uncharacteristically concerned, but the filly paid no attention to it.

“Yeah I think so,” then she turned her gaze to her scooter and started panicking.

She was on the verge of tears before Shadow spoke up, “What’s wrong?” His eyes darted to the scooter. The young filly looked to him, tears now running down her face. She tried apologizing for running into his cart, or that’s what Shadow thought she was doing, but her crying was too intense to understand what she was really saying.

Shadow popped the rest of the apple, core and all, into his mouth, and grabbed the young, orange, Pegasus with his tail. He set her on the top his cart, “Come on kid. Where’s the scooter store?” The filly was still crying, but less so now. She still couldn’t speak clearly, so he just walked down the road until he found a store with a giant scooter sign above the door. He unlatched himself from the cart and grabbed the Pegasus with his tail, as he entered the shop.

By now her crying had stopped, “Why are you doing this? I don’t have anything to give you.”

Shadow set her down inside, and rang the bell. He turned to her with a smile, “What can I say; I’m a sucker for a damsel in distress.” The shop owner popped his head out from the back, but seeing Shadow, he popped his head back behind the corner again. Shadow rolled his eyes, and turned to face the filly, “Okay kid, so here’s the deal. I'm going to trust you.” He set his saddlebag full of bits down next to her, “Buy any scooter you want then bring the rest back to me.” The young filly stared at the full bag in awe while Shadow left.

Shadow sat next to his cart for nearly half an hour, “Where’s that kid?” He was sure he had just screwed himself out of a bag of bits before the orange filly zoomed out of the store on a brand new scooter. It was blue with red wheels and handlebars. She zoomed around a bit before sliding to Shadow sideways, “Isn’t it AWESOME!” she shouted with glee.

Shadow grinned, “Totally wicked, kido.”

She tossed the bag, still almost full at Shadow’s feet, “I got such a great deal for this!”

Shadow picked up the bag, “Twelve bits? How’d you manage that?”

She stared in amazement, “How did you know?”

He pulled on the saddlebag, and reattached himself to the cart, “Easy, the weight is twelve bits lighter.”

Instead of questioning him further, she answered Shadow’s original question, “My real life sob story with some fake tears and a story of a monster breaking my old one.”

Shadow gave the filly a smirk, “Good job kid, you just might make it big someday, if you pay attention to where you’re going that is.”

The filly smiled and scooted away with, “My name is Scootaloo, remember it!”

Shadow grabbed another apple with his tail and was about to take a bite when he realized something, “I should probably grab some food for Balthazar and Kitty before the party.” He remembered Rainbow Dash talking about how Fluttershy was good with animals, so he thought that would be the best place to start. The locals hid when they saw Shadow’s expressionless face, but he paid them no attention. He had made it to the edge of town before he started zoning out. Thinking about what he should at this party. There wouldn’t be any rich pillars of society to make fun of. He felt another Pony bump into him, but this time the Pony that ran into him was much bigger, and ran face first into him.

Shadow was stopped, but the other Pony was sent to the ground, “Hey man!” He was a Unicorn that was even greyer than tidy. The only color he had was a royal blue hoodie.

“Yes,” Shadow stated, still slightly unaware of what was going on.

He stayed sitting, but addressed Shadow, “Dude, like, watch where you’re, like, going.”

Shadow could smell the pungent aura of weed on him, “Whatever.” He helped the grey stoner Pony up and commented on his lack of observational skills, “Where are you headed in such a hurry that you couldn’t see a Drakonian with a shitload of apples walking in your path.” Shadow tried to be upset with this clumsy stoner, but couldn’t.

The grey Unicorn began walking the opposite direction, and in a kind, sing-songy voice replied “I got me a tree to hug man.” Shadow rolled his eyes, and began heading towards Fluttershy’s home again. He lazily strode through the dirt path, taking time to enjoy the scenery, but he was alone. Ever since he met those six Ponies he hated being alone, so he picked up his pace.

When he could finally see the cottage, a green Pony with red dreadlocks approached him, “Hey, are you headed to Fluttershy’s?”

Again, Shadow could smell the pungent aura of weed, “Yeah. Why?”

She smiled, and asked him to keep Fluttershy company for a while since she had an “Appointment” with some Pony in town, and she didn’t want Fluttershy to feel alone while she was gone.

Shadow was already headed there, so he saw no reason why he shouldn’t, “Sure. I don’t have anything planned till noon anyway.” The green Pony then bowed, and went on her way.

Shadow unlatched his cart in front of Fluttershy’s house, tossed his saddlebag on top, and knocked on the doors. Fluttershy opened her door and was shocked to see Shadow, but welcomed him in with her usual quiet tone, “I didn’t know you were coming, I'm sorry if my home is a little messy.”

The house was too uncomfortably organized for Shadow, so he changed the subject, “I remember Dash saying you were good with animals. I don’t suppose you have any chicken seed and dragon lily I could buy off you.”

Fluttershy smiled, “Actually, I do. You can sit on the couch. I mean, that’s if you don’t mind.” Shadow jumped to the couch and sprawled across it as Fluttershy left the room. A rabbit hopped over to the couch and stared at Shadow with apparent annoyance. Shadow glared back at the rabbit, “Don’t give me that look you little shit. I will turn you into rabbit stew if you don’t get out of her in five seconds.” The rabbit could Shadow was serious and darted away.

Shadow began looking around the room when he noticed a familiar object in the window. “There’s no way,” He got up and walked over to it, “By the Eternal, it really is,” he held back his laughter, but grinned for a split second. When Fluttershy entered the room, again she was carrying two bags in her mouth. Shadow lifted the tree shaped bong by his tail and waved it at her, “What do we have here, Stonershy?”

She dropped the bags in panic, “Oh, i-i-i-I don’t know how that ended up. I mean I don’t know where. I-i-I.”

Shadow allowed himself to grin mischievously for this little act. He was waving the bong in her face while she panicked, trying to make an excuse for it until Shadow finally tried relaxing her, “Oh relax Fluttershy. Why are you in such a panic? It’s not like it’s illegal or anything.”

Fluttershy’s panic was replaced by confusion, “What do you mean? Y-yes it is.”

Shadow’s fun had stopped and was replaced with confusion as well, “Wait. What?” Fluttershy explained to him that in Equestria smoking marijuana was illegal. “Are you kidding me, it’s a plant. They made a plant illegal?” Fluttershy nodded yes. “Well that’s stupid, probably why Drakonia has less crime. We don’t make stupid laws illegalizing things that are completely natural.”

There was silence for a while before Fluttershy nervously asked Shadow, “Do you want to smoke some?”

Shadow looked her dead in the eyes with another slight grin, “Oh, oh Eternal yes. I thought you would never ask, yes, yes, a million times yes.”

By the time the green Pony returned, Shadow and Fluttershy had managed to smoke enough weed to hotbox the cottage. Neither of them knew how long they had been smoking, but they did know it had been a fun time. A wave of smoke poured through the door as the green Pony entered; behind her was the grey Pony from earlier, “Oh dude. I finally remember that I know that dude.”

Shadow barely had his eyes open so all he could make out was the blue hoodie, “I’ve never met you. I met this orange kid, a grey stoner, and a green stoner earlier, but you’re blue.” Shadow and Fluttershy were so blasted they had to lean on each other to keep themselves upright. “What time is it?”

Shadow was squinting out the window at the sun, before Fluttershy replied, “Almost nine, we should probably get headed to Pinkie’s party; she likes it when Ponies are early.”

“Damn. We really did get up early,” Shadow looked at his cart of apples waiting at the door, “I'm just gonna, gonna, leave those here. Kay.” Fluttershy nodded and the two of them wobbly got up, and set off for the party.

From behind him, he heard the voice of the green Pony, “Round two?”

As they walked to the bridge Fluttershy jumped into the small stream and looked up to Shadow, “Aren’t you gonna jump in to rinse off the smell?”

Shadow looked down at her from the bridge, “Nah. I'm not too good in water.”

Fluttershy smiled, “I could teach you how to swim. If that’s okay with you I mean.”

Shadow sighed, “I mean I literally can’t get in water. I sink. When I'm at the bottom my own body becomes so heavy I can’t even move.”

Fluttershy looked at him curiously, “How do you keep yourself clean then?”

Shadow shrugged, “Showers and rain don’t affect me, for some reason it’s only bodies of water, so i guess running water is somehow different than still water, or something.” Fluttershy was about to say something again before Shadow interrupted her, “Don’t question it. My body is weird. Want to know more stuff, ask me when we’re not headed to a party run by a pink psychopath.”

Shadow walked to the side of the river Fluttershy was climbing out of and attempted to help her out. However, they were both so stoned that she ended up falling on top of him. “Oh. I'm sorry.” Fluttershy squeaked out. Shadow said nothing; he just looked toward the sky and felt her warmth. He felt the wind through his hair, the sun on his face, and the water running from Fluttershy’s body onto his hoodie. He felt her breathing and heart beat slow as she drifted to sleep. He looked towards the clouds, and for a moment he thought of doing the same. He refused to sleep though. He knew if he let himself drift to sleep, he would have nightmares like usual. Eventually Fluttershy got up and asked him if he was ready to go.

He stretched his legs and tail, and rolled onto his stomach, “Yeah, after all I said I’d go.” He pushed himself up and walked with Fluttershy to Sugarcube Corner.

As he approached, he saw Pinkie standing at the door, “Square!!” Shadow had no clue what she was talking about and Pinkie could tell, “I said high noon, you’re almost two hours late!”

Shadow looked to Fluttershy, “I thought we left early enough to get here in time?” Fluttershy smiled and walked past him.

When he got there, he saw all of the Ponies he had befriended in Equestria, as well as the two stoners, “How did you two get here before us?” The two looked at each other, and then winked at him.

Rainbow Dash flew to Shadow and hovered above him, “So, Shadow, the big, scary Drakonian.” Shadow looked to her, slightly mesmerized by the array of colors in her mane. “The new monster of Everfree Forest,” her voice was extremely chipper and sarcastic, “The Element of Bravery… has a soft spot for crying kids!”

She burst into laughter, but the rest of the Ponies looked on in confusion until Twilight finally asked, “What are you talking about Dash?”

She landed next to Shadow and bumped his shoulder with her elbow, “A certain somepony told me you bought them a brand-spanking new scooter for no reason at all. A little un-Shadowy, don’t ya think.”

Shadow stared at her hair for a while before looking directly at Dash, “You mean Scootaloo. Yeah, she accidently ran into my cart and broke her old one. I can be nice and stuff.”

At this, the rest of the Ponies began laughing. “You, nice, yeah right,” blurted Twilight through her laughter. Shadow rolled his eyes, which made him more than slightly dizzy given his condition, and headed toward the food table. How could he have lost so much time just lying by the river?

He could already feel his body filtering out the THC. He began grumbling to himself, “Stupid fast healing bullshit. I never get to enjoy being drunk or on drugs. This sucks. He decided to cure his blues with food.

After eating a dozen cupcakes, the grey Unicorn approached him, “Wow, you are like, suuuuper hungry. Still feeling the bake?”

Shadow turned to the Unicorn, “Not anymore. Besides, I'm always hungry here. No one serves any meat.”

The grey Unicorn laughed, “Same old Umbra man. Dude, you should work on that, call yourself Umbro or something. Because I can tell you and I are gonna be total bros n’ stuff.”

Shadow stared at the Unicorn in shock, “How, how do you know that name? I haven’t been called that in, in over a… well a very long time.”

The grey Unicorn turned around, “Just do man, just do. By the way, names Pony, Stony Pony.”

Shadow sat near the food in wonder. How did that Unicorn know his real name? Well, part of his real name anyway. Suddenly Scootaloo burst through the door crying. Rainbow Dash flew to her, and was the first to ask what happened. She said nothing, but seeing the Blue Pegasus made her crying slowly subside. She pointed outside, and Shadow went to see the problem while the rest comforted Scootaloo. The first thing he saw was a seriously pissed Rockskin. Shadow liked most Rockskins. They were extremely docile, and resembled massive, scaled, Ponies without mouths or color in their eyes. Like most Rockskins, he was tall, and made of one color except for his solid white eyes and gradient legs. Shadow studied him for a moment, whispering his observations to himself, “Golden body. Gradient shifts from gold to black on legs. Brown spikes and a clubbed tail. It looks like he’s levitating Scootaloo’s scooter. Based on color and form, he’s a desert dweller, but why did he take the scooter?” With his observations in his head, he approached the Rockskin.

He walked as unthreateningly as possible. He knew if they had to fight others might join in and get in his way, and given how thick a Rockskin’s scales are, he didn’t want anyone getting hurt; at least, not yet. The Rockskin turned to him, being from Drakonia, he instantly recognized Shadow, “Shadow?! Where is HE?!” The Rockskin stormed over and towered over Shadow.

“Where is who?” Shadow remained calm, but stood tall and proud.

Shadow could see the hate growing in the Rockskin's blank eyes. “STONY! WHERE IS STONY,” the Rockskin bellowed into Shadow’s mind. Psychics, the one thing Shadow hated about Rockskins, they were psychics. Shadow filled his mind with his encounter with Scootaloo, Hoping this would make the Rockskin relieve the scooter to him, “SO YOU’RE THE ONE WHO GOT THAT BRAT THE SCOOTER! SHE RAN INTO ME WITH IT, AND I’M NOT A BIG FAN OF ANNOYING BRATS BUMPING INTO ME! I DON’T CARE HOW BIG AND BAD YOU ARE BACK HOME! HERE, I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT!” He plowed his massive hoof into Shadow, but it stopped hard as it hit his chest. The Rockskin waved his hoof in pain, then turned back to Shadow even angrier than before, “YOU WANT THIS SCOOTER BACK IN ONE PIECE, THEN BRING ME STONY!” With his last words still echoing throughout Shadow’s mind, the Rockskin stormed off with the scooter levitating beside him.

“He is not like any Rockskin I’ve met, and of course i thought of the worst possible thing at the worst possible time,” Shadow mumbled to himself as he reentered Sugarcube Corner.

Scootaloo was hugging Rainbow Dash, whimpering, “Please. Please get my scooter back. It’s the only thing that’s truly mine.”

Shadow approached Stony after gesturing everyone to calm down and return to what they were doing, “Stony, I need you to let me use your house, and to convince that asshole to meet you there. Of course, you won’t be meeting him, I will. Alone, if you would be so kind.”

Stony looked confused, “What asshole?” Shadow explained to him what the Rockskin looked like, “Oh, Coke-E. Wait, why do you need my house?”

Shadow was already making a plan in his head, “Just trust me, okay. And keep our friends entertained for a while.”

Stony shrugged, “Okay man, it’s the big ass grey building at the edge of the road, keys under the mat. Oh, and I have this thing with messes. Please, like, try to keep the house clean, and put everything back where it came from. Okay?”

Shadow was already walking away, “Don’t worry. I won’t make that big of a mess.”

Stony looked worried, but turned away, “Hey spike can you send a letter for me.”

Shadow strolled to the big, plain, rectangular, grey, house. Shadow grabbed the key from under the mat, and entered the horrendously organized house. The entire house looked like it was straight out of a magazine targeting creatures that liked the color grey and symmetry. He found the living room, which had a couch with a single chair across from it. There was a nightstand on either side of the couch, and a table in between the couch and chair. He waited on the couch, uncomfortable with how clean the place was. Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait long before the massive Coke-E opened the door gently and walked into the living room, “Oh, Shadow. I didn’t know Stony had invited you here as well. I'm sorry for my outburst earlier; I'm just going through some withdrawals.” He rubbed the back of his head as he spoke, trying to look as sorry and innocent as possible.

Shadow cocked his head, “That’s okay; I’ve been waiting here so long, I’ve forgotten why I came here in the first place. What kind of withdrawals might you be going through?”

The Rockskin sat on the chair across from Shadow, “After Stony fired me, I kinda, got addicted… to meth.”

Shadow looked shocked, “He sells meth?!”

Coke-E shook his head, “No. he only sells weed.” As Coke-E finished speaking, Shadow lunged across the table and stared into Coke-E’s eyes. Shadow’s eyes turned blood red, “Yoarnounmyco.” Coke-E’s closed his eyes, but when he opened them he saw Shadow still sitting across from him with a curious stare on his face, “Are you okay?”

Coke-E looked around; he must have just had a short hallucination or something, “Yeah, just saw something weird.”

Shadow reached into his hoodie’s pocket, “Look, Coke, I probably shouldn’t feed your addiction, but we do both have the same problem.” This piqued Coke-E’s interest, “I’ve got some… well you know, on me. It’s a lot stronger than what you’re used to, but after this, no more addictions. You still get the high, but none of the down.” Shadow pulled a black crystal from his pocket. It pulsed with a red glow, but that only seemed to make Coke-E want it more. Shadow tossed it to him. Coke-E began levitating the strange rock. He looked at it for a moment, and then walked out of the room. When he entered again his eyes were swirling with black and red. Shadow shrugged, “Now for the fun part, stranger.”

This time Coke-E looked confused, “Stranger? We met earlier, don’t you remember?” Suddenly, static overtook everything Coke-E saw. It filled his entire mind, exploding his eardrums with the violent noise.

Shadow looked up and shook his head, his voice piercing into Coke-E’s mind, “But I do remember why I came here now.”

The static finally stopped, “M-my ears!” He reached for his ears and felt his thick blood seeping out, “Wh-What is going on? What did you do? WHY?!”

Shadow licked his lips, “Hunger.” His blue eyes became blood red again. Black chains rushed from the shadows around the room, sliding through Coke-E’s thick scales and attaching themselves to the bones of each of his limbs and tail. They lifted Coke-E into the air, and pulled so tight that Coke-E couldn’t move. The Rockskin was in too much shock to focus on speaking telepathically. “It’s been such a long time since I've had a chance to see a Rockskin’s blood.” He grinned as he watched the thick, red, paste; ooze out of the wounds on the Rockskin’s various limbs. He sat down and pulled off his hoodie, tossing it to the couch. Once again, he stared at the blood, “You know, it’s been such a long time since I’ve eaten meat,” as he spoke, he undid his wing bindings and tossed them at Coke-E. They hit his ribs and a bloodcurdling ‘crack’ rang through the house. He stretched out his dragon-like wings, which made the chains pull on Coke-E’s limbs.

“Ooh, yeah. That feels great,” he walked toward the stretched out Coke-E. He stared at his tail, “You know what, in my experience, the tail taste’s best first.” Shadow swung his tail down and the chain connected to Coke-E’s tail was ripped from his body. Tears streamed down Coke-E’s face, but that made Shadow grin wider. The thick blood oozed out and started forming a thick puddle on the ground. Shadow grabbed the tail with his claws and wagged his own tail happily, which made the chains on Coke-e pull in various directions, sending the Rockskin into levels of pain he had never known possible. Shadow pulled the spikes from the tail, and opened his mouth. His razor sharp teeth shined in the light, before biting through the thick tail. Blood dripped from the tail, slowly engulfing Shadow’s hands and face in the red mess. Coke-E tried struggling, but that only made his pain worse. Shadow crunched on the tail, chewing through thick scales, muscle, and bone. He finished the tail quickly; blood now dripping down his chin and onto his chest. He swallowed the last bite with a loud gulp, “I just remembered something, only the meat with blood pumping through it tastes good.” Coke-E screamed telepathically, hoping anyone would get his signal for help, but Shadow began laughing, “You think anyone can hear you? You think I’m stupid?” He began climbing up the Rockskin’s body; digging his razor sharp claws deep into Coke-E’ body. When he made it to the top he looked deeply into Coke-E’s eyes. For a second, Coke-E saw the room they were in, only there was no blood, only officers. The vision was soon destroyed as Shadow dug his claws into each of Coke-E’s eyes. As vitreous fluid oozed from Coke-E’s eyes, the screaming became much quieter.

Shadow hopped down, and waited a moment to see if anyone would knock. When no one did, he began licking the blood and vitreous fluid from his claws. The taste made him shiver, “I haven’t had this taste, in such a long time.” The quiet screaming was fused with crying and screams for help which made Shadow laughed maniacally, “Oh you are such a treat!” He walked behind the Rockskin and grabbed his lowest spike. He slowly twisted it until it popped out, squirting more blood onto Shadow’s face. His forked tongue slid from his mouth, licking up as much of the blood on his face as he could. He continued twisting of spikes until he got to Coke-E’s neck spike. He grinned and his eyes filled with blood lust. He ripped the spike off, and took a deep bite into the back of his victim’s neck. He let his mouth fill with blood before ripping off the skin and falling to the ground. He slowly chewed and swallowed the meat, savoring every second of this delicious moment as he heard his victim’s quiet sobs.

He crawled back up and looked at the line of dots on Coke-E’s back, “Let’s play connect the dots.” He dug his tail deep into Coke-E’s lowest spike hole, and sliced upwards. He moved it slowly so Coke-E could feel every agonizing second of it. Finally he reached the hole on his neck and stopped, “Well that’s stupid, it only makes a line. Let’s make it prettier.” He grabbed several of Coke-E’s spikes and dug his tail into Coke-E’s back. He pulled himself up, suspending himself by his tail. Coke-E’s skin held under the very light Shadow, but blood oozed from the wound, coating Shadow’s tail. He put one spike on Coke-E’s back and twisted it, until it was completely in, blood poured from the new wound in a thin stream. He repeated this with all the spikes, “There, now it looks like the night sky. Isn’t it beautiful?” Shadow looked at the mural of blood holes and spikes that he made in the back of another living creature, and fell to the floor laughing.

He rolled under the Rockskin and stared up at him, “Oh. I dismember you. Tell me where Scootaloo’s scooter is, and I’ll let you go.” Coke-E filled Shadow’s mind with the location of the tree he tossed the scooter into, before having a sudden realization.

The sound was almost silent, just as silent as Fluttershy, “D-D-Don’t Y-Y-You m-m-m-ean r-r-r-r-remem-em-em-ber?”

Shadow laughed as he pointed his wings up at Coke-E, “NOPE!” He slammed his open wings to the ground and the chains pulled apart. Coke-E’s limbs went flying across the house, and Shadow was soaked with blood. Coke-E was now hanging by his front left leg. Again Shadow let out crazed laughter as his now crimson wings turned black as night. Twelve blood soaked hooks shot from each of his wings, and latched on to various parts of Coke-E.

Like all Rockskins, Coke was durable enough to still be alive through all this torture, “PLEASE, DEAR ETERNAL PLEASE! YOU SAID YOU’D LET ME GO! PLEASE!”

Shadow’s face was crazed and his eyes were filled with hunger, “YES, I SAID I’D LET YOU GO! SO GO STRAIGHT TO HELL!” The hooks pulled back into Shadow’s wings, and tore what was left of Coke-E to shreds. Blood and entrails spilled over Shadow. Shadow pulled various bits of meat and entrails to his mouth and savagely ate them.

Shadow closed his eyes, and began laughing even harder. When he opened his eyes, crimson flames shot out, and spread across the ceiling. The flames died down until only Shadow’s eye sockets were swirling with fire. The fire from the ceiling quickly spread across the entire room, and Shadow began rolling in the entrails. When the fire grew closer to Shadow he looked around, still laughing, and found Coke-E’s skull. Just like most decapitations, the head was still sentient, but that would only be for a few more seconds. He crawled over to it, smearing blood across the floor, “Hey buddy, looks like I came out A-HEAD IN THIS SITUATION!” his laughter grew darker. He stood upright, “What’s the matter buddy, NO NEED TO LOSE YOUR HEAD!” His laughter was now high pitched, echoing, and pure evil. He swung his tail down crushing the skull of Coke-E, and licked up the chunks of brain and skull. He chewed them slowly, savoring the mouthwatering flavor. Then Coke-E woke up.

He surrounded in a magic bubble with sever Unicorns in police uniforms stared angrily at him. He looked down the street and saw a trail of carnage, ending with Stony’s house. The building was surrounded by firefighters, attempting to put out the raging fire. He saw Shadow across from the house, still clothed, and smiling at Coke-E. Coke-E looked to the guards and pointed at Shadow, “It was all him, I swear! Over there!”

The officers couldn’t hear him through the bubble, but Shadow approached the lead officer, “I’m sorry this one caused all this damage. I truly am, but worry not. He will be punished to the fullest extent of the law… in Drakonia of course.” The guard looked more than happy that this monster wouldn’t be staying in Equestria much longer, “I already sent a letter to the Drakonian Force to pick this useless waste of space up. They’ll be here shortly, just hold him for a minute.” The officer nodded to Shadow. Shadow looked to Coke-E once more, and smiled. Coke-E tried screaming out. He tried telling them it was all Shadow, but in truth, he had actually done it all. He didn’t know he was doing it, but he still did it. Shadow’s smile faded, and he walked away. The police would believe he was on a drug fueled rampage, the Force would believe he had killed five Ponies, but only Shadow would know the truth. Shadow had been controlling Coke-E the entire time. He forced horrendous images into Coke-E’s mind, he made Coke-E feel all the tremendous pain ten times stronger than it would really have been, and when Coke-E went on his rampage, Shadow was already across the street ordering coffee. Since Coke-E was actually sending out his telepathic messages, Shadow knew exactly where Scootaloo’s scooter was. Of course, he had to finish his spiked coffee first.

He left when his drink was finished, and two a brilliant flash of light signaled Coke-E’s departure. He slowly made his way towards Scootaloo’s scooter, taking time to enjoy the scenery along the way. When he finally got to the park where it was, he picked it up and carried it with his tail. He paused and smelled the many flowers in the park, before leaving it to find Scootaloo.

He made his way back to Sugar Cube Corner, hoping she would still be nearby. By now the party was over, but he saw the distraught Scootaloo walking down the road, “Hey Scoots!” the young filly turned around with watery eyes, but when she saw her blue and red scooter, she screamed with happiness. She ran up to Shadow and hugged him. Shadow smiled and looked down at the filly, “Hey kid, I thought I warned you about bumping into people?”

They both laughed, “Hey Shadow, you’re my new hero, but don’t tell Rainbow Dash or I’ll deny the whole thing.” With that, she hopped on her scooter, and dashed away.

Shadow’s face returned to its usual blankness as he watched her zoom away, “Glad that’s all over with.”

He heard Stony’s voice from behind him, “Hey Shadow!” Shadow turned to talk with Stony face to face, “So how’d it go bro?”

Shadow thought he should avoid answering this question, “I guess I should offer to let you to stay at my place for a while.”

Stony looked confused, “Nah, I'm fine. I got my place still. You were just there, right?” At that moment, another fire truck sped by them with its sirens wailing. Stony looked to Shadow worried, “Please tell me you didn’t.”

Shadow turned around and began heading home, “I didn’t, but Coke-E did.”

Stony looked furious, and shouted at Shadow, “That mother fucker! Where is he!?

Shadow wanted to lighten the situation with a joke, “He’s headed to a nice cell, but if anyone else asks, tell them I’m a stone pone killer.”

Chapter 3: Something Special

“Humble my ass,” shouted Stony as he gazed upon Shadow’s ‘Manor.’

Shadow shrugged at Stony’s statement, “This is actually my smallest house.”

Stony seemed more than a little upset, “Well aren’t you just the coolest cat in tabby town.”

Tidy lowered the drawbridge for them. “Oh, mister Stony. I wasn’t expecting you till next week. Did I accidently give you the wrong date?”

Stony was definitely upset, “Well buddy, not going into too much detail, but you won’t have to go very far for our appointments anymore.”

Tidy looked past them to see the pillar of smoke, which now rising to the clouds, “Oh Master Shadow, you didn’t.”

Shadow held his straight faced composure, “Technically, I did nothing.”

Stony turned to face Shadow, “Technically, you can go fuck yourself.”

Shadow returned his gaze with a slight grin, “Technically, I just might.”

Tidy raised the drawbridge once the two were across, “Mister Stony, since you will be living with us I should inform you of the various facilities on the grounds. The West Wing holds the Library, Laboratory, and other such rooms to raise one’s intellectual standing. The Main Hall holds the Kitchen, Dining Room, and Bedrooms. The East Wing holds the Gymnasium, with all the bells and whistles of course, various places to relax with friends and family, and the Smoke Room. There is a Zen Garden behind the property with various places to hide and be alone for however long one wishes. And finally, the property extends several miles into the Everfree Forest, any questions?”

Stony seemed focused on one room, “So, uh, what’s this I hear about a smoke room?”

Tidy chuckled, “Those are only the basic rooms, there are many more, but I see you're interest is only on the one. I shall take you there immediately, and prepare you a room across from Master Shadow’s.”

Tidy led Stony and Shadow through the massive, winding, corridors of the tremendous building. They walked for what seemed like hours to Stony. Tidy stopped in front of a room with a big red door, “This is the Smoke Room. I hope everything is to your likings. Now I shall go and prepare your room.” With that Tidy bowed and departed.

Shadow pushed open the large, red, cushiony doors for Stony. Stony entered the smoke room and had one thing to say, “It’s like one big, red, satin, couch!”

Shadow sat on a pile of pillows on the soft floor and looked out the only window in the room, which was facing south, “It’s nothing special.” Shelves lined the wall, holding pipes and bongs of various shapes, sizes, and colors. A large multi-piped hookah towered in the center of the room. There were several piles of pillows scattered across the floor and along the couch. The couch itself, lined the base every wall, and had curtains to hide whatever was under it. . Shadow reached past the curtains and under the couch. From it, he pulled a large bag of marijuana, “Why are you standing there? It’s called the Smoke Room for a reason.”

The next several weeks were nothing special for Shadow. Shadow received tickets to some gala, and gave his plus one to Stony. Twilight and the gang asked Shadow and Stony to help Applejack with apple bucking, which went almost too smoothly. And finally, one of Dash’s old friends, Gilda, came to town, but was run off for being a bitch to everyone. Shadow actually kind of liked her, they even flirted a bit. He got her mailing address, but hadn’t written her yet.

Shadow and Stony were relaxing in the Smoke Rook as they now did almost every day, but this time they were accompanied by the green Pony, that Stony was apparently dating. Shadow finally found out her name, Treehugger, and she was the essence of hippie, “This place is doing wonders for my aura, man.”

Stony was staring at Treehugger’s flank, Treehugger was studying all of the tools along the wall, and Shadow was staring out the window again, “It’s nothing special.” After all the excitement from several weeks ago, or what he thought was several weeks ago, he became bored. By now, he even found smoking to just be a filler between boring days. Shadow stood up, “I’ll be back later. I'm going to my garden.” He stood up and left the room before either of his companions could say a word.

He wandered around for a while before sitting on his favorite bench in the dead center of his massive garden. He wished he had someone to talk to, someone who knew him better than anyone, “Feeling lost again, Shadow?”

Shadow turned to see his ‘imaginary’ friend from his childhood, “Hey. I haven’t seen you in a while. Why haven’t you been around?”

The creature looked like any normal Drakonian, but was made of black smoke. He gazed at Shadow with eyes that burned with hellfire, and scratched his long, ram-like horns. The figure then dissipated and reformed next to Shadow, “You did not want me here till now.”

Shadow stared up at the clear blue sky with longing, “Who says I want you here now?” His words came out harsh, but the being knew Shadow was only putting on his typical loner act.

The figure looked up as well, “Why not fly Shadow? You love flying more than anything in the world, so why not take off, leave Drakonia and Equestria far behind you? If you truly wished to be alone you would leave, so just leave.”

Shadow truly did want to fly more than anything else. He began pulling off his black hoodie, but he stopped, “What game are you playing this time?” The figure laughed.

His voice was much deeper than Shadow’s, but he had a high pitched laugh that almost sounded demonic, “You are a quick one, but who says I’m playing a game this time?” With that, the wind blew, and he was gone. Shadow returned to the smoke room and could already see Stony and Treehugger eyeing each other lustfully.

He took one last look out his window to see the sky. He didn’t want to be alone, but he also couldn’t bring himself to ruin their moment, “I'm going to invite the others and show them around. You two have fun.” With that, he left the room and began his long journey to the Library. He went up three stories to reach the floor that contained his private Study, and headed to the northernmost corner. There were no walls to his Study. It was just an empty corner with a couch, a desk in front of a window, two nightstands on either side of the couch, and a small fireplace built into the wall near the couch.

He sat at his desk, feeling the warmth of the fireplace against his back, and began writing invitations to his six friends. As he finished writing each letter, he tossed them into the fireplace. The fire turned bright blue, and shot up the chimney, before slowly dying back into its normal red glow. From his window he could see the drawbridge, and decided he would wait up here and head downstairs once he saw them. Shadow had accidentally grabbed an extra sheet of paper, and began eyeing it, “Maybe you should write her.” Shadow turned to face the familiar voice as the smoky figure walked from the fireplace, “Forgive her or not, you should write to her.”

Shadow looked to the paper once more, “If she couldn’t find me important enough to speak with for… however long it has been, then why should I find her important enough to speak with now? Besides she already knows I despise her. I’m still trying to figure what angle she’s playing.”

The creature grew close to Shadow, and began whispering into his ear, “Invite her over. Ask that she speak of the meeting to no one, you wouldn’t want gossip spreading about the two of you. You both know what Drakonia would do if they found out you were alone with the leader of the Ponies,” Shadow’s eyes slowly turned red. “When she gets here tell her how happy you are to see her. ‘Tia’ you’ll call her, just like you did when you were kids. You’ll start to lull her into a false security,” Shadow grew an evil grin, “Finally when she says how happy she is that you forgive her,” Shadow lifted the quill above the paper, “You rip out her throat with you bare claws. Tear her wings from her body. Feast on the blood of the one who left you when you needed her most.” The creatures tone was near emotionless. Shadow was about to touch the paper with the quill, but he noticed a speeding, bouncing, pink Pony racing through the path from the corner of his eyes.

Shadow closed his eyes, and his grin faded. He forced himself to return to his usual composure, and he spoke one more word to his old friend, “No.” When he re-opened his eyes, the creature was gone, and his eyes were blue once more. Shadow saw the rest of the gang slowly walking along the path behind Pinkie, and left for the drawbridge, “Tidy! Please lower the bridge and raise it once I’m across. We’ll be having guests over for the night, so prepare a large dinner.”

Soon the whole gang, minus Stony and Treehugger, were all standing on the other side of the drawbridge. “How do you raise and lower that bridge?” Twilight asked, “I the mechanism over there, but there isn’t any crank.” Shadow pointed to Tidy, who twitched his mustache. The bridge lowered itself, and Shadow led the Ponies halfway across the bridge. Just as Shadow was about to speak with his guests, Tidy twitched his mustache again, raising the drawbridge once more, causing them all to fall in a pile. Tidy laughed while the group glared at him. Shadow knew he had landed on one of his friends because the ground beneath his back was exceptionally soft.

When the rest of the group climbed off, he found himself lying on top of Rainbow Dash, “Dude, get your bony ass off me!” Instead of listening to Dash, he wiggled his body and applied more pressure, pressing his spine against what he assumed was her back. It didn’t take long for her to buck him straight off of her.

“Well that was rude,” Shadow said, picking himself up. “Anyway, which room should I show you first, the Library, the fully loaded Gym, the Grand Ballroom, the Clothing Room, the Garden, or the Pet’s House?’ Shadow named off these rooms knowing they would pique the interest of each of his companions, hoping it would begin a small argument amongst his friends. Just as planned, all of them began speaking at once, except Fluttershy who was a complete doormat as usual.

It was Tidy’s voice that silenced them, “Now ladies, please no arguing. Shadow will take you to each of the rooms in the order he spoke them.”

Shadow nodded and gestured his friends to enter the massive building, “I agree with Tidy.” As they approached the doors, Shadow pulled Dash to the side, “Remember Dashy, ladies first.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes with annoyance, “Oh har har har. That’s even funnier the second time around.” She elbowed Shadow in the ribs and leapt inside.

When everyone was finally inside he heard Rarity speaking in awe, “Marvelous, Simply marvelous.”

Shadow took the opportunity to take center stage, “I know I am,” he walked past her and slid his tail under Twilight’s chin, making her head follow him as he walked by, “This way to the library.”

Twilight blushed and remained silent as the group followed Shadow to the first floor of the library. Once there, Twilight’s blush was replaced by awe, “Sweet Celestia! You literally have an entire library in your house!”

Twilight began zooming around reading titles aloud, most were in Drakonian, but that didn't matter to Twilight who could speak, and apparently read it. Shadow took a moment to interrupt her, “I told you I had a library. What, did you not believe me, or something?”

Twilight was too consumed in the library to pay attention to a word he said, before suddenly stopping, “Wait. These. None of these are organized, in any way.”

Shadow shrugged, “I can find any of my books perfectly fine.” Twilight ignored him, and began rearranging all of his books in, what Shadow assumed was, alphabetical order.

Shadow watched her frantically run around, trying to make order from the chaos. He held back a grin, “You know there’s a lot more than just this one level, right?.” He led the gang away as Twilight let out an obnoxious grunting sound. Once outside of the Library, Shadow spoke to the group again, “Next stop is the gymnasium, which is on the exact opposite side of the manor.”

After the made it back to where they began, he heard Rarity whine out, “It feels like we’ve been walking forever.”

Shadow shrugged continued walking, and without batting an eye, “Lots of people say it’s a big house, but this actually my smallest home. Well, second smallest if you include my childhood home, but that place has been abandoned for a very long time. I have no clue how any of you can stand those tiny buildings you generously refer to as, ‘homes’.”

The jaws of all the Ponies dropped, and they stopped dead in their tracks. Rarity was the only one who managed to speak, “Sm-m-m-smallest home? The only thing that could out-do this is a castle!”

Shadow stopped, and turned his head to Rarity, “Yeah. I know.”

When they finally arrived to the Gymnasium, Rainbow Dash looked like she had found Heaven, “This place is so awesome!” She zoomed around the gymnasium, saying the names of each piece of equipment as she passed them, but Shadow only knew ‘track’ and ‘pool.’

With Rainbow Dash was occupied with all of the mostly unused equipment, Shadow led the remaining four Ponies down the hall to the grand ballroom, “Okay Pinkie, since the others are making my home their home, you can do whatever you want with this room.”

Pinkie’s eyes grew wide, and a massive grin spread across her face, “Aaaaanything?”

Shadow nodded, “Yes Pinkie, anything.”

Before Shadow could even open the door, Pinkie zoomed in and locked them out, “I’ll tell you when you can come back in!”

Shadow led Rarity to the top floor of the Main Hall, which was basically one giant closet, and then took Applejack to his Zen Garden filled with various exotic plants. While he was occupied with that, Twilight finished organizing the entire Library, “There. Now I can think straight.” She was on the same floor as Shadow’s Study, and now that her mission was accomplished, she noticed something. This floor wasn’t as long as the others. She wandered around before bumping into Shadow’s Study, “This window shouldn’t this close to the edge of the building. What’s going on?” She walked along the west wall, studying the bookshelves, “I pulled all the books and these shelves seem built into the walls.” She finally got back to the Study. She stared at the fireplace, “I wonder?” She stood close, and peered through the fireplace. There was no wall behind the fireplace, only a faint blue glow.

Finally, it was Fluttershy’s turn to be entertained. Shadow led her to what looked like a pool house near the moat behind the house, “So Shadow, what kind of pets do you have.” Hearing her master’s name, what looked like a winged, black cat leaped from the roof of the Pet’s House, and into Shadow’s hood.

She would have completely blended into the hoodie if it weren’t for her bright yellow, cat-like, eyes, “Come to introduce your worthless Pony friends to little old me.” Fluttershy took a closer look and realized it was actually a miniature cat-like dragon.

Shadow scolded the small, black, dragon, “Kitty! Be nice to our guests.”

Kitty hopped out of Shadow’s hood and approached Fluttershy, “The pleasure is all yours, I assure you. Shadow forces me to use the name ‘Kitty,’ but that is not my real name. I am the current Dragon Queen of Drakonia, and I.”

Shadow looked around, and interrupted her, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where’s Balthazar?”

Both Kitty and Fluttershy ignored him. Fluttershy stared at Kitty in a mixture of glee and awe, “I've never seen anything like you. You truly are amazing.”

Kitty glared at Shadow, “Glad someone appreciates me.”

Twilight stared at the blue glow before standing upright again. She closed her eyes and channeled as much of her magic as she could. With a bright flash of light, she was teleported to the other side of the fireplace. It was a dark room, lit only by a single fire pot in what looked like the center of the room. “What is this place?” She asked in wonder. She approached the blue flames when suddenly; many lanterns lining the top of both walls lit themselves, and illuminated the room. The walls were covered with pictures, well-preserved trophies of strange creatures, and several bookshelves. She stared in a mixture of awe, wonder, and disgust. She approached the nearest shelf, and read the title of an ancient looking book, “Starswirl’s Corruption.” She began to levitate the book, when images of a crystal kingdom and dying slaves flashed through her mind. The book fell to the ground with a heavy ‘Thud’, “W-what….What was that?” She turned her head and noticed an old, black, desk at the end of the room.

Shadow listened to Fluttershy dote over Kitty for several minutes before shouting, “Where’s Balthazar?!” The sudden shouting startled Fluttershy, who went silent. Kitty rolled her eyes, and flew to the roof of the Pet’s House. When she returned, there was a small, fluffy, grey speckled, hen riding her back. When Shadow saw the small hen, he gleefully shouted, “Balthy!” He snatched the hen off Kitty’s back with his tail and dropped her in his hands. This time Shadow was the one doting while Fluttershy and Kitty looked on in silence. “Who’s the cutest little chick in the whole world? You are. That’s right, you,” The hen showed no expression and remained as still as stone.

Kitty answered Fluttershy’s question before she could even ask, “She’s alright. She never moves or makes a sound, but she’s always nearby.”

Twilight approached the desk with caution. She didn’t want a repeat of what happened last time. The first thing she noticed about the desk when she got closer was that there was a golden picture frame with a necklace and two rings hanging from it. The second thing she noticed were the water stains. She sat in front of the desk, staring at the stains. She put her front legs up and laid her head down. The stains matched where her eyes were. So many tears had fallen upon this table that it was permanently scarred with sorrow. She looked to the frame and saw a smiling Drakonian who looked exactly like Shadow, but with long black ram horns with the points ending just below his eyes. He had on a red and gold suite, which reminded Twilight of the suit worn by Prince Charming in the old fairy tales. Next to him was a female Drakonian, making silly faces and flashing peace signs, and a small Drakonian child who held herself much like Shadow did now. The woman was a grey blue and had short, spiky, maroon hair with two odd shaped horns poking from it, and was wearing a tie-dyed hoodie. The younger one looked like a darker version of Shadow with longer hair, and was wearing what looked like golden armor made in a style Twilight wasn’t familiar with. Twilight couldn’t help herself. She focused her magic on the frame, but saw nothing. The frame lifted into the air, and with slight disappointment, Twilight left the hidden room with the picture.

A voice rang throughout the entire house and the grounds, “Attention everyone. Dinner shall be served shortly in the Main Hall. Simply follow the smell of food to find the Dining Room.”

Twilight headed followed the strong scent of fresh fruit toward the Dining Room, before Stony saw the picture levitating. With fear in his eyes, he sprinted toward her, “Oh man, no. Please no. Please tell me you didn’t. Please tell me that’s not what I think it is, and you didn’t find it where I think you did!”

Twilight was very confused, “You mean the picture? I was going to ask Shadow about it. I thought.”

Stony cut her off, “No, man. You gotta put that back! That is not a can of worms you want to open. That is like a can of razor blades with a worm at the bottom. That is like a whole factory full of razors and a worm in the dead center man, but in this, like, scenario, you're that worm.”

Twilight was more confused now than ever, “Who are these.”

Again, she was cut off, “Listen man. You HAVE to put that back right now and never tell Shadow you know anything about it. I promise I’ll tell you later, but right now just forget about it. Kay?”

One by one, the Ponies and Shadow made their way to the Dining Room. The massive table Shadow usually sat at alone still wasn’t even a tenth of the way filled. Twilight was putting the picture back, and realized what the female Drakonians horns looked like. They each looked like an ancient sword called a Khopesh. Twilight stared at the rings, and simply couldn’t help herself. She studied the two rings and the locket, and she noticed engravings on the inside of the two rings. The room didn’t have quite enough light to read it, so she brought them closer to the fire pot in the center of the room, and held them close to it. Stony’s voice rang through the Library, “Just put it back, man!”

The sudden yelling startled Twilight, who then dropped the rings directly into the pot, “NO!”

Stony cried out again, “Come on man. He’s gonna get suspicious if we’re not there soon.”

Twilight acted like nothing was wrong, but Stony could see the panic in her eyes, “Oh shit. Sparkle, you done fucked up, didn’t you?”

Twilight tried smiling through her panic. It wasn’t too convincing though, “No. I put the picture back, just like you said.”

This time Stony looked worried, “Look man, if you did something and he finds out, you are going straight under the bus.” They entered the Dining Room at different times so hopefully no one would be suspicious. Shadow sat at the head of the table like usual. On his left side were Stony, Treehugger, and Fluttershy, and to his right, were Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight. Silver trays descended from the ceiling and placed themselves in front of each of them. Tidy took a seat next to Fluttershy, and a plate descended in front of him as well. With a twitch of his mustache, the tray lids rose to the ceiling and flew toward the kitchen.

“Dinner is served. For the non-Drakonians, I have prepared a special vegetarian plate made from many Drakonian fruits and vegetables called, ‘Saofthgo’. For the omnivores, master Shadow and I, I have prepared a local dish called ‘Fish and Chips.’ Do you have any words to say before we eat, Master Shadow?”

Shadow was staring at his plate of food with hunger, “Thank you all for coming. Thank whatever deity you believe in for the food, and let’s eat.” Everyone immediately began digging into their plates, except Twilight. She poked her food around feeling too guilty to eat anything. Shadow took a break from attacking his food to look around the table. Everyone was enjoying their food, except Twilight, “Something wrong Twilight?”

Shadow suddenly addressing her, startled Twilight, “What, of course not? Nothings wrong. Nothing happened. Why would anything be wrong? I'm fine, see.” She viciously attacked her plate of food and gave a crazed smiled.

Everyone looked to her with concern and confusion. Shadow had a feeling something was concerning her, but ignored it. “Well, okay,” Shadow stated blankly as he returned to eating, and slowly everyone else followed suit. Across the building in the West Wing, the rings Twilight had dropped began quickly melting. The fire pot let out a bright silver smoke as the rings finished melting. Shadow sniffed the air, and stopped eating suddenly. Stony was watching him closely. Shadow sniffed the air again, “Excuse me; there’s something I have to check.” Shadow stood up and rushed away, but when he got to the door, he turned around to see everyone staring at him. His eyes flashed red, “Yoarnounmyco.” A flash of red filled everyone’s vision, forcing them to blink. When they opened their eyes, Shadow was gone.

Stony instantly knew that Shadow had figured out whatever Twilight had done, and didn’t want to be there when Shadow exploded, “Oh shit. Tidy, Treehugger, anyone who doesn’t want to die, let’s go.” The three quickly left the room, leaving the six Ponies in wonder, but Treehugger quickly ran back in and pulled Fluttershy out with them.

The remaining five Ponies remained seated, too confused by what had happened to move. Then, a purely demonic voice trembled the building, “WHERE ARE THEY!!!”

The five Ponies snapped from their confusion, and ran for the door in fear, but suddenly every door in the room slammed shut. “What in tarnation is going on,” shouted the terrified Applejack.

Twilight muttered under her breath, “Sweet Celestia, what have I done?” The group formed a defensive line and backed away from the door that were running to. That door suddenly shattered, sending fragments of wood throughout the room. A red fog rolled in through the cracked door frame.

Again the deep voice echoed through the halls, “WHERE ARE THEY?!” A figure slowly emerged from the fog. It was Shadow, but fire lashed from hollow eye sockets, two streams of red fog poured from his head, and black smoke surrounded his body. “I SAID, WHERE ARE THEY?!”

Twilight took a step forward, and stood in front of the group, “I’m so sorry Shadow. I didn’t mean for it to happen. I dropped them in the fire pot on accident. I didn’t know what they were, and I just wanted to know. Please Shadow, I'm sorry.”

“THEY WEREN’T YOURS TO TOUCH! THAT ROOM IS MY SANCTUM, EVERYTHING IN THERE IS SPECIAL TO ME! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU’VE JUST DESTROYED? THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN EVER DO TO MAKE UP FOR THIS! JUST LEAVE. LEAVE NOW AND NEVER COME BACK! I HATE YOU! I DESPISE YOUR VERY EXISTENCE! SO JUST LEAVE!” With every word, he spoke the house shook. The ground beneath Shadow’s claws became corrupted with darkness, slowly growing outwards like veins. Crystals of red and black grew from the corrupted ground, glowing in the fog like the eyes of a demon. Tears filled Twilights eyes and some of the other Ponies stepped forward to yell back. Before they could utter a word, the air filled with a whooshing sound. Shadow’s tail was stopped, inches from Twilight’s face, and the power from the sudden stop blew away most of the fog. I thin line of black blood dripped from Shadow’s tail, and he turned to see Tidy in the doorway with a stern look upon his face.

The group saw the blood drip along a nearly horizontal, invisible line. Tidy began shouting at Shadow with anger and concern, “Master Shadow! You will never strike a lady outside of a duel for as long as I live, no matter how much they enrage you! You are a prince, start acting like it.”

Shadow slammed his tail to the ground, cracking it, and pulling Tidy slightly forward, “YOU’RE RIGHT TIDY! I AM A PRINCE, A WAR PRINCE!” He dashed towards Tidy with blinding speed, and wrapped his tail around his throat. Tidy, however, didn’t flinch.

Tidy stood tall and proud in front of Shadow, “What would Khopesh and Khôra think of you acting in such a manner.” The name gave Shadow pause. His face twisted from anger to a confused realization, and he stared back at Tidy for what seemed like hours.

The group watched in silence. Shadows tail uncoiled itself from around Tidy’s neck, and fell back behind him, “I need to be alone right now.” The fog and smoke slowly dissipated, and Shadow’s eyes became their normal, sorrowful, blue. He left the room in silence as a tear fell from Twilight’s face.

Tidy approached her, “Please Miss Sparkle, do not cry. Although Shadow doesn’t think so now, you just released him from a terrible memory.” He put up his claws and wiped away her tears, “You should all go to him in a few minutes. Shadow can hold grudges against many things, but I can tell you five, and the three Ponies who are currently unavailable, aren’t one of them.”

Twilight shook her head, and accidentally flung several tears around, “He hates me. He never wants to see me again. I screwed up too big this time.”

Rainbow Dash spoke up, “Besides, if that asshole wants to scream and try attacking us, he can drop dead.” The rest started talking together. Some were defending Shadow, some Twilight, but none were the voice of reason.

“Silence, please.” Tidy’s voice was kind and caring, but thunderous. “Whether or not you agree with his actions, please check on him, if not for him, or your friendship with him, then for me.” The group exchanged looks and turned to Twilight.

Twilight’s voice was shaky, “I want too, but how will we find him?”

Tidy chuckled, “I know him well enough to say, with absolute certainty, that he’ll be in the Smoke Room.”

Stony’s head popped into the doorway, “Did someone say Smoke Room. I’ll. I’ll go make sure it’s safe for everyone.”

He zoomed down the hallway as Fluttershy and Treehugger entered the Dining Room. Fluttershy could see Twilight had been crying, “Oh my. What happened here?”

It was at this point that Rarity’s attention to detail, and belief that the whole situation was Twilight’s fault, made her realize something. She waved her hoof to draw everyone’s attention, “Where are the evil crystals? Where’s the nasty black ground? Even the door is back to normal.

Tidy quickly lied, “If I couldn’t fix the fallout of an enraged Shadow in mere seconds, then what kind of butler would I be?” He held his poker face until the Ponies finally believed him.

Tidy gestured for the Ponies to follow, and led them to the Smoke Room. When Tidy opened the door, they saw Shadow lying upside down on the large, red, cushiony, couch. He had a hookah pipe in his hand and smoke pouring from his mouth. Stony was in the room as well but no one paid him any attention. Twilight was the first to enter, and she approached Shadow, “Hey Shadow?”

His eyes were bloodshot, and they peered straight through Twilight, “What.” His voice was cold and distant, but not angry.

“I am truly sorry for destroying those rings. I just wanted to get to know you better because you’re my friend. But if you never want to see me again, I understand.” She pointed her head to the ground as the rest of the group entered and sat on various spots on the couch.

They looked on in silence. “It’s fine. They were nothing special anyway,” he let out a heavy sigh, “And I guess I’m sorry for yelling at you.” Stony smiled, and pointed two hooves up, then fell to the ground. Treehugger helped him up and sat down next to him. Twilight stared back at Shadow with teary eyes. Shadow saw the tears and his voice grew much kinder, “Don’t cry, smile instead. You’re a lot prettier when you smile.” Shadow saw the looks the other Ponies were giving him, and decided to quickly change the subject, “Besides is no one going to comment on the fact that I'm a prince?”

Twilight sat next to him, and the group all began asking questions at once. Shadow raised his claws to the air, “I will explain it, if and only if, you don’t interrupt me until I’m finished speaking.” The group stared at Pinkie who pulled her hoof across her mouth. “I didn’t start out as a prince. However, things happened, and we are no longer royalty. I returned to being a soldier, and I was good at it. I was ruthless, creative, and unbeatable. I won so many wars, spilled so much blood, that I was declared the next War Prince. However, things happened, and I am no longer next in line for the throne. Any questions?”

Twilight was the first to speak, “Who was in that picture?”

Shadow stared at the ground and a took a long hit from the hookah. He exhaled, and his eyes filled with tears, “They, they are an old memory. That’s all I want to say about them.” He jumped up, which pulled his hoodie slightly upward, and landed next to the door, “Wait here, I’ll be right back. Stony, you answer questions till I’m back.”

As he left, they all got a glimpse of his Destiny Mark. Stony shouted out, “Nice ass, bro!”

Rarity turned to Stony with curiosity in her eyes, “What does his Cutie Mark mean?”

Stony turned to her, “Well, there’s two ways it could go. Let’s just say he’s half of this two part Yin-Yangy spectrum. He could be bad, or he could be good. We’ll just have to wait and find out. By the way, it’s a Destiny Mark, not a Cutie Mark. Huge difference.”

Fluttershy spoke next, “What about yours Stony. Aren’t you from Drakonia? Does that make yours a Destiny Mark?”

Stony turned to her after taking a long draw from his pipe, “Let’s just call it a picture on my ass and be done with it.” He waved the pipe around, “Anyone else?” surprisingly Applejack took it from him and took a longer hit than Stony did.

The group looked on in shock as she exhaled. She looked around at the surprised Ponies, “What? It’s a plant, I'm a farmer. The two almost go hoof in hoof.”

Stony casually levitated a card from his hoodie’s pouch, and floated it to Applejack, who tucked it into her hat, while saying, “Good to know partner.” Fluttershy and Treehugger started helping themselves. Fluttershy grabbed a Rainbow colored bong off the wall, and Treehugger grabbed Shadow’s hookah pipe.

Twilight spoke in exasperation, “You two, Fluttershy?”

She looked at Twilight while packing a bowl, “Why do you think I'm so quiet all the time?”

Shadow entered the room in a black suit and sat on his pile of pillows, “Sweet, I didn’t know Applejack smoked. How about the rest of you?” Rarity shook her head, claiming it was unladylike, Rainbow Dash claimed she had to stay clean for work, Pinkie shrugged because she never had a reason too, and Twilight shook her head, listing all the things medically wrong with it.

“Yeah, but like, have you ever tried it?” Stony asked Twilight.

She shook her head no, “Weren’t you just listening to me? It's terrible for you.”

At this, Treehugger chuckled and decided it was time for a joke, “That’s the reason you’re still a virgin.”

Fluttershy turned to Treehugger, “But we smoke and we’re virgins.” As she said this she turned and winked at Shadow, who not knowing what she meant, ignored her.

Treehugger sat in Stony’s lap, “Of course, Flutters.” When Fluttershy turned away again, Treehugger shook her head and mouthed the words ‘no.’ Stony had a massive grin on his face, and winked to everyone

Applejack shook her head with a smile, “Yer one bad apple Stony.”

Stony nodded with glee, “Yeah, I'm the apple you smoke out of.”

Applejack laughed, “Yeah, an apple a day, sure does keep the doctor away.”

Shadow took a hit from a second hookah pipe, “An apple a day keeps everyone away if you throw it hard enough.” The rest of the group laughed at this.

Stony turned to Shadow, “We all know you’d never throw an apple, you love them to much.”

Shadow reached into the pillow pile, “That’s why I keep pears around me at all times.”

Stony was about to say something else when a pear impaled itself on his horn. “Ohhhh, you’re a dick.”

There was a knock on the door and Tidy entered, “Miss Applejack, there is a Mister Tosh here to see you.”

Applejack faced Shadow, “Mind if ah send em here.”

Shadow nodded and a few moments later, a massive red Pony entered the room, “Please, just call me Big Mac, Tidy.”

Stony pulled the pair from his horn, and began eating it, “You mean like the cheeseburger?” Everyone looked at him in confusion, “Eh, just forget about it.”

Big Mac stood in the doorway, “I just came to check on ya sis. Make sure you were doin alright, but now ah can see yer doin just fine.”

Applejack grinned, “Eeyup.”

Shadow crawled over, and whispered to Stony, “Am I supposed to invite him or something?”

Stony whispered back to him with a straight face, “You do you, fam.”

Since he didn’t necessarily have to, Shadow remained silent and took another hit from his hookah. Unfortunately, Applejack took it upon herself to invite him in, “Why don’t you stay for a while, brother?”

Shadow mumbled under his breath, “Eternal Damnit.”

Big Mac shook his head, “I got chores to do back at Sweet Apple Acres, maybe next time.”

Again, Shadow mumbled under his breath, “Don’t count on it.”

After Big Mac left, the group chatted for a while, and Shadow stared out his window in silence. “So why exactly is Stony living with you?” Rarity questioned Shadow. Of course, Shadow pretended not to notice.

Stony answered for Shadow, “Shit happened, people went home, and my house burned down. End of story.”

Treehugger turned on Stony’s lap to face him, “But don’t you have.”

Stony cut her off and whispered, “Have you seen this place babe. I’m never leaving. Give me by the end of the day and I can get you here too. Just trust me.” Treehugger nodded and turned again, making sure to rub against him as much as possible. The room was filled with smoke by now.

Rarity slowly turned to Stony with slightly bloodshot eyes, “How did you afford that big house anyway?”

Stony chuckled and messed with his hoodie, as if it were a tie, “Please.”

Shadow stared out his window, but could tell by Rarity’s lack of finesse, she was feeling the burn, “Gotta love secondhand smoke.”

Rainbow Dash stood up, wobbled, and sat back down, “Wait, that’s an actual thing?”

Stony and Shadow looked at each other and Stony laughed. Stony grinned and nudged Rainbow Dash, “Since you’re not passing any drug tests soon, why not join in?” Shadow grabbed a cloud shaped bong off the wall with his tail, and handed it to Rainbow Dash, who begrudgingly joined in. “Just say you ate some poppy seed muffins. Trust me. How do you think the Force?”

Treehugger elbowed Stony, “You’re not supposed to talk about that. Remember?” She got close to his ear and whispered, “We’re all running a pool on how long it’ll take Shadow to find out you’re from Drakonia. Wait two more months for me, okay babe.”

The rest of the day went by smoothly. The group hung out together, Shadow avoided personal questions, and at one point Stony and Treehugger snuck off together. Everyone was still pretty blasted, but when Stony and Treehugger snuck back in, they all set out in groups. Stony, Treehugger, and Fluttershy stayed in the smoke room, Rainbow Dash and Applejack decided to compete in the gym with Pinkie and Rarity watching, and Shadow and Twilight went back to the newly organized Library. Twilight finally took the opportunity to ask, “This place is pretty big, how many floors are there?”

Shadow proudly answered, “Above ground, or below?”

Twilight laughed, “And you’re a prince huh? Why aren’t you back there, leading your people?” Shadow walked to his corner and jumped through the fireplace.

When he returned he was holding the picture in his tail, “I’m not the only war prince.”

He handed the photo to Twilight, “Is this the other one?”

Shadow sighed, “And people say I’m dense. That’s me.” She looked back to Shadow and stared at his head. Shadow sighed again, “We had to battle each other to see who would be next in line for the throne after… the princess died. He won, and he took my horns with him as a prize. Let me see your hoof.” He grabbed Twilight’s hoof and rubbed it on his head. She could feel two little sharp, broken, nubs on his head, “Those are what’s left of them. Since I have no immediate claim to throne, I am not considered a true prince, only a War Prince. Of course, if I said something, the people would obey, but I respect the laws of Drakonia.” Shadow could tell Twilight wondered why he was here still, so he skillfully lied, “When I received the invitation to the Summer Sun Celebration, I accepted it, wanting to get a fresh start for a while.”

This seemed to please Twilight, who began browsing his Library once more. Then Shadow’s old friend appeared next to her, “You should have killed her, you know. You should have killed them all. She destroyed your and yours’ and Khopesh’s wedding rings, and they all defended her, or did you not know that part.” Twilight turned and walked through him. “You could do it now. They are divided, weak; it would be like taking candy from a dead baby.” Shadow remained silent, making sure Twilight didn’t notice him disappear to the bottom floor.

Finally when he was alone, he addressed the figure, “Leave me be. I will not obey you this time. You can not corrupt me any further, for I know what you really are.”

The figure smiled, his mouth full of bloody razor blades instead of teeth, “What am I then, Shadow?”

Shadow whisked his tail through him, blowing him away, “A nuisance.” He returned to see Twilight staring at the picture Shadow had forgotten to put back.

He saw the sorrow on her face, “If that’s really you, this must be your wife and daughter.” Shadow approached and nodded, “If there not here, then that means,” a tear fell from her face as she finally realized what she had destroyed. She jumped up and hugged Shadow, “I'm so sorry.”

Shadow let her hug him for a bit. It was warm. “Look, Twilight, I'm telling you, forget about it. That was all a long time ago. It really would be better for me to leave all that stuff behind me, move forward and stuff. So remember what I said before and smile okay, you're a lot prettier when you smile.”

As day set to dusk, Shadow’s friends left. Stony and Treehugger had disappeared together again, but Shadow had forgotten they were even here. All he could think about were his rings. He lied when he said he wanted to forget. He placed the photo back on his desk and finally noticed the book on the ground, “Starswirl… You fool.” He placed the book back on the shelf and sighed. “Hopefully tomorrow will be an easier day to handle.” He left his study after glancing at his photo one more time. He walked to his room and looked at the photos on his wall.

The shadowy figure appeared once more, “If you aren’t going to kill them, then let me.” Shadow was getting angrier with the figure, and glared at him, “Oh how menacing, you really terrify me with your powers of.” Shadow’s eyes went red and the figure became more solid.

Before it could say anything Shadow had it pinned, with his claws on its throat, “Speak to me again without my permission, and I’ll gladly give up the power you gave me. I will enjoy ripping you into pieces. I will be the first one ever to slay an Eternal Element. Then I’ll find all your friends and do the same thing to them. Is that clear?”

The figure ground its razor blades together, “Crystal.”

Shadow pulled his claws from the creature’s throat and his eyes returned to their normal blue, “Now get out of my sight.” With that the creature vanished, and Shadow entered his messy room and retired for the night. As usual, he did not sleep, instead; he looked up at his ceiling, waiting for daybreak

Shadow began daydreaming before his silence was destroyed by the sound of Stony screaming. He turned to see Stony in his doorway, “How the fuck do you live?!” Shadow rolled out of his bed and over to the door. He raised his claws and slowly closed it. He looked at his ceiling for a while before grabbing a hoodie from a pile of clothes on the floor. It was a small, old, faded, blue hoodie. He stripped off his suit, and pulled on the hoodie. It covered most of his body, but exposed his Destiny Mark and most of his front legs. He opened his door to Stony, still in shock from the traumatic experience. Shadow walked by him, snapping Stony from his dazed and confused state, “Hey, nice ass dude.”

Shadow turned with a slight grin, “If you like it so much, you can kiss it.”

Stony chuckled, “I don’t like kissing Clyde, man.”

Shadow stopped and turned around, “Clyde? Who’s Clyde?”

Stony sighed, “Really man, Clyde. He’s German, always yelling at you, donkey Gardner.”

Shadow rubbed his chin and looked up, “I feel like I would have remembered someone like that.”

A voice yelled from outside with a thick German accent, “Fuck!”

Shadow raised one claw to the air, “Oh Clyde,” He paused and lowered that claw, “Wait. How do I know him?”

Stony walked past him, “Remember that sick as sativa. It may or may not cause short term memory loss. Don’t worry; it’s only temporary, maybe.”

Shadow eventually caught up to Stony who was having breakfast with Treehugger, “Well you got here early.” They looked at each other and giggled. After an egg and bacon breakfast, which both Stony and Treehugger grimaced at, he headed into town. He saw a large crowd of Ponies in front of what looked like a stage. Shadow was never one to sit near the back, so he crouched down and leapt over the majority of the crowd. When he landed he found himself next to his group of friends. Ponies around him fell backward or gasped at this strange creature suddenly landing next to them.

Applejack gave Shadow a stern look, “Now Shadow, what in tarnation are ya doin jumpin around an scarin Ponies like that for?”

Shadow rolled his eyes at Applejack, “I’m royalty, remember, I don’t sit in the back. That is for the common Ponies. I’m better than them.” A blue Pony with an absurd hat and cape combo took center stage. Her name was Trixie, and she, she was stunning.

She performed a small magic and firework show. Shadow loved everything about her little performance until his friends got upset with her bragging. They challenged her, and obviously failed miserably. Shadow believed they failed so horrendously because they sucked at just about everything besides being his background characters, and he thoroughly voiced this opinion. Trixie roared with triumph, “See, is there anypony who can match the Great and Powerful Trixie?” Shadow casually made his way on stage and sat down, “What are you?!”

Shadow addressed Trixie’s rudeness, “It’s ‘who are you’ not ‘what are you.’ I am Shadow, and believe I can do something that even you can not.”

Trixie laughed and gave Shadow a challenging stare, “And what might that be?”

Shadow acted like he was inspecting his claws, but looked around for Ted. Shadow spotted him in the place he was standing in the crowd. Ted nodded, and Shadow looked up, "I'll show you." With all eyes on him, he whispered, “Yoarnounmyco.” Ted whisped into Shadow. Shadow looked up, eyes turning red, and opened his mouth. Smoke bellowed out, and flames erupted from it, spiraling upward into a massive swirling tornado of flames. As Shadow closed his mouth the flames died out, and he turned cockily at Trixie.

Trixie smiled, "Seriously? Is that all I have to beat?" With a small glow from her horn a dazzling display of fireworks filled the sky. Shadow sat in awe of the beautiful explosions of flame and color filling the sky.

Trixie smiled at his response, “See, nothing can beat The Great and Powerful Trixie!” She laughed boastfully, and waved Shadow off the stage. As he fell back into place, his red eyes faded back to blue.

She continued boasting and performing for a while. If all the tales Trixie claimed she did were true, then she was indeed great and powerful. The others thought she was full of it and hated her bragging, but Shadow loved everything about her performance. “Okay, okay okay, so even if everything she said was a complete lie, she did put on an outstanding performance. Can we agree on that at least?” apparently they couldn’t. Shadow was on the wrong end of a losing battle. They couldn’t even see how good she was because they were all too focused on her being rude and braggy. Shadow believed they were all just too proud of themselves to see how great she was, and he thoroughly voiced this opinion as well. It wasn’t long till he had them all against him instead of against Trixie. “Can we please get back to the topic we were discussing, Trixie?”

Applejack’s eyes went wide, and she grew a devilish grin, “Well why are ya defendin her so hard, Shadow? Does a certain Drakonian got a li’l crush on a, what did ya call us a last week? Right, worthless Ponies?”

Shadow’s face remained straight, but his cheeks turned slightly pink, “Of course not, I am a prince of Drakonia. Not only is she a commoner, but she’s not Drakonian. How could I ever fall for such a creature? She’s nothing special.” He was lying of course. The grin spread to everyone else, except Fluttershy, who remained spineless. When he saw the Ponies walking toward him with those devilish grins, he took off, “I just remembered I left the oven on, or something.”

Stony and Treehugger were just about to go for another round before he paused and poked his head up, “I feel a disturbance in the force. Someone, who’s not us, is going to get laid within twenty-four hours.” Treehugger looked confused, “Just trust me babe, I think Shadow’s gonna have a good night.” Shadow wandered through the town, not wanting to go home. He tried his best to avoid his friends, and anyone for that matter. Every now and then he’d get stopped by a curious Pony or two, and he would have to explain that he was a Drakonian, and what a Drakonian was. Of course, when a Pony asks one question, it leads to another, and another, and another. Somehow he got caught up in some spa treatment. He couldn’t remember the events leading up to it, but now that he was here, he didn’t care. The two spa Ponies were named Aloe and Lotus, and they were good at what they did.

They gave him the full treatment, on the house! Shadow couldn’t believe it. It was so amazing, and free! All he had to do was keep coming back, and eventually bring more Drakonians with him. “Good for business I guess, have me at your spa and give it great reviews to all of my people back home, you two will eventually make a killing.” They smiled and thanked him for coming to them. As he left, Shadow looked to the sky, “It’s almost twilight, my favorite time of the day, because it’s finally over.” He roamed around Ponyville before he realized he was walking on some dirt road. He sat outside watching the blinding sun set, and the gorgeous moon rise. He watched the stars twinkle for a while. He looked around to see if anyone was nearby. He couldn’t see anyone, so he pulled of his hoodie and wing bindings, and stretched his wings. Shadow looked upward, and grinned. With one powerful thrust of his wings, he launched himself into the air with blinding speed. He flapped his wings a few more times, and flew up till it became hard to breathe. He closed his eyes and went limp. He felt the wind whipping through his hair, the moisture collecting on his wings and tail, and his body becoming completely relaxed.

He felt the wind shift slightly and burst his wings back open. When he opened his eyes he saw he was inches from the ground, and gliding above the road with tremendous speed. He started smiling and made a sharp turn into the woods. He zipped through the trees, narrowly dodging each one. He could feel himself decelerating, and prepared to land. At the first sight of a path, he turned to face it and tried landing. His foot caught something and he began tumbling down the road. He felt rocks digging into his skin as his fur and flesh being ground off by the force of his slide on the gravel path. He stood up, black blood dripping off various parts of his body, but Shadow was still smiling, “Come on out, I know you’re watching.” The shadowy figure wisped out of the darkness and into the moonlight.

He remained silent until Shadow finally gave him permission to speak, “I knew you would fly, those wings aren’t such a curse after all, huh?”

Shadow was in tremendous pain, but still smiling, “Leave me.”

The figure stared at Shadow, “No. not until you admit I was right and ask me politely.”

Shadow glared at the figure and clenched his teeth together, “It is still is a curse. I hate them with every fiber of my being. Yes I love flying, but I will never forgive the monster that gave them to me. Now, please leave me.”

The figure shook his head, “I don’t like how that sounds, ask me again, but use my name.” Shadow’s eyes turned red, but he didn’t attack him. He knew when he attacked the figure earlier, it was only humoring him.

He could destroy Shadow with the blink of his eyes, so Shadow did as it asked, “Please, The Eternal Darkness, leave me be.” The figure disappeared. With the figure gone, Shadow stretched and took off one more time. He whisked through the woods, dodging tree after tree. He saw a waterfall off in the distance, “It’s technically running water.” He blazed toward it. As he approached it he let his entire body run through it, washing away all the blood. When he opened his eyes he saw the world in slow motion. The droplets of water glistened in the moonlight.

It was the prettiest thing he had seen in a very long time. He followed the glittering light with his eyes and saw the night sky twinkling. He shot upward, eyes closed, blasting all the water away. He rose higher and higher until finally he had a hard time breathing. Again he let his body go limp, but this time when he felt the change in the wind, he did nothing. His body crashed into the ground with enough force to create a decent sized crater. He opened his eyes and saw a large rock where his stomach should be. He looked around and saw his bones shattered and ripping through his skin. He looked down to see several intestines adorning the rock. He laughed and soaked in the pain. He felt every fiber of his being screaming with pain, and all he could do was smile and laugh. He raised his broken arms and pushed against the rock. The pain was agonizingly euphoric to him. He kept pushing until he felt himself sliding away. His entire lower half had now been ripped off of him. He moaned with his pain. He put his arms down as a cloud covered the sky, he was in complete darkness, surrounded by his black blood, bone shards, and entrails, but in that darkness his pain vanished.

When Shadow opened his eyes, he was standing on the same path. There was no crater, no rocks, no blood, just him and The Eternal Darkness. All of Shadow’s wounds were gone, and he felt no more pain, “Shadow? What is your fascination with pain? I don’t understand it.” Shadow’s smile faded, he knew The Eternal Darkness had taken control at the last second, and landed safely. He used the same illusion spell Shadow used so often.

It had all been in his head, “How do we know we are truly alive, if we do not let ourselves feel pain? If we only feel joy, how do we not know we are truly already dead?” Shadow turned from him, and looked down the path. A short walk ahead of him; he saw some kind of cart. It was solid wood and didn’t look like it had anywhere for a Pony to attach itself to.

He slowly made his way over to the cart and saw a Pony glaring at a fire, “I will become stronger. I have to become stronger!”

Shadow walked over to her, now realizing it was Trixie, “Don’t you mean ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’ must become stronger?” He rolled his tongue on the ‘r’ in her name.

She was so startled she almost jumped into the fire, “Who’s there?” After seeing Shadow her face returned to anger, “Have you come to mock me like the others have?” Shadow walked over and set next to the fire.

“I wasn’t planning on it, but I’m gonna comment on the whole switching from third to first person speaking. Do you only speak like a normal person when you’re pissed or something?” he let out a light-hearted chuckle which seemed to relax Trixie, “Anyway, I was just in the neighborhood and heard a damsel in distress.” He saw the small wet spots on the dirt, but pretended not to notice.

Skeptically Trixie sat to the right of him, “The Great and Powerful Trixie is not a damsel in distress. She is a powerful Unicorn, a gifted Unicorn. She was in Celestia’s school for fucks sake! She is strong!”

She was huffing in rage, so Shadow tried to defuse her, “By the Eternal, calm down. Tell me what happened. I promise not to belittle you, okay?”

He saw her eyes water up, “They ruined everything. Trixie is just a joke to them now, but she’s not. She is strong, she is great, and she is powerful. Isn’t she?” she looked to Shadow, “She isn’t a failure right? She has tried so hard. Sure she couldn’t graduate from Celestia’s school because of financial reasons, but she was top of her class in her other one. So why don’t they like me?” Tears were now streaming down her face.

Shadow wrapped his wing around her and pulled her close, “Shh. No tears, okay?” She sniffled and obliged.

“I can’t answer all your questions. I don’t know these Ponies, but I can tell you a tale of my hardest time here, or rather, of here.” She looked up at him, her eyes still watery, “I was just a kid. My brother gave up his life to save me after some stupid stunt we tried pulling, and I wound up in Equestria. I thought I made friends with two Ponies, and because of them I believed every Pony was truly kind. I had even given them a special seed that had been in my family line for generations. But one night, the townsponies gathered up with torches, clubs, knives, and of course, pitchforks. They tried to kill me and the two Ponies. I, as the hero, saved the day, by killing every single one of them.” Trixie looked shocked and scared, but when Shadow looked down at her, it slowly faded into something else. Shadow wasn’t sure what it was, so he continued his story, “Anyway, the parents of the two Ponies pretty much banned me from Equestria, even though I had saved their children’s lives. We were still friends though. We wrote each other all the time, sent drawings and pictures to each other. A long time passed, and the older sister was over shadowing and neglecting her sister. Nothing I did made her realize she was about to lose her, and nothing I said to the younger one made her hatred go away. Eventually the younger sister’s hatred took control of her, changing her. She tried to end her sister, but the older sibling used a weapon that nothing could stop. My gift to them. That seed created a weapon that banished her sister to a cold and dark place.”

Shadow looked back to the sky, “She then abandoned me. That’s when I realized how truly evil Ponies are, but don’t worry, the story gets better.” He pulled Trixie closer to him and closed his eyes, “I eventually found myself forced back here, but it had changed. I had grown dark and cold, but here it was warm and bright. I met six Ponies who changed my life forever. They helped me bring the younger sister back, and I look forward to seeing her soon.” He looked down at Trixie who still had that look on her face, “The moral is this: Things will get so dark, it seems hopeless, but no matter how deep that pit of evil is, somewhere, deep down, there is a light, and when you reach that light, the whole world will shine with the beauty of a thousand suns. So keep your chin up, okay?” He looked deep into Trixie’s eyes, “If not for you, then for me. I see something great in you. So hang in there.”

They sat next to each other, feeling each other’s warmth. After what seemed like hours, Trixie stood up, “It is getting very late, Trixie thinks it is time to get out of the cold.” She headed towards her huge cart, but stopped halfway there and turned around. That look was on her face again, “Do you? Would you like? If it’s alright with you that is. Could you please?” She kept stammering, never finishing a sentence.

That’s when Shadow realized that look, “You’re right it is pretty late. It’s a long walk back to Everfree Forest. If it’s alright with you, could I stay the night?”

Trixie turned pink, “Y-yes, of course, but there’s only one bed.”

Shadow stood up, smiling, and walked past her, “I don’t mind sharing if you don’t, but watch out. I’m a cuddler.” Trixie was nearly maroon now.

He entered her cart and crawled into her bed, “Trixie does not like staying in one place for too long, so when the sun rises, she leaves.” She crawled next to Shadow and scooted closer, this time Shadow was the one turning maroon. She stared into his eyes, “Do you really believe Trixie is special?”

Shadow smiled, still blushing, “Of course I do. Oh, and I'd consider it a huge favor if you never mentioned my wings to anyone” Suddenly Trixie crawled as close to Shadow as she could, “What are you doing?”

She smiled and gave him a kiss, “Something special.”

Chapter 4: A Chronic Time

Part 1: Derpy and Shadow

After the kiss, Trixie fell asleep in Shadow’s arms. For the first time in a very long time, Shadow did not fear the nightmares that haunted his sleep. He closed his eyes, allowing himself to drift off to sleep for the first time in…. well a very long time. When he finally started to wake up he could feel the warmth of the sun beating on his face. He was dumbfounded by the fact he didn’t have a nightmare. A small breeze blew through his hair, and he heard the happy chirp of Bluebirds. He smiled, and reached to hug Trixie, but only felt the grass under his arm, “Grass?” he opened his eyes to see he was laying on the grass next to the fire Trixie made last night, “Are you FUCKING kidding me!” He looked down the road and saw Trixie’s cart rolling away.

For a moment he thought of chasing after her, but then a note fell from his forehead, “Shadow. I’m sorry. I really do feel like we have something special, but I can’t stay until I have finally achieved what you see in me. I will become as great as you know I should be. Then and only then can I return to you.”

Shadow crumpled the note and threw it into the ashes of the fire, “I should have known. They always leave in the end. I’m destined to be alone.”

Shadow wandered the forest, not knowing what do. He finally thought he found someone to love. Somehow he wound up home. He flew across the moat, not wanting to speak to anyone. Of course, that was too much to ask for. In his thick Germanic accent, Clyde called out, “Oh zhe Shadow. I vas told by zhe Stony to tell you, ‘Nice ass, bro.’ I do not know vut zis means, but I am doing it anyway.” Clyde was wandering around the grounds studying the dirt.

Shadow let out a heavy sigh, “What are you doing Clyde?”

Clyde didn’t look up, “Looking for good soil to grow zhe Stony’s product.”

Shadow rolled his eyes and headed inside, “No, growing inside the moated area.”

With that Clyde looked up, “Fuck, but zis is zhe soft soil!”

Shadow looked over his shoulder, “I don’t care Clyde, just find a spot in the forest.”

Shadow walked in to see Stony shaking with excitement. He was in a beige trench coat and wearing 3-D glasses, “Stony, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

Stony thought for a moment, “The asshole.” There was a rack of clothes next him and he sifted through it before throwing a short, dark blue, Crombie-style coat with red lining, dark blue trousers, a long, button up, collared, white shirt and, a navy cardigan. He smiled, “Now, put those on.”

Shadow glared at Stony, “Why?”

Stony rolled his eyes and sighed, “You know what the greatest kind of prize is, a surprise. So just do it.”

Shadow begrudgingly obliged, “I look like a funky magician with this outfit on.”

Stony chuckled, “I’m pretty sure he was going for something else.”

Shadow stared cautiously at Stony, “Who is he?”

There was an odd noise coming from the Library. It was unlike anything Shadow had ever heard. It kind of went Vworp Vworp. Stony looked extremely happy, “He’s here. Come on!” With that Stony rushed out of the room, and Shadow slowly fallowed. When he got to the Library he saw a blue box and two new Ponies.

Shadow mumbled under his breath, “Great. There’s more of them.” One was pale brown, and had a dark brown Mohawk, short tail, and a green bowtie. The other was a grey Pegasus with a long blonde mane and tail.

Stony walked over to the brown one, and with a mocking tone, “Hey ‘Time-Turner,’ ain’t seen you in a solid minute my friend.”

Time-Turner looked slightly concerned, “Oh, Stony. Oh, god. What are you doing here?”

Stony smiled, “Well I live here.” Shadow looked to the grey Pegasus who almost returned his gaze. Shadow couldn’t tell which eye to look at, so he casually walked over to the blue box.

Time-Turner sighed, “Stony, did you send out a fake distress signal?”

Stony acted hurt, “I. Don’t know what you’re talking about. Besides if I did, would it really be that bad to humor an old friend?” Time-Turner grimaced as Stony said friend.

Shadow took this distraction to enter the blue box, “Huh, it’s bigger on the inside.”

The grey Pegasus followed him in, “Isn’t it awesome? It’s called the Tardis.”

Time-Turner ran into the box, but saw Shadow slightly unamused, “Yes, it stands for time.”

Shadow cut him off there, “Time and Relative Dimension in Space, right? Kind of lame if you ask me.”

Time-Turner’s jaw dropped, “Lame? Lame! Can you possibly comprehend the power she has?”

Shadow shrugged, “Travel to any time and place you want.”

Now Time-Turner seemed agitated, “Did Stony tell you all of this? Stony! I made you promise not to tell anyone!” He stormed off to yell at Stony. When he was finally out the door, they closed and locked themselves.

The strange sound occurred again, and the whole room began shifting and shaking, “By the Eternal, what’s going on?” The grey Pegasus flapped her wings to fly and remained in place while Shadow was tossed around the room.

When the room finally went still the grey Pegasus landed next to Shadow, “I just don’t know went wrong. Are you okay?”

Shadow looked at her again, “Are you asking me, or that wall?”

She smiled, “You silly. My name is Derpy. I already know who you are, you’re Shadow. The Doctor talks about you sometimes.”

Shadow stood up, “Who’s The Doctor?”

Derpy giggled, “Well, he’s different. In Equestria he calls himself Time-Turner, but everywhere else he’s called The Doctor.”

Shadow rolled his eyes, “Never met him, so there’s no way you two can know me.” He walked to the doors and opened them, “Look at that, I was right, but where are we?” It was a beautiful city filled with Ponies. They were all running away though. He looked toward the sky, and saw an eclipse. As he was gazing at its beauty he saw the princesses in full armor, attacking one another. Celestia was clearly loosing. He watched Luna pummel Celestia until eventually their magic formed a tremendous orb between them. Luna screamed with rage and the ball of energy was sent hurtling toward Celestia. She was blown out of the sky and sent crashing into the castle.

Shadow smiled and cheered on Luna, “Atta girl. Rip her to shreds!”

Derpy walked out of the Tardis, “I know what’s going on. This is when Celestia banishes Luna.”

Shadow’s smile faded away, “Maybe it will change this time.”

Derpy shook her head, “It’s a locked event. This has to happen. Some things never change no matter how hard you try.” She went to put her hoof around Shadow, but tripped and pushed him into a mud pile. Shadow was furious, “Oh, I’m so sorry Shadow. I just don’t know what went wrong.”

Shadow glared at the ground, but looked up at her straight faced, “Don’t worry about it.” He heard a thunderous boom and looked back to see a flash of light. With that the moon grew the spots he knew so well, “Luna, you don’t deserve this.”

Derpy looked at him with sad eyes, “I’m sorry Shadow.” With that Shadow and Derpy re-entered the Tardis. Derpy finally asked Shadow, “How did you know what the Tardis was, Shadow?”

Shadow strolled over to the terminal, “I’m good with acronyms. Plus someone told me about a blue box when I was younger, it’s not important. How do we get home? I just want to be alone right now.”

Derpy looked sad, “I’m not fully sure, but I could try flying it.”

Shadow eyed her, “You sure you’re allowed to drive with eyes like that?” Derpy giggled again and messed with some buttons and levers on the center console. The room began shifting again and Shadow was sent flying around once more. Shadow looked like he was ready to kill Derpy, but before she flew over to him; he forced himself to calm down. He looked up at her and sarcastically commented on her flying skills, “Nice flying ace. I’m sure you’ll make a great pilot one day.”

He stood back up again and headed for the door before Derpy stopped him, “Maybe I should go first, we don’t know what could be out there.” Shadow moved her aside and opened the door, but what he saw made him wish he had let her go first.

It was Drakonia, his home, burning. However, it wasn’t like his nightmare that Nightmare Moon gave him. He could hear his people screaming in pain. He saw flashes of lightning strike the orphanage he grew up in. He watched the citadel he trained day and night in, decay in the blink of an eye. The streets he used to walk upon with his friends and family were being eroded away by massive waves of water. The ground beneath the Bakery he took his daughter to so often, opened up and swallowed the buildings above. He watched pillars of fire burn crowds of terrified civilians. Then he looked to Spiral Keep. Chains, whips, and of orbs of darkness shot out from the walls. Slowly the tremendous castle fell to the ground. He watched in horror as he finally saw the ones responsible meeting together in the center of the carnage. They were his friends, but they had changed so much. Rainbow Dash had lightning pulsing through her veins, Pinkie was surrounded with pure grey energy, Fluttershy had water pouring from her hooves, Rarity was covered in crystal armor, Applejack’s hair was one giant inferno, and Twilight was wearing black armor that could only be described as pure evil.

Shadow’s shock and horror slowly turned into pure rage, “I’LL KILL ALL OF THEM!”

Just as Shadow leapt into the air Derpy grabbed his tail and pulled him inside, “No Shadow, don’t. Please.”

The doors closed and Shadow’s eyes turned blood red, “I WILL DO AS I DAMN WELL PLEASE!”

Derpy’s voice was calm, “We can’t mess around with time like that, not without The Doctor.”

Shadow wasn’t playing nice anymore. Shadow smiled, and his voice grew calm, “Listen here you useless waste of space.” Derpy took a step back and tears filled her eyes, so Shadow took a step closer, “I will do whatever I damn well please, and no one will get in my way. Especially not some nobody like you.” Tears started streaming down her cheeks, “So, you clumsy, moronic, weak, Pony, stay the fuck out of my way.” She started sobbing and Shadow took a few steps closer, “I guess I understand why you don’t want to do anything without The Doctor. It’s because you’re too stupid to do anything by yourself.” Derpy laid down and curled herself up, “I mean you can’t even work your own eyes properly. What kind of retard can’t even do that?” Shadow was towering over Derpy, smiling. “What’s the matter, don’t know went wrong? Well I can tell you, you were born.” Shadow began laughing. He had said his piece and started walking away.

Then, the crying stopped. Shadow turned to see Derpy upright and tearless, “Feel better?” Shadow was confused. Derpy walked over to him, “I asked you a question.”

Shadow was too confused to be angry, “Why, Why aren’t you crying?”

Derpy looked pissed, but answered, “I’ve been tormented all my life. I’ve heard things a thousand times worse. I was beaten nearly to death countless times. What makes you think you can hurt me?” Shadow couldn’t seem to speak, “Well, do you feel better?”

Shadow stared at her eyes, which were now both angrily focused on him, “Not really.”

Derpy scoffed, “Then what was all that for? Is your only purpose in life to make everyone as miserable as you are? If so then do you really think you’re existence is worth continuing?” this time Shadow took a step back, “Why not just end it now and make the world a better place?”

Shadow finally managed to say something back, “Maybe I am here to torment, and to me that’s reason enough to live.”

Derpy let out a fake laugh, “You really aren’t worth saving. I don’t get what The Doctor sees in you.” She walked back over to the terminal as Shadow sat there with his head down, too stunned to say anything.

Shadow finally looked up, “Does he really think I can be saved?” Derpy was facing the opposite direction and smiled.

When she looked back to him though, she looked upset again, “Yes, but he thinks everyone can be saved. He’s always going on about how every life is important, so I try being nice to all my tormentors. But you, I can’t stand you.”

Shadow looked down again, “What if he’s right though? What if I can be saved?”

Derpy flew over smiling, and hugged him, “Then start acting like it, dick.”

Again Shadow was shocked, “Is every Pony obsessed with hugging?”

Derpy squeezed him tightly, “Don’t ruin the moment Shadow, just join it.” Shadow obeyed and returned her hug.

Derpy felt a tear hit her wing, “Is this moment locked two? Is this really going to happen?”

Derpy rubbed his back, “It’s not a locked event, but whether it happens or not is up to you.”

Shadow thought back, and remembered how giddy Stony was when he met Time-Turner, “So how does my stoner know your time traveler?”

Derpy didn’t let go of Shadow, “I guess he was The Doctor’s companion before me, but he let him go because he’s a drug lord.”

Shadow tried prying off Derpy, but her grip was too tight, “So, is The Doctor against drugs?”

Derpy only held tighter as Shadow struggled, “No, but apparently Stony manipulated The Doctor so he could start his empire at a young age.”

Shadow finally gave up when her grip was so tight he could barely breathe, “Why won’t you let me go?”

Derpy looked up at him, which caused her forehead to smack into Shadow’s jaw, “You’re really warm.”

Shadow rubbed his jaw with his tail and pulled his head back a bit so he could look at Derpy, “Don’t you think it’s just a little weird though, us hugging for this long when we don’t know each other?”

Derpy thought for a moment and her eyes drifted apart, “Nope!”

Shadow looked back at the door, “So where am I in all that carnage outside?”

Derpy put a wing up to bring Shadow’s gaze back to her, “I don’t know, but it doesn’t mean it has to happen. Every person has the chance to change the world.”

Shadow stared into her eyes, “How can I change anything, if everyone is constantly abandoning me. I thought I found love again this morning, but like always, she left me.”

Derpy’s eyes glistened in the light, “I know you’ll find a way, I just know it. It's weird; it’s like I see something in you, something great.” With that Derpy leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek. Derpy was smiling with her eyes closed.

She looked so happy. Shadow wanted happiness like that, “Derpy, what is The Doctor to you?”

Derpy opened her eyes and grinned slyly, “And why would you want to know something like that, Mister Shadow?”

Shadow was slightly unnerved by her new grin, “Just wondering. Since I can’t escape your hug I might as well get to know you.”

Derpy turned her head, “He’s my best friend. We travel together everywhere. He’s shown me loads of cool places.” She turned back to him with the same sly smile, “Wanna see if we can travel to some?”

Shadow remembered the last time she flew the Tardis, but right now, he didn’t care, “Sure.” With that Derpy released Shadow and jumped to the controls. Shadow looked for something to hold on to, but couldn’t find anything in time. He gave her an annoyed look when they landed, but when she smiled his annoyance faded. It seemed like she could take him anywhere but home right now. They visited all kinds of ancient ruins back before they were ruins. Shadow got to take his first look at a space station, which was millions of miles away from his home. He talked politics with alien rulers and fought pirates on the ancient, far away, seas. For them, it had been months. Shadow followed Derpy through it all, the constant running, saving the day, and all the beautiful scenery. Shadow had made himself home in the Tardis, even taking the room across from Derpy’s as his own.

Even with all the time he had spent in it, he had never explored the Tardis, “So good lookin, I’ve been crashing in this B-E-A-utiful little box without ever getting a tour. What kind of a host doesn’t give their Sauvé, handsome, companion a tour?” Derpy giggled and began her little tour. They traveled through the Tardis for what seemed like an eternity, “This place is almost as big as my manor, almost.”

Derpy giggled, “And finally, this is my room.”

The doors opened to reveal a room full of all kinds of mementos, souvenirs, Knick knacks, and collectables, “You know Derpy, this place is amazing, but after dealing with that disgusting slimy creature, all I want now is a shower.”

Derpy guided Shadow through the room to a door on the other side, “Here, you can use mine.”

The bathroom looked just like Shadow’s, “I have one just like this.”

Derpy followed him in, “Really, The Doctor said he modeled after Drakonian architecture, but isn’t your house in Equestria?”

Shadow looked at her for a moment, “Just because it’s in Equestria, doesn’t mean it’s not Drakonian.” Derpy gasped in realization, “Good job, Derpy. Also there’s no soap.”

Derpy left to retrieve soap while Shadow started the water. While she was gone he stripped and entered the shower. A few moments later Derpy returned with some bars of soap. She tripped over a towel and went flying into the shower. Shadow lifted up the curtain and re-attached it to the wall. Derpy was lying on the floor of the tub upside down, “Oh, hi. Could you not mention my wings to anyone? Please?” Derpy smiled and nodded, “And while you’re here Derpy, do you maybe, wanna join me?” She blushed, but nodded. It didn’t take long for one thing to lead to the next. Shadow and Derpy shared the night together. They knew eventually they would go back to their own lives, but for just this one night, none of that mattered. All that mattered was that they were their, they were together, and they wanted each other.

Part 2: Stony and The Doctor

Stony woke up that morning without Treehugger. There was a note on his pillow with Treehugger’s writing on it. It talked about how she had some errands to do or something. It didn’t matter, today Stony had a plan, “I can feel it in the air, a certain someone is gonna get laid soon.” He hopped out of his bead and re-made it. His room was done in classic French medieval décor. Everything in his room had a place, and it was perfectly organized. There wasn’t a speck of dust to be found. When everything was too his liking he left the room, but when he got a glimpse of Shadow’s room he couldn’t help himself. He spent the next few hours cleaning his room as well. When he was finished with that he saw the beautiful modern, gothic, style of Shadow’s room, “When it’s clean it’s actually pretty beautiful, a little dark and gloomy, but beautiful… It’s a very Shadowy style.”

He left the room and ventured to the top floor for a special set of outfits. He grabbed an empty clothing rack and picked several odd outfits with varying accessories. He himself put on a beige trench coat and a pair of 3-D glasses, “I don’t know why he has these up here, but they’re perfect.” He dragged the rack downstairs and left it in the main entryway. Then he headed for the Library. He channeled all of his magic and sent out a thought with as much psychic energy as he could. It wouldn’t do shit in a fight, but it would get his current mission accomplished. He heard a loud, Germanic, ‘Fuck’ from outside, and knew Shadow was finally home.

He raced to the entryway and Shadow greeted him with an annoyed look and a, “Stony, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

Stony thought for a moment, “The asshole.” He sifted through the clothes rack and threw a short, dark blue, Crombie-style coat with red lining, dark blue trousers, a long, button up, collared, white shirt and, a navy cardigan at Shadow. Stony smiled, “Now, put those on.”

Shadow glared at him, “Why?”

Stony rolled his eyes and sighed, “You know what the greatest kind of prize is, a surprise. So just do it.”

Shadow begrudgingly obliged, “I look like a funky magician with this outfit on.”

Stony chuckled, “I’m pretty sure he was going for something else.”

Shadow stared cautiously at Stony, “Who is he?”

There was a familiar noise coming from the Library. It was just like Stony remembered. That wonderful, beautiful wailing sound the Tardis made because The Doctor never took of the brakes. Stony was giddy with excitement, “He’s here. Come on!” with that Stony rushed out of the room with Shadow slowly following. When Stony got to the Library he saw a blue box and two Ponies. Stony knew one of them, The Doctor; he was different from when they ventured together. He was now a pale brown pony, with a dark brown mohawk, short tail, and a green bowtie. The other was a grey Pegasus with a long blonde mane and tail. Stony walked over to The Doctor, and with a mocking tone, “Hey ‘Time-Turner,’ ain’t seen you in a solid minute my friend.”

The Doctor looked slightly concerned, “Oh, Stony. Oh, god. What are you doing here?”

Stony smiled, “Well I live here.” Stony saw Shadow walk towards the Tardis out of the corner of his eye.

The Doctor sighed, “Stony, did you send out a fake distress signal?”

Stony acted hurt, “I. Don’t know what you’re talking about. Besides if I did, would it really be that bad to humor an old friend?” The Doctor grimaced as Stony said friend. Stony saw Shadow and the grey Pegasus enter the Tardis from his peripheral vision. It didn’t take long before The Doctor noticed too, and ran in after them. Stony sat down and started reminiscing about all his adventures with The Doctor when he noticed the entire Tardis was covered in a thin Shadow. The doctor stormed out to yell at Stony.

The Shadow grew to red spots which headed for the door, “Stony, how could you?” Stony ignored The Doctor and used his magic to Shut the doors and send the Tardis away. It didn’t take much energy, since he knew how to pilot the Tardis better than The Doctor did.

“Stony, what in the world are you doing?” The Doctor turned to see just why Stony had sent the Tardis away. The Tardis was gone, but a silhouette of the Tardis remained. The silhouette’s two red dots formed into eyes, which were now focusing on them. The silhouette slowly morphed into… Shadow? No, this was different. It was him, but his eyes and hair were blood red, his Destiny Mark was blue, he still had his horns, and he was covered in scars.

It glared at Stony with pure hatred, “YOU STUPID, USELESS, FUCKING STONER!” Even the screaming was different. This one’s was more high pitched and insane, compared to Shadow’s deep and demonic scream. With those words he ran off, faster than Stony’s eyes could follow.

Stony sarcastically asked The Doctor, “Was that one of your new replacement friends?”

The Doctor looked worried, “No, but I’m afraid we are in serious danger now.”

Stony squealed with excitement, “Yes, I’m so happy you’re taking me back.” The Doctor gave him a look that Stony knew meant ‘not even in your wildest dreams.’ Stony shrugged his look off, “So, who is he, and why does he look like my main man Shades?”

The Doctor gave him an ‘oh, bother’ look, “That is Shadow, or at least, a version of him. One I had thought I locked away forever. When his Eternal Element was removed, he was still so powerful. I tricked him into falling into The Pit of Eternal Night, but that obviously didn’t stop him”

Stony gave him a concerned look, “How could he escape that?”

The Doctor let out a worried sigh, “He enslaved most of the universe before I went back to stop him Even with the Element removed he had the power of a god. That pit is supposed to be inescapable, not even the Tardis would be able to escape it. He must have never showed his true power. However, he didn’t kill us on sight, so that must mean he lost a lot of power breaking out, and traversing to this timeline. How he did the second part is even more terrifying though.”

Stony looked more confused now, “Why?”

The Doctor gave him an annoyed look, “Imagine the universe like a tree, the branches and roots are alternate timelines, the other trees in the forest are parallel time lines, and all living creatures are the cells that make the tree. He is from a separate branch, and somehow managed to jump to a separate branch. This is of a course an extremely rough metaphor, meant only to get at the point that he is incredibly powerful and pure evil.”

Stony walked toward the door he thought the evil Shadow went through, “Well, we ain’t gonna stop him by standing here with our thumbs up our ass.” The Doctor rolled his eyes at the vulgar Drakonian expression, but followed Stony. Stony and The Doctor knew they were on the right path because this Shadow left destruction in his wake. “Shadow’s gonna be happy it’s a fuckin mess in here.” Stony continued following the trail, but turned his head to look at The Doctor, “So what’s different between my Shadow and… let's call him Anti-Shadow?”

The Doctor didn’t turn his head, but answered Stony, “That Shadow grew up his real parents. He was raised to be ruthless and violent. There was only one person he ever truly liked, and he took that person's place as next in line for the throne.” Stony was paying more attention to The Doctor than to the path ahead, so when The Doctor tackled him to the ground, he was very confused.

He saw a few strands of his hair falling from to the ground, and heard an annoying voice at the end of the corridor, “I JUST WANT HIM BACK! IS THAT TO MUCH TO ASK FOR! I NEED HIM, I WILL HAVE HIM, HE’S MINE! YOU CAN’T KEEP HIM FROM ME!”

Stony, confusing what he meant, yelled back, “I’m right here man. I’m the only one you hang out with.”

Anti-Shadow charged toward them, “NOT YOU, YOU FUCKING NUISANCE! ORDER! YOU HAVE KEPT HIM FROM ME FOR TOO LONG!”

The Doctor lifted up Stony, “Time for more running, Stony.” The two ran down winding corridors with the enraged Anti-Shadow hot on their tails. Hundreds of black blades whisked toward them, but luckily Anti-Shadow’s aim was terrible. The blades sunk into the walls before dissipating into black smoke.

Stony taunted Anti-Shadow, “At least we know he can’t aim for shit!” He could hear the screams of pure rage tremble the house. Stony bumped The Doctor who was forced down another path, knowing the infuriated monster would focus only on him, “Catch me if you can dickweed!”

Shadow roared back, “I’M GONNA SKULL FUCK YOUR SOUL YOU MORONIC STONER!” With The Doctor gone Stony could sprint as fast as he could. He knew where each corridor led and quickly lost Anti-Shadow. He ran to the main entryway and burst through the doors to see The Doctor and Clyde patiently waiting by the Moat.

Stony walked up to The Doctor, who instead of looking for Stony, had went outside, “You’re a bigger cunt than I remember.”

The Doctor looked shocked, “You never used that language when you were with me. Besides I have that right, you shot me!”

Stony smirked, “That was, like, forever ago, besides, I’ve always used that language, but the Tardis always filtered me. now you get to experience the full glory of Stoney fuckery. Anyway how do we go about beating our little dark douche bag in there?”

Clyde raised his hoof, “I think I know ov a vay to kill zis ‘Anti-Shadow’. Remember back ven I vas in zhe Shadow’s room, and you told me it vas a bad idea?” Stony nodded, “Vell, I vas taking blood samples to find out vat his veakness vas.”

Stony and The Doctor looked at Clyde in shock. “Dude, that’s a little fucked up, don’tcha think,” Stony blurted out in a mixture of anger and shock.

Clyde stared at Stony, “Zat is not zhe point. I vas analyzing his blood and I discovered something. Zhe Shadow is deathly allergic to, pause for dramatic effect, Chamomile.”

Stony looked at Clyde in bewilderment, “Chamomile. Of all the things to kill an old ass, strong as fuck, Drakonian, you came up with Chamomile?”

Clyde shook his head, “I did not make zhe decision. It is simply his biology. Besides, vould you rather go head to head vith him, hoping to beat him, or make him drink Chamomile?”

Stony and The Doctor looked at each other and said in unison, “Chamomile.”

“Okay, so we need Chamomile, Tidy!” Stony raised his head as he shouted for Tidy, but there was no response.

Clyde poked Stony, “He is out running errands, but I have some Chamomile. You can borrow if it means you are going to kill zat asshole.”

Stony looked back at Clyde, “Well okay, but I’m not going to kill my Shadow, just that asshole upstairs.”

Clyde grinned, “A Shadow is a Shadow, so close enough. I have three one gallon tubs in my shed you can use.”

Stony looked at Clyde in awe, “Why do you have so much?”

Clyde grinned, “I like to cover my bases.”

Stony shrugged and turned to The Doctor, “Okay, you make the tea; I’ll get Shadow to drink it.”

The Doctor took a step back, “Why me?”

Stony headed for the door, “Because of the three of us, you’re British, he has the supplies, and I know how to get Shadow to drink it.” With that Stony entered the massive house. The interior was completely destroyed, but if Stony knew one thing, it was Shadow. Stony cautiously made his way to the Library, checking every corner and constantly watching his back. Stony slowly opened the large doors to the Library. Although he couldn’t see Anti-Shadow, he knew very well he was watching him. Stony cleared his throat and proudly declared, “Tetipa”

Suddenly, The Doctor walked in behind stony carrying a tray of tea. He set it down in front of them and, in the same manner as Stony, “Yeah, what he said, tity bar.”

The red haired Anti-Shadow walked out from behind a bookshelf and began menacingly approaching them, “It’s pronounced T-Tie-Pah. Not tity bar and I accept.” As he approached them, a red aura covered his horns. A hellish table rose from the ground, and the tea tray levitated onto it.

The three of them sat at the table in silence for some time before Stony spoke up, “So why are you here exactly?”

Anti-Shadow turned to Stony, “All I want is my happy ending.” Stony looked to The Doctor in confusion before Shadow continued, “Order, my only love, is gone, and I, I was trapped in the blank space between reality and death. A cold, vast, darkness, and I was alone. Before The Doctor tried erasing me, I almost had him; he would have been mine, now I want him back.” He grabbed the tea cup in front of him, “Is it too much to ask for, to be happy, to not be alone?” he raised the cup to his mouth and took a large gulp, “He was the only one who ever truly understood me.” He began violently coughing and grasping his throat, and falling backwards, sending the table flying. The Doctor turned his head, not wanting to watch his slow death.

Stony walked over to Anti-Shadow who was now grasping his throat trying to breath. His face was turning slightly blue. Anti-Shadow stared at Stony, his eyes watering. He managed to choke out, “I, I don’t want to die, not again.”

Stony’s horn started glowing blue, “Hey man, sorry for the whole machete thing.”

Tears started streaming from Shadow’s eyes, “What machete thing?”

Stony pulled a massive, rusty, blood stained machete from his pocket, “This one!” with that he plunged the blade deep into Anti-Shadow’s thick skull. For safe measure he whacked Anti-Shadow’s head several times. Blood squirted out, and a pool formed below his head. The blood slowly turned from black to red as Stony kept sinking the blade into Shadow’s skull. When Stony finished, Shadow’s head was nothing more than a mutilated mess of blood and flesh. His brain was exposed and chunks of skull were scattered around his body. Stony himself was covered in the red mist.

The Doctor looked at Stony in horror, “Why? Why did you do that? Dear god, what is wrong with you?”

Stony smiled, “I couldn’t watch him die slowly. Besides, got him right between the eyes. He probably didn’t feel a thing. Probably.”

Clyde casually walked in and started dragging away Anti-Shadow’s body, “I need zis for science purposes.” The Doctor ran around a bookshelf and began vomiting profusely.

Stony ran to Clyde and swatted his head, “No! Any other body and I wouldn’t care, but this is still Shadow, he get’s a proper burial!” It was a wonderful ceremony. They buried him in the farthest corner of the Zen Garden. The sun was shining brightly that day. Stony grabbed a large stone to use as a headstone, and carved Shadow’s real name into it, “Chaos Ostensor Umbra, you lived a long life, and maybe in death you will find the happiness you seek. Goodbye, corrupted version of my old friend.” Clyde went back to his shed while Stony and The Doctor went back to the Library. “Well that was fun.” The Doctor shot Stony a hatred filled stare.

“Let’s just get the Tardis back, please. I’ve had enough of this. I’m starting to think he can’t be saved anymore. You know what, if he falls into darkness again, I’m going to break my rules. I’ll head back to the first day the original Shadow entered this world, and I’ll stop him from hurting anyone ever again.”

Stony glared at The Doctor with more hatred than anything he had ever seen before, “If you do anything to hurt him, I will use all my power to break you, and you know I have a lot of that. You think losing your home planet was bad, fuck with me and I’ll show you a world of pain and misery the likes of which you have never thought possible. Understood?” The Doctor took a step back and started trembling out of fear, but managed to nod his head. “Good, now let’s bring them. Wait, my Stony senses are tingling.”

The Doctor, still in fear of Stony, asked, “What do you mean?”

Stony paused for a moment and sniffed the air, “Oh yeah. That’s my boy. I’m positive about it now. Shadow and Derpy are fucking right now as we speak, and within my twenty-four hour time frame.”

The Doctor slowly stopped trembling, “You must be wrong, Derpy isn’t that kind of girl. Besides she likes, I mean I think she likes, or I’m positive she loves. Oh, god.”

Part 3: Reuniting

Derpy rested in Shadow’s wings. She was sleeping so peacefully. Shadow watched her, not wanting to do anything to disturb her sleep. Finally he lifted his other wing and wrapped it around her. They were cocooned in Shadow’s wings. He wrapped his tail around his wings to lock them together. Derpy remained asleep and Shadow kissed her forehead. He couldn’t remember how long they had been in the Tardis, but Shadow felt like he had spent a lifetime with Derpy. Shadow wanted to soak in this moment, so he laid there, feeling Derpy’s warmth.

Tidy finally arrived home, “Mister Stony, What happened to the house?!”

Stony and The Doctor were trying to clean the house. Stony looked up and said exhausted, “A lot of Shit happened while were you were gone. Where were you anyway?”

Tidy began cleaning with far greater efficiency than two of them thought imaginable, “Visiting my lady friend, Mrs. Rich.”

By now most of the main entryway was spotless. Stony asked slyly, “What do you mean ‘visiting’ you dirty poon hound?”

Tidy chuckled, “I was cleaning her gutters, something her husband apparently can’t do anymore.” Stony walked over to Tidy laughing and bumped his hoof to Tidy’s claws. Tidy walked away to begin fixing the rest of the building, while Stony and The Doctor headed for the Library again.

“Time to bring them back. Wouldn’t you say, Doc?”

The Doctor turned to Stony, “I wanted them back hours ago!” Stony’s ignored him, and his horn started glowing brightly. With a brilliant flash of light and a loud crash, the Tardis appeared in front of them.

The entire Tardis shook violently, waking up the sleeping Derpy, “Why is it shaking again? We’re not doing it this time, right?” Shadow nodded in agreement, and the two got up and sprinted for the entrance.

As they got there, The Doctor entered with Stony. “See, I told you they wouldn’t be. Shadow, where are your clothes?”

Stony jumped into the air, “Yes, I knew it! Always believe the Stoner, Doc! I’m always right!” Shadow covered his body with his wings, and Derpy blushed. Her back legs were wobbling, so she sat down.

The Doctor looked on in shock, “I can’t believe it. I simply can’t.”

Stony nudged his shoulder, “It’s you, so it happens a lot.”

Shadow finally spoke up, “Can you two, turn away so I can go get clothes on. Oh, and keep my wings a secret, please.” The Doctor stormed out of the Tardis, and Stony followed him while laughing. Shadow uncovered himself, “It seems like more and more ponies know about my wings, soon the whole town will know. Anyway, that got really awkward, didn’t it?” Derpy nodded, then lunged up and hugged Shadow.

Derpy pulled back, “Don’t you need clothes?” Shadow laughed and pulled Derpy onto his back. He carried her to her room and got dressed in front of her. Derpy watched intensely, which made Shadow slightly uncomfortable.

Shadow finally turned, and addressed her, “Are you just gonna watch the whole time?”

Derpy giggled, “I like watching my man dress almost as much as I like watching him take them off.”

Shadow smiled, “So I’m you’re man now, huh?” Stony was laughing the entire time. The Doctor glared as Stony rolled on the floor out of breath. Finally Shadow walked out wearing the outfit Stony gave him when their adventure first started, carrying Derpy on his back, “Has he been doing this the whole time?” The Doctor nodded to Shadow, and Derpy squeezed Shadow tightly. The Doctor stormed past them and waited at the door.

Derpy slowly crawled off of Shadow’s back, “I do love you Shadow, but I need you to forget about me for a while.”

Shadow looked at Derpy with teary eyes, “Why, I thought we had something special.”

Derpy smiled, “We do, but I can’t stay. I’m just not ready to stop adventuring just yet. Promise me though, forget about me, and find someone new.”

Shadow’s tears slowly turned into an extremely convincing fake smile, “I’ll never forget you, Derpy, but I know what you mean. At least promise me you’ll come back to visit me.”

Derpy smiled and gave Shadow a kiss, “I promise. okay?” Shadow nodded and they stared into each other’s eyes smiling. After a few moments Derpy wobbly entered the Tardis. She stared into Shadow’s eyes as the doors closed. A few moments later the Vworp of the Tardis sounded their departure.

Stony nudged Shadow, “I told you you’d be happy, didn’t I?”

Shadow’s face turned back into it’s usual emotionless, blank, stare, rolled his eyes, “Technically you said I’d be surprised.

Stony grinned, “Technically you can go fuck yourself, or is that spot reserved for Derp?” Stony started laughing. After a few moments they began sharing what had happened to each of them. Shadow was doing the most talking since, for him, it had been a lot longer.

Inside the Tardis, The Doctor approached Derpy, “I can’t believe you did that, I simply can’t! What have I told you about him, were you ever paying attention?”

Derpy stood tall, “You’re wrong about him. He’s not evil! You didn’t spend as much time with him as I have!”

The Doctor was furious, “You haven’t spent as much time trying to stop him as I have! He is a virus! He has just spread through each universe, when he shouldn’t even exist at all! He’s an anomaly that keeps spreading and destroying everything he touches! Don’t you understand that?!”

Derpy walked past him and started messing with the console, “I don’t care anymore. I know he’s good. I’m going home!” The Tardis shook violently, sending The Doctor tumbling. When it stopped she walked out the doors without another word.

“So you’re telling me, the other Shadow was gay? I just couldn’t see myself being into dudes.” Again Stony laughed, and eventually left to help clean while Shadow went to his room to change into normal clothes.

The Eternal Darkness was already waiting for him, “She left you like the rest, why are you not upset?”

Shadow smirked at him and began stripping, “She’s different, and she promised to come back.”

The Eternal Darkness scoffed, “So did Trixie, the only difference is you spent more time with this one. I don’t get you Shadow, you never make any sense.”

Shadow laughed as he pulled of his last article of clothing, “I’m weird, don’t try understanding me, you’ll just hurt your tiny, ancient, smoky brain.” With that Shadow flapped his wings and blew away The Eternal Darkness. It wasn’t until now that Shadow realized how horribly clean his room was. He began turning it back into the organized disaster it usually is.

When he was finished he heard Tidy’s voice over the intercom, “Alright, the house is finally clean, and dinner is ready.” Shadow strolled out of his room after putting on a black hoodie. He saw Stony head down the stairs, forgetting to close his bedroom door.

Shadow walked into Stony’s room, “You clean mine, I dirty yours.” Shadow ran through the room, tossing everything around. He looked at the disaster he had created and nodded.

Tidy and Stony were already eating, “This is a delicious salad Tidy.” Shadow took his seat at the end of the table, and eyed the fruits and vegetables on his plate. Stony thought of all that happened, “We need a funny pun for when I tell this story…We had a blazing time? No stupid. High time? Nah overused.” Finally he addressed Shadow’s unwillingness to eat, “Okay, what’s wrong Shades?”

Shadow poked his salad, “I’m just not into salads is all.” He pushed his plate away and headed toward the grave Stony mentioned earlier. When he got there, he sat down in front of it, “You were a fool, ya know? If you had just stayed hidden and waited you could’ve won. We would both have had a happy ending, but now you're dead and I’m single again. Fucking idiot.”

Clyde walked up and sat next to Shadow, “Is he really a fool zhe Shadow. He did it all for love. I am an old donkey, and I might not know much, but I know vut love is.”

Shadow couldn’t help himself, “What is love?”

Apparently neither could Clyde, “Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me.”

Shadow continued, “No more.” They sang the entire song before they went their separate ways. By now the sun had set, and the sky was full of stars. Shadow stopped in front of the entrance to the garden, and looked up at the stars and the moon, “I’m not sure if you're paying attention or not Luna, but I’m gonna talk like you are. I want to believe Derpy. I want to believe I can be saved, but maybe she’s wrong. I have done so many terrible things, that I honestly can’t see right from wrong anymore.” As he finished a star shot across the sky. Shadow smiled then headed inside to his room.

His perfect ending was ruined when he heard Stony yelling, “I got a perfect one, We had a Chronic Time.”

Chapter 5: Jokes On You

Shadow crawled out of his bed after another sleepless night. He felt extremely antsy after such an uneventful week. He had been craving a fight ever since he was asked to join the group to move a dragon. It upset him that he didn’t get a chance fight. There was a terrible storm the night before so Shadow went to check on his garden. Clyde was already fixing the grounds far better than Shadow could dream of doing himself. Several days passed and there was still no action. Shadow wanted adventure; he needed something exciting to get his mind off of things. That’s when Stony rolled up, “Hey, you wanna smoke some weed?”

Shadow nodded, “That’s something, I guess.” He rolled off of his favorite bench and they headed for the Smoke Room. Fluttershy, Treehugger, and Applejack were already waiting for them, “Wow, you guys spend more time in here than I have spent in my house the entire time I’ve had it.” The group laughed, but Shadow was being serious. They smoked and talked about the dragon encounter and Applejack’s sleepover. Stony jumped at the chance to nickname Fluttershy ‘Dragonshy,’ but the group preferred the nickname Shadow had given her earlier, ‘Stonershy.’

“Okay guys, my nickname is just as good, if not better, than Shadow’s” The group shook their heads ‘no’ in unison, or maybe it just looked that way because of how blazed Stony was. “Whatever guys, I’ll just go smoke in my room with people who love me, like Steven and Sage.”

The group looked confused until Shadow asked, “Who?”

Stony walked to the door and casually replied, “You know, Steven my stuffed sheep, and Sage my turtle.”

Treehugger squealed with excitement, “I love them. I'm going to come with you. The rest of you stay here, and have fun.” As she left Applejack and Shadow looked to each other and rolled their eyes. Fluttershy, who still didn’t know they’re dating, waved them goodbye.

Applejack mouthed to Shadow, “Should we tell her?”

Shadow shook his head ‘no’ vigorously, and mouthed back, “Unless you want to tell her.” Applejack grimaced and shook her head ‘no’ as well. They smoked and bullshited each other until nightfall. Shadow made his way to his bedroom as his two Pony friends left. He was willing to submit to his nightmares, simply because he didn’t want to hear Stony and Treehugger fucking all night long, but that didn’t happen. He tried ignoring the sounds, but they were so noisy Shadow had to leave to his Zen Garden to get some peace and quiet.

He stared up the sky as he did so often, “You’ve been staring at the sky quite frequently. Hoping to find answers? You know you can always ask me, but that doesn’t mean you’ll find the answers you’re looking for.”

Shadow continued staring at the sky, but knew who it was, “The Eternal Darkness is too long of a name. I’m gonna start calling you Ted, okay?”

Ted sat on the ground next to Shadow’s bench, “Why not. You may not remember any more, old-timer, but that’s what you called me when you were just a child.”

Shadow stared at the sky until the sun finally rose, “Might as well head into town. I’m not in the mood for Stony’s peculiar sense of humor.” Ted nodded, and then disappeared.

Shadow walked into town, but saw it was completely empty. He noticed Twilight getting yanked into Sugarcube Corner, so he casually walked on over and entered. The room was completely dark except for the few streams of light that entered through the window. Pinkie was singing some song about an evil enchantress, but Shadow thought it was horrible, so he walked over and peered out of the window. He saw a cloaked Zebra digging in the ground, “Well, this is boring,” he let out a heavy sigh, “She was right, I really should find someone new instead of moping.”

Twilight stopped listening to Pinkie to address Shadow’s statement, “Who told you to find someone new.” Shadow shrugged off her question, and headed for the door.

Pinkie zoomed in front of him and stopped him, “Weren’t you listening to me. She’s evil!” Shadow rolled his eyes at her, and saw a small yellow Pony sneaking out. She saw Shadow notice her and put her hoof over her mouth. Shadow winked at her in agreement. Then he heard a slightly annoyed Pinkie voice yelling at him “Who are you winking at mister?”

Pinkie went to turn around, but Shadow pulled her head so she was facing him. He looked deeply into Pinkie’s eyes, “You, stupid. Who else would I be winking at?”

Pinkie looked shocked and blushed, “Wh-what? Why?”

Shadow heard the tiny Ponies hooves disappearing, and pushed Pinkie away, “Because I like making Ponies feel special. I’m over it now.”

At that moment Applejack started panicking, “Apple Bloom? Where’s Apple Bloom?”

“You mean the little yellow Pony? Yeah, she left. I told her I wouldn’t rat her out, but meh,” Shadow shrugged as he said this.

Applejack got into Shadow’s face, “Why in tarnation wouldn’t you have stopped her?” She was clearly furious.

Shadow shrugged again, “I didn’t feel like it till now. Besides you can be angry or we can get, what was her name again? Applebutter? Applejack? No, that’s you. Applepie?” Applejack glared at Shadow with pure rage, but Shadow held his straight face, and wagged his tail happily.

“It’s Apple Bloom, you dirty varmint! Yer lucky I love mah sister more than I want t’ beat the livin daylights outta ya. Let’s go.” This time her outrageously thick country accent added to the effect. Shadow obediently fell behind her with the rest of the group, and kept an eye on her to make sure Applejack wouldn’t change her mind and kick the ever-loving shit out of him.

At this point Stony had somehow found them, “Hey guys, where are you dudes heading?”

Without taking his eyes off Applejack, Shadow addressed Stony “To get Apple Bloom. She ran off to talk with a Zebra, because she’s apparently the only Pony in this town who’s not incredibly speciesist. For a place that spouts about friendship and equality, they still have an awful lot of speciesism.” Applejack turned, and glared at Shadow as he stated this.

Stony stopped in his tracks, “Oh, you mean my zebra friend, Zecora?”

Pinkie Pie dashed into Stony’s face, “How can you be friends with her? She’s evil!”

Shadow nudged Stony, “He’s evil too, you just don’t know it.”

Stony looked up, “I wouldn’t say being a stoner is evil. Whether or not being a drug lord does, well, what does a king do that a drug lord doesn’t?”

Shadow patted his back, “Well, The king kills a lot more people. Everything else is kinda the same, kinda.”

Stony and Shadow ran to catch up with the group that had left them behind, “See, so who’s the real evil one?” Shadow pointed his tail at Stony. They were in a deep debate over what is truly right and wrong, and how to determine what is righteous and what is evil, when Stony bumped into the Ponies in front of him, and Shadow tripped over a branch. As Shadow fell, he got a big mouthful of a strange blue plant on the ground. He would have spit it out, but it tasted too good to waste, so he swallowed it. Stony laughed, “See, even Shadow knows. Spitters are quitters.” Shadow shrugged and picked up a few extra blue flowers. Zecora made some rhyme about the flowers, but Shadow ignored it and happily munched his flowers.

With Apple Bloom apparently found, the group slowly returned to their homes. Stony and Shadow walked through the corridor leading to their rooms. Shadow was upset that there was no fight, “Great, another uneventful day.”

Stony laughed, “I bet you won’t be saying that tomorrow.” Shadow gave Stony a curious stare, but Stony went to his room and closed the door. Shadow shrugged and did the same. The second his head hit the pillow, he fell into a deep sleep. He dreamed of drowning in darkness as he always did. He was confused on why he was sleeping, he never slept unless he wanted to, and he definitely didn’t want to this time. He tried forcing himself to wake up like he usually could, but he spent the night drowning.

Shadow jumped out of bed, covered in sweat. He heard the fibers of his hoodie ripping, “What?” He looked down and noticed his hoodie was stretched out and torn, with the tattered remains clinging tightly to his body. He walked over to the mirror, “Oh, Shit!” He stared at himself in the mirror. He just couldn’t believe it, “There’s no way, there’s just no fucking way!” He looked at his new taller, sleeker, body, his now much longer, silky smooth, blue hair, his regrown ram horns, his missing wings, and his long eyelashes. He poked the tips of horns next to his eyes, “Okay, only one way to know if this is real, or just a Stony prank.” He sat down, and took a deep breath. He looked down in between his legs, “NOOOOO!”

This wasn’t a prank. Shadow had actually turned into a female Drakonian. She looked back into the mirror, “Well things could be worse, I suppose.” For the first time she actually listened to her new voice, it was extremely feminine and had a very slight English accent, “I actually quite like the sound of this voice, it’s so elegant, so smooth, it’s almost sensual just to listen to. Oh dear Eternal what am I saying?”

Stony, hearing the loud and shrill screams, bolted into the room, “What’s wr… Ohhh fuck.”

Treehugger ran in behind him, covered in a sheet, “What’s going on? Oh, is this Shadow’s new girlfriend? No offense, but you could do way better than him.”

Shadow tried glaring and screaming something profane at Treehugger, but her mouth had a different idea, “Thank you for the compliment, but I do believe you are not aware of who I truly am.” Shadow paused and looked up, “Cheese and crackers!”

Treehugger walked over to Shadow with a confused look on her face, “You’re aura seems a little clouded.”

Shadow wanted to call her a stupid, fucking stoner, but couldn’t. Instead, she looked down at her and smiled, “Oh no, my dear. You see, I am Shadow, not his girlfriend.” She glared at the ground and began clenching her teeth together. Treehugger and Stony began rolling on the ground, laughing.

Stony nudged Treehugger, “You should’ve known who it was. Shadow can’t keep a girlfriend for more than one night.”

Shadow’s jaw dropped. She wanted to beat the ever-loving shit out of Stony, but she just couldn’t raise a claw to him, “Yes, quite hilarious Stony. I do ever so enjoy your witty banter.” She glared at the ceiling with pure rage, and shook her fist at it.

Treehugger approached Shadow as she vigorously waved her fist at the ceiling, “So you became a girl, and apparently can’t be mean or vulgar. Is there anything else wrong?”

Shadow turned to her and patted her head, “Well it appears as if I can’t lie either.” She wrapped her tail around her mouth and looked at the shocked Stony and Treehugger.

Treehugger and Stony looked at each other and grinned. Stony cleared his throat, “So are you the asshole who dirtied my room up?” With Shadow’s tail clenching her mouth closed, her head nodded vigorously.

Treehugger smiled, “No babe, we gotta, like, ask him some deep questions. We need to release the negative energy clouding his aura.” Treehugger reached up to put her hoof on Shadow’s chest, “Two roads diverge in a yellow wood. Do you take the worn down path, taken by many, or the one less traveled by?”

Shadow was surprised with the question. To her, it wasn’t that personal. Her tail loosened, and she thought for a moment, “I would make my own path, one far more beautiful than the others.”

Treehugger took her hoof off Shadow’s chest, and waved both her hooves in front of Shadow, “I can already feel your aura clearing. We must ask another question.” Shadow lowered her tail and smiled, “what do you regret most in the world?”

Shadow tried not to say anything, but she simply couldn’t, “I have swam in oceans of blood. I have looked deeply into the eyes of my enemies as the life slowly drained from them. I revel in the thought of when I will take part in the next bloodstained part of the world’s history. I have hunted species into near extinction, and walked on mountains of children’s corpses. However, I don’t regret any of that. My greatest regret is living so long that I feel numb to all the wrong I have done, but I had to do all of that to get here. My plans will come to fruition, no matter how much more wrong I must do. And trust me, there will be much more. Is that the answer you were looking for?”

Stony wasn’t surprised, but Treehugger looked on in complete horror, “No, no it wasn’t,” She turned to Stony, “I don’t think I can help him anymore. I-I need to get away from here.” With that she ran out of the house. Shadow and Stony could hear the door slam as she left.

Stony looked at Shadow with a completely relaxed face, “Great, you scared my girlfriend. Feel happy with yourself?”

Shadow turned to Stony with a blank face, “Not really, but I couldn’t stop myself from answering. It’s like all Drakonians are told when they are young, do not ask questions if you do not wish for the true answer.”

Stony rolled his eyes and turned around, “Yeah, but that was, like, a whole new level bro, or bruh. I’m not actually sure what to call you right now.” He started walking away, “You should try figuring out how to fix this while I calm down Treehugger.”

Shadow sat down and thought for a while, “What could have caused such a transformation? I bet Clyde would know. He’s very intelligent. What? I have to be nice to them if they aren’t even around me? Well fiddlesticks!” She stood up with a scowl and headed to Clyde’s Shack. When she finally arrived at the shack’s entrance she cleared her throat, and called out for Clyde in a beautiful sing-songy voice, “Oh, Clyde. I need your assistance.”

Clyde opened the door in a lab coat and goggles, “Oh, guten tag, fräulein. How may zhe good doctor be of assistance?”

He looked too happy in that uniform for Shadow’s liking, “Well I seem to have undergone some form of change recently, and I was wondering if you could be of any assistance.”

Clyde smiled, “Vell of course, zhe Shadow. I have been preparing my laboratory all morning vaiting for you. Please come in.” He opened the door wider, and stood too the side while waving her in.

Shadow cautiously entered, “How did you know it was me, Clyde?”

Clyde chuckled and led her to his basement, “Vell zhe Shadow, I vas taking blood samples again, and I saw zhe transformation happen in front of me. It vas marvelous.”

Shadow wanted to call Clyde a total freak, but said, “Oh my dear Clyde, it is quite rude to take something from others without their express permission, please refrain yourself from doing this any further.” Shadow had a sudden realization, “So I can express my displeasure, I just can’t be rude about it. I wonder if I can tell mean truths as well.”

Clyde turned on some lights which revealed a marvelous laboratory. It had just about every medical and scientific machine imaginable, “I have built zis under zhe grounds, fear not, it vill not harm any of zhe fauna. As for your question, does zis lab coat make me look fat?”

Shadow laughed, “Oh of course not dear. In fact I’d say you look marvelous.” She paused for a moment, “So was that a polite lie or the truth, and is it bad that I honestly can’t tell the difference anymore?”

Clyde got a terrible idea and was holding back his laughter as he addressed Shadow, “I do not know, but I have another question, if you had to, vich of your Ponyville friends’ vould you pursue romantically?” He raised his eyebrows suggestively as he said romantically.

Shadow compulsively answered, “I believe you mean in what order.” She tried to glare at Clyde, but instead smiled. Clyde was rolling on the ground in tears, “Yes, quite funny. Can we please continue the procedure that will revert me to my original form?”

Clyde, gasping for air, yelled out, “Yes, I just need zhe new blood samples.” Clyde led Shadow over to a chair next to some fancy machines. She had no idea what any of the devices were for, so she remained silent and sat down. Clyde was still laughing, but managed to draw blood without a single mistake, “Okay zhe Shadow, I vill test zis blood. I need you to go and do Shadow stuff elsewhere.” With that he pushed Shadow up the stairs and out of his shed. He slammed the door shut behind her, and laughed maniacally.

“Well how rude. Oh, well. I suppose I should check with Twilight as well. This might have been a magical change…. Why am I talking to myself? How long have I been doing this? I should shut up now. I’m shutting up now.” She had to ask Tidy to lower the drawbridge, but luckily he thought she was one of Shadow’s lady friends. She walked through the forest with a new perspective, literally. She was much taller, and could see everything from above. She walked through town in her tattered hoodie and felt an odd feeling. It felt like she was being watched. Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard several whistles as she walked past a construction site, “Huh, who knew I was extremely attractive as a woman?” Shadow felt good at how many compliments she was receiving, until some rude brown Pony with slicked back black hair slapped her on her rear. Instinctively, her fur went straight and the Pony dropped, “Oh my heavens, how rude!” She turned to the paralyzed Pony, “I apologize sir, you must not be aware of Drakonian biology,” She crouched down to meet the Pony face to face, “You see, Drakonian women have a natural defense mechanism. When startled or in dangerous situations, our fur becomes as sharp as razors, and becomes coated in a paralyzing toxin. You should be fine in a few hours though. Ta-ta.”

Shadow was pissed at herself. She should have done something more violent back there, not give him a stupid biology lesson. It seemed like the longer Shadow was a girl, the more affect whatever this is had on her. She couldn’t even glare at the ground anymore. It was simply terrible. He arrived at Twilight’s Library, and gave the door a few good knocks before Spike opened the door. He was laughing incredibly hard and wiped a tear from his eye, “Hello. What can I do for you, ma’am?”

Shadow smiled, “I’m here for Miss Sparkle, may I enter?” Spike already knew what this was and flopped to his back laughing. Shadow entered the library and approached a group of Ponies. They were his friends, but all of them suffered some terrible transformation as well. Rarity’s hair was out of control, Pinkie’s tongue was enormous, Twilight’s horn had E.D., Dash was crashing into everything, Applejack was mini, and Fluttershy actually seemed okay.

The group turned to him, and Twilight spoke, “I’m sorry Miss, were having a bit of crisis. Could you come back later?”

Shadow gave a short laugh, “It seems I’m not the only one to come under some sort of strange ailment. I could come back later, but I was hoping you could help me as well. You see, I am your dear friend Shadow.” The group turned to him in shock.

Dash burst into laughter, “Wait, you’re Shadow? You’re our Shadow? You’re a girl!” She laughed even as she crashed into several walls.

Shadow held her smile, “Yes, I am Shadow, and I am now a female. Also, for some reason I can not be rude and can only tell the truth.”

Fluttershy spoke up, which made Shadow realize what her problem was, “But that’s almost the exact opposite of our Shadow.” She had the voice of a blues singer.

Shadow inspected his claws, “I know. I feel absolutely terrible, but I’m more concerned with how all of you are doing. It truly looks as if you all are in a great deal of distress. Worry not; I have my best scientist on the case. We should all be our normal selves in no time.”

As she finished speaking Spike walked up to her, “Hey…Shadette, Clyde wanted me to give this to you.” He burst out in laughter once more.

Shadow lifted up the letter and read it. She didn’t understand all of it, but reported what she did find out to her friends, “My blood work revealed a strange toxin. It’s some kind of mixture between a non lethal poison and magic. Since Clyde is a donkey of science, not magic, he could not find a complete cure. I apologize for getting all of your hopes up. I hope this does not affect our friendship.” She looked at them with puppy dog eyes and they burst out laughing. From the corner of Shadow’s eye she saw Apple Bloom sneak off again, but this time, he saw the mini Applejack hop in her tail. Like last time Apple Bloom pulled her hoof across her mouth, and Shadow winked in agreement.

Shadow watched as Twilight and Spike looked for a book that would give them a clue. Spike came across a book labeled ‘Supernaturals,’ but Twilight shrugged it off as useless. It didn’t take long for the entire group, minus Twilight and Shadow, to conclude this was a curse made by Zecora. Finally Shadow spoke up again, “I think we should ask Applejack what she thinks.” The group agreed and looked around for her.

Twilight panicked, and shouted out, “Did somepony step on her?!” The group took to her panic and all checked under their hooves. Again Twilight spoke with panic, “Where’s Apple Bloom?”

The entire group turned to Shadow. Shadow gave them a hurt look, “I simply can not betray her trust, she asked me not to tell, so I shall not. That’s the curse speaking, but you could try asking a different question for the answer.”

Twilight thought for a moment, then asked Shadow, “Since you can’t tell us where Apple Bloom went, can you tell us where Applejack is?”

Shadow spoke compulsively, “She hopped into Apple Bloom’s tail so she could follow her to Zecora’s Hut.”

At the mention of Zecora’s name Stony popped his head through the door, “Oh, you mean my Zebra… wow, and I thought I got it bad.” Pinkie jumped to his face and tried screaming something, but it came out as a jumbled, spit-filled, mess, “Woah, Pink, say it don’t spray it.”

Spike shouted to Stony, laughing, “That’s what I said.” He stopped laughing and paused for a moment, “What do you mean you thought you had it bad?”

Stony walked in, “Doesn’t matter.” He walked over and sat next to Shadow, “How’s it hanging bro?”

Shadow tried rolling her eyes, but grinned instead, “It is going quite well. Actually I have a question. It seems that every Pony in this land has tried hitting on me in some way or another, so why haven’t you?”

Stony grew a somewhat worried face, “I don’t fuck with them Drakonian bitches, too many bad experiences.”

Fluttershy looked confused, so Twilight explained what she thought Stony meant, “He’s talking about the Drakonian race in specific, not all the women in that kingdom. Right?” Stony smiled and nodded in agreement.

Everyone but Stony, Twilight, and Shadow looked confused, so Shadow spoke up, “The kingdom is named after the original race that ruled it, the Drakonians. However, there are other races that live there, the Rockskin, the Angels, the Demonic, and the very endangered Draxe. Each race has a similar form to Ponies. The Rockskin lack mouths, their eyes are blank, their tails and body are scaly, and they are much bigger than the average pony. The Angels are small, winged, mask wearing, creatures, with sharp, lance-like, bone legs. The Demonic, well imagine a Pony and a cat had a child, that’s them. The Draxe are large reptilians, they are hairless, fire-breathing, and nigh immortal. Then there are my people, the Drakonians. We used to go by other names, but for now we should probably go find the missing apples.”

It seemed that with the brief discussion on Drakonian species, the entire group forgot their panic, but that was quickly brought back with Shadow’s last statement. Twilight spoke again, “He... Uh, she’s right. We need to find them, but where could Zecora be?”

Stony answered, “Probably in her hut. I know where it’s at if you, like, want me to take you there.” The group nodded and urged Stony to be quick. They all followed him through the dangerous forest, sprinting as fast as they could. They even left Dash behind when she crashed into a tree. Finally Stony and the group stopped next to a straw hut in a small clearing.

Shadow looked around, “This… This is on my property.”

Stony poked her, “Yeah man, but it’s like, right on the edge. So it doesn’t really count.”

Shadow gave him a smile, “Yes my dear, it actually does.”

Shadow and Stony were having a polite conversation about property boundaries while the others were peering through the window. What finally broke up Stony and Shadow’s conversation was the deep voice of Fluttershy, “She's an evil enchantress, and she does evil dances, and if you look deep in her eyes she will put you in trances. Then what would she do? She'll mix up an evil brew. Then she'll gobble you up in a big tasty stew. Soooo... Watch out.” It was sung in the style of beat poetry. Shadow thought it was pretty nice, so she snapped her claws happily.

Twilight looked back into the window, “Scary looking masks, confusing incantations, and a great big bubbling cauldron?” She let out a short sigh, “Everything is pointing to Zecora being... bad. Or... what if Zecora is just making soup?”

Zecora spoke up again, “Mmm! The perfect temperature for Ponies, I presume. Now, where is that little Apple Bloom?”

Twilight took a step back in shock, “Or... what if she's making Apple Bloom soup?!”

Shadow didn’t agree, but before he could say anything. Applejack and Rainbow Dash flew in through the door. Applejack yelled out for her sister, “I'm comin' for ya, Apple Bloom!” Rainbow Dash was screaming and smashing into nearly everything, “Whoa there. Easy, Rainbow Crash.”

Zecora kept shouting in Zebra and yelling “No!” in English.

Twilight jumped in, “What have you done with Apple Bloom?”

Zecora kept trying to speak, but with the carnage and constant shouting around her, she couldn’t get a word in. Finally, after her cauldron was tipped over, she yelled, “No! You know not what you do! You've gone and spilled my precious brew!”

Twilight yelled back in response, “We're onto you Zecora. I didn't want to believe that you cursed us, but the evidence is overwhelming!”

The Ponies took turns accusing her of what she had done to them. Finally it was Shadow’s turn, “I honestly don’t care about my transformation, gorgeous. Although I do love a good witch hunt.” Everyone paused to look at her, “Oh, don’t give me that look. I’m from a different place. This isn’t even the strangest thing that has ever happened to me, or if you’re all giving me that look because I called her gorgeous, remember, I do have to be nice.”

Stony looked to them, “It’s true guys, but back to the whole crazy, speciest, Pony, zebra hunt thing.”

Everyone returned their gaze to Zecora, who finally responded to their accusations, “How dare you! You destroy my home, destroy my work. Then rudely accuse me of being a jerk?”

“You put this curse on us, now you're gonna uncurse us,” Rainbow Dash screamed back.

Zecora gave the group a menacing stare, “It is unwise to venture down this road. Your actions will make my anger explode!”

Twilight returned her gaze, “Where is Apple Bloom?!”

With that Apple Bloom walked in, “Zecora! I think I found all the things ya asked for.” She looked around at the destruction the Ponies caused, “What in Ponyville is goin' on here?”

Applejack gasped and ran to hug her sister, “Apple Bloom! You're okay!”

Apple Bloom looked more shocked than happy to see her sister, “Why wouldn't I be?”

Twilight yelled to Apple Bloom, without taking her eyes off Zecora, “Because Zecora is an evil enchantress who cursed us and was gonna cook you up into soup!”

Zecora and Apple Bloom burst into laughter before Apple Bloom spoke up, “Oh Twilight. Did those silly fillies finally get in yer head? You know there's no such thing as a curse.”

Twilight turned to Apple Bloom, and condescendingly retorted with, “Apple Bloom, sweetie. You can't just stand there and tell me this isn't a curse.”

Apple Bloom cockily shot back, “This isn't a curse.”

Then Zecora spoke up, “If you will remember back, the words I spoke were quite exact.” Shadow tried remembering what she had said, “Beware, beware you Pony folk. Those leaves of blue are not a joke.”

Apple Bloom spoke up, answering even more questions, “It was a warnin'. About that blue plant. It's called Poison Joke.”

Stony faced the crowd, and cleared his throat. Then, in his best Zecora accent, answered the question on all the pony’s minds, “That plant is much like poison oak. But its results are like a joke.”

Applejack was still confused, and roared back, “What in the hay does that mean?”

Zecora walked over to Stony, and elbowed him. Then, in her best Stony impersonation answered again, “It means this plant does not breed wrath. Instead this plant just wants a laugh.”

Applejack was more confused now than ever, “Will somepony please talk normal?”

Finally Shadow spoke up, “I think what they’re saying is that when we ran in to save Apple Bloom, we ran into the poison joke.” He turned to Applejack, “All our problems are just little jokes it played on us.” She giggled and covered her mouth when she finished speaking.

Applejack wasn’t amused, “Little jokes?! Very funny.”

Shadow smiled at her, “Oh dear, it was just a joke. I am sorry if I made you a little upset.” She began giggling again.

The group began questioning her about her home and about the cauldron. Finally Zecora spoke up again, “Treasures of the native land where I am from. This one speaks 'hello', and this 'welcome'. The words I chanted were from olden times. Something you call a nursery rhyme.”

Twilight was in shock that she was actually wrong, “But the cauldron... The Apple Bloom soup?”

Apple Bloom spoke to Twilight in the same condescending tone Twilight used earlier, “Lookie here Twilight. That pot of water wasn't for me; it was for all these herbal ingredients. The cure for poison joke is a simple old-natural remedy. You just gotta take a bubble bath!”

Twilight’s shock only grew, “But I tried to find a cure in all my books, and I couldn't find anything. What book has this natural remedy?”

Zecora walked over to a shelf, grabbed a book with her mouth, and set it down in front of Twilight, “Here is the book, you see? Sad that you lack it in your library.”

Twilight’s shock turned into humility, “Actually, I do have this book, but I didn't look inside because the title was so... Weird. Supernaturals: Natural Remedies and Cure-alls That Are Simply Super. I...I... I'm so sorry, Zecora. I had the answer the whole time, if only I had bothered to look inside.”

Zecora smiled and chuckled, “Maybe next time you will take a second look, and not judge the cover of the book.”

Shadow walked over to Zecora, “Zecora? I would completely understand if you said no, but would you be kind enough to mix up another batch of the herbal bath, gorgeous?”

Zecora resisted Shadow’s charm, but answered, “Mix it up I certainly will. Yet I am missing an herb from Ponyville.”

Apple Bloom faced the entire group and smiled, “But whenever Zecora comes to town, all the shops are mysteriously closed.”

Twilight smiled, “Oh, well... I think we can help you with that.”

As the group walked through the forest Zecora whispered to Stony, “I know your lungs were filled with poison joke, I can make a cure for you to smoke.”

Stony whispered back, “Nah man, I like the new me a whole lot better.” Shadow was looking curiously at Stony, who saw her gaze, “Don’t worry about it man, or, like, woman. You’ll learn eventually. Probably in the next chapter of our life, man.” Stony chuckled to himself, and even though Shadow was not amused at all, she giggled too.

When they finally got into town the Ponies began barricading themselves inside like usual. Twilight walked to the store where the herb they needed was, and knocked. She had a short conversation with the Pony inside, before she opened her doors for the group.

It wasn’t long before the ponies were taking an herbal bath in Zecora’s remedy. Shadow stared down at the water, “I’m guessing bathing is the only way to cure this?” Zecora nodded. Shadow weighed her options, stay a polite, truthful, female for the rest of her life, or get in the water and possibly die as the man she once was. It didn’t take more than a second before she crawled in, but for the first time in Shadow’s life, she didn’t sink. It actually felt as if the water was trying to push her out. The Poison Joke really did make Shadow the exact opposite of her original self. She sunk her tail into the bottom of the tub to keep herself from popping out. Twilight was having Spike write a letter to Celestia, but Shadow felt too good to pay attention. Lotus was asking Zecora something, and then there was a panic to find Applejack. Shadow just let the water soak into her fur. It was so soothing. She heard her friends laughing, and saw they were all normal, but she herself felt no change, “Zecora, I do not mean to doubt your remedy, but I don’t believe it is working on me.”

Shadow whispered back, “I may, or may not have eaten the delicious flower. Is that bad?”

Zecora smiled, “You then must drink a full glass. Although not immediate, the effects will pass.”

Shadow looked to the water and dunked her head under. She was nearly gagging at just the thought of drinking this bathwater, but did so anyway. She took a few large gulps, and then resurfaced with a look of disgust, “OH, by the Eternal! That was the most retched thing I’ve ever tasted! When was the last time any of you filthy creatures bathed?!” She gasped with excitement, “Wonderful, even though my body and voice are the same, I can be rude. Fantastic! Now, before I return to my still far superior than all of you old self, I am going home. Far away from you whack jobs. Have a rotten day everyone.” With that, Shadow happily hopped out of the water, shook it everywhere, and left.

As she walked along the path home, she slowly felt herself returning to normal. She felt a certain organ returning, which made him more than happy. His horns dried up and broke off, turning to dust. His body slowly shrank to normal, and now he was drowning in the stretched and torn hoodie. He felt a slight pain in his neck, and then his sides. He stopped on the path, “And here comes the fun.” His sentence was interrupted by agonizing pain in his sides. Bones shot out from his sides, spraying black blood onto the trees and path. Black blood oozed from his body and slowly enveloped the bones. The blood slowly spread into the shape of his wings. All the blood turned into smoke and dissipated, but Shadow was still in serious pain. It felt like his stomach was filled with acid. He took a few more steps toward his home before collapsing on the ground.

When he finally came to, he was in his room, and so was Zecora. He tried moving but his body was weak. Zecora walked over to the bed, “In my homeland there is a prophecy, of a child you will now never see. I am now carrying that child, but listen close before you go wild. You are the true warrior of darkness, and if raised by you the child would be heartless. So, before you raise her to make my world a wasteland, I am going to make sure she is cared for in my homeland. She will be raised to love and care, that way; she will never be your evil heir.” With that she left, and Shadow fell unconscious once again.

When he woke up he was alone, “Well, you dumb Zebra Bitch, I’m sterile, so the Jokes on you.”

Chapter 6: Origins of Stony

So I know I’m supposed to be, like, telling you my roots n’ stuff, but I don’t remember a lot of my early childhood. I don’t mean being a baby and stuff, because no one remembers that shit. I mean I am so old that I don’t remember anything before Drakonia. So let me give you a little bit of my background, tell you what makes me tick. I’m an Alicorn with a serious case of O.C.D. or at least, that’s what Shadow says. Honestly, I’m just one fucked up somepony. I also run seventy percent of Drakonia and Equestria’s drug trade. I’m best friends with a dickbag Drakonian, and in love with a tree hugging hippie. But I’m getting ahead of myself; let’s start from the tippy top of what I remember. Growing up, Drakonia wasn’t the worst place to be… if you had a family, or money, or connections.

I however, started on the latter side of fucked up. I was orphaned, and alone. Now, even as a young Pony, I couldn’t understand why I was so different from the others. I didn’t look like them, I wasn’t as vicious as them, and I certainly was prepared for how harsh this world truly was. Even before I met him, I guess I got off easy. I was just an adorable little blue Pony, with gorgeous grey eyes, and a fantastic head of brown hair. I guess I was the just the bee’s knees to them because I almost always had food. At first, the meat didn’t sit well with me, but it didn’t take long for that to pass. Even with free food, my life was still pretty shitty considering my home was a cardboard box in one of the Market District’s alley. One night, as I was peacefully sleeping in my wonderful, one story, cardboard home, a fucking claw crams through the center of that shit. Got me right in the kidney.

My extreme survival instinct told me to do one thing. Grab onto whatever was crushing me and hold on for dear life. I could hear an array of voices yelling ‘Stop thief’ from behind me. It wasn’t long before my box was torn apart, and tossed away. The asshole that stepped on me didn’t even stop. I was under his foot and he just kept on a running. My whole body was in pain, then the world changed. All the color of the world vanished into black and white. There was no pressure on me now. I felt like I was floating through mud. I finally looked up to find out which maniac had trounced my house, but the color returned and blinded me.

The jerk raised his claws to meet me eye to eye, “Hey kid, you good?”

I finally saw his face. He had long, slicked back, blue hair with two massive ram horns that curved behind his head with the points ending just below his eyes. He was brown and had blue eyes, except for one spot of hazel in his left eye, “Dude, my everything hurts. Why? Why did you destroy my only home?” I didn’t mean to, but I started crying like a little bitch. He destroyed everything I had. Literally, everything I had.

My eyes were too filled with tears to see clearly anymore, but I’ll never forget that voice. It was kind, understanding, and warm. It made me feel like maybe everything was going to be alright, nothing like the asshole I know now, “Hey kid, I’m sorry, not that means anything to your kind. Just, look, I know of a place you can go. A new home, full of little dudes and dudettes helping each other out. If you come with me, I can get all those cuts, scrapes, and bruises fixed right up. Trust me, kid, things will get better. They always do. It doesn’t matter how bleak or dark things seem, but it does get better, so what d’ya say?” I didn’t let go, but I guess he took that as a yes. He easily shook me off and grabbed me with his tail, lifting me up off the ground. Before I knew it, we were airborne. I managed to look down at the streets below. He was leaping from rooftop to rooftop. I didn’t question it then, but now I wonder how he managed to scale the thirty foot bank in seconds, must have been that black and white zone or something, but I’ll let him explain that bit later.

When we finally landed on the streets again, we were in the slums. The exact opposite place I thought we were going. He carried me to an alley, and what I saw was life changing back then. It was a bunch of kids, but they had built a small community in this big enclosed space, “At one point in time, the city planner made a small mistake. Now, this great enclosed space is all ours. By the way kid, the name’s Umbra. Don’t forget it.” There was a poorly crafted wooden roof with canvas covering the many holes. Small, tear-shaped building hung from various pieces of the roof. Makeshift huts lined the walls, and there were tents scattered along the ground with various hand drawn signs above them. Umbra took me to one that said ‘HOTSPITAL’. As soon as we got in, he shook me off his tail, “Talk with Doctor Feel Good. She’ll fix you right up. Sorry I can’t stay, but I'm gonna drop of my loot at our little ‘Bank’. Peace out little dude.”

The tent wasn’t that big. There were about three cots to my left, a whole bunch of boxes scattered everywhere, and a desk with a green Rockskin in front of me. Her spikes were really thin; they almost like strands of actual hair. She had a white lab coat on, and had her spikes in a bun. She had glasses on, which looked weird with her blank eyes. There was no way she could’ve been an actual adult, “Hey, are you, like, licensed and stuff?”

Her blank eyes peered right through me, “Do you want me to help you, or would rather risk those cuts getting infected and have me amputate some limbs later? The choice is yours.” Suddenly, her cold stare became a little bit warmer, “If you decide to be the smart little Pony I know you are, go lay down on that cot.” I limped on over to the closest cot and crawled on top without saying a word, “Good, I’m glad you made the right choice.” She walked on over to me then levitated a brownie over to me, “Here, take this. It’ll ease the pain while I fix you up.”

I was extremely excited, “Oh thank goodness, I’m starving.” I scarfed down that brownie as fast as I could. Feel Good looked at me in shock for some reason, and it wasn’t long till I realized why. It was about three minutes till that brownie took effect, then nothing was same afterwards. For what seemed like days I was just staring at this tent roof thing. All the stains and dirt seemed to move around and leave trails of light. My whole body was vibrating with the earth. I could feel us hurtling through space and spinning at thousands of miles an hour. I could hear the wondrous music of life and of colors. I could feel every cell in my body working in harmony, but the downside was my mouth was drier than the Eternal Wasteland. Plus I felt hungrier than I’d ever been. Eventually I drifted to sleep.

I had a dream that night. I was still lying in that tent looking up, but what was above wasn’t a roof or a sky. It was some dirty window, or screen, or something. Just behind that screen was some creature with short, blonde hair, and blue eyes. There were thunderous clicking sounds ripping through the air, shattering my eardrums. It eventually faded away, but after that, on certain days, if I look up at the sky, I can still see it. Whatever it is, it must age really slowly because I have been seeing that thing all my life, and the only thing that really changes are the amount of hair and the clothes it has on. That’s like, super crazy because I’m like, over a thousand years old. So anyway, I wake up the next day feeling better than ever, but I hear a bunch of yelling outside. I leapt off the cot and stretched. I was still seeing and feeling some pretty good shit though.

I wandered outside to see who was making all that noise and I saw some guard arguing with Feel Good, “You vermin have no right to just claim this area as your own! You filthy, wastes of space must disband at once!”

Before she could say a word, a familiar brown Drakonian landed in between them. He had on some makeshift armor made of scrap metal. The suit was covered in random spikes, and parts of body were exposed by small holes, “If you want to make them move, then you’ll have to go through the Demon King of the Forest of Suffering, and honestly, I don’t think you have the balls to try.”

The guard was furious. He was a silver Angel in solid bronze armor, with a silver mask covering his face. It blended into his skin perfectly like all Angel masks. With the mask on, you couldn’t see his mouth, and his eyes looked pure white. He took a step closer to Umbra, “Maybe you're right. I don’t have the balls to take you down on my own, but you threaten me again, and I’ll get the whole Force down here. I’ll make sure they save you for last, killing all these cretans in front of you. Then when you’re finally broken, we’ll lock you away forever, so that you can rot in the dungeons till you die.”

Umbra took a step closer, “Is that so, short stuff?” Even though he was just a teen, he was still taller than the full grown Angel. He dashed in front of him and butted heads with him. He forced the guard back a step, and pushed hard enough to force the Angel’s lance like legs partially into the stone ground, “You wanna know I have to say about that. I will.”

My instincts took over and I just jumped in between them. I opened my wings and pushed them apart. I turned to the guard with my wings still open, “There’s no reason for violence man. Why don’t we like, go get some chimichangas and cool off before we do anything we’ll regret a lot later in life. Okay?”

The guard paused for a moment. He just stared at me through his mask for a few seconds, “You know what Pony, you’re alright. Come on, let’s go get some food.” He turned around, pulling his legs from the ground, and I happily followed him away. I turned to see Umbra with his mouth wide open. I walked with the guard to the Marble Square. It was the rich part of the city, so everything was super nice. We sat down at a café, and ordered some food. The guard didn’t eat or speak, he just kept on moving.

Finally the bill came. I took a peek and was shocked, “That’s a lot of money!” Again, instinct took over, and I opened my wings, “Is there any way we could get a discount or something?”

I’m not shitting you when I say this Draxe waiter went cross-eyed for a few seconds. He smiled at me, “For you little guy, on the house.”

My jaw dropped. I looked to my wings, then back at the waiter, “Since you’re so kind and generous and stuff… could I maybe get some money to feed my friends?” the waiter went cross-eyed again and left. When he returned he was holding a glass jar stuffed with drachmas in his mouth. Yeah I know drachmas, the ancient Greek’s currency, but that’s what we use there, so shut up and keep listening. He put the jar down in front of me and left. I snatched that jar up, and tucked it under my wings as fast as I could. I sprinted back to my new home with as much speed as I could muster, but when I got to the Alleyway entrance, someone was waiting for me.

“How did you do that, kid? I followed you after you calmed down that guard. How the fuck did you get them to do whatever you want?” Umbra did not look happy.

I was pretty scared so my voice was all cracked and stuff, “I-I don’t know man. I just asked and they like did what I said.” I’m not saying I’m a bitch or nothing, but I was, you know, pretty terrified.

He eyed me for a second, “You... You’re an Alicorn.” He paused and rubbed his head before growing a devilish smile, “I think I know why you can do all that. I can use, I mean help, yeah, I can help you. Help you. First things first, let’s go drop that loot down at the bank. Since we’re a new community of outcasts, we’re a little socialist. I don’t think it’s good for large places, but for us starting out, it’s a really good deal.” We walked to the tent labeled ‘BANK’ and I gave the guy there my jar of drachmas. Then Umbra led me back out on the town. We were in the Market District again. A large group of guards in silver armor rushed toward us, “Okay kid, open your wings and face them.”

I did as Umbra said and the guards stopped dead in front of me, “Move aside little one, this one’s a thief.”

They didn’t budge. I looked back to Umbra, and he nodded, “Umm… this is not the Drakonian you’re looking for.” I waved my hoof as I spoke. Slowly they repeated what I had said, and with that, they left.

Umbra laughed, “You see that kid, you got some mighty fine powers of persuasion. Oh man, we are gonna have so much fun with this.”

I turned to Umbra with my wings open, “Make me the new leader of the Alleyway.” He looked at me, but his eyes didn’t cross like everyone else’s. I cleared my throat and began waving my hoof, “I am your master now, make me the leader of the Alleyway.”

He flicked my forehead with his tail, and started laughing again, “Nice try kid.”

I closed my wings, and rubbed my forehead, “Why don’t they work on you? I got all those guards and waiters and stuff to do what I want. Why can’t I make you listen?”

He smiled, “I guess I’m just too stubborn. Let’s go get some free medicine from the clinic.” We spent the whole day getting food, medicine, building supplies, and clothes. All for free. Although Umbra didn’t know, or didn’t let on that he knew, I realized how my power worked after a while. There were certain people I couldn’t affect. I had to convince nurses and lab assistants to get stuff from there because the actual doctors and scientists weren’t affected. Even some random people resisted, but I saw a pattern. The one’s I couldn’t get to do as I say, were the super smart ones. Back then I couldn’t figure why Umbra was an exception, but now I know he wasn’t. Even though he acts like a dense moron, he is crazy smart. I don’t mean he’s a genius or anything, but he’s a crazy good tactician, and has lived long enough to have learned some shit.

When we finally returned to our grand enclosing we were both carrying carts full of goodies. I decided to take the medicine and brownie mix to the doctor, “Since I’m bringing you all this good stuff, can I snag another one of the brownies?” Feel Good shook her head, but when I opened my wings, she started seeing things my way. It was a good few years for me. Umbra made me his second in command, I started dating Feel Good, without wing persuasion, and I helped turn our shitty alley into a decent safe place for all the abandoned kids of Drakonia. But you know what they say, good things can’t stay forever.

Now don’t get me wrong, it was a great few years. I had a house, many frequent visits from the doctor, and I finally had a real family. Then the Force got a new chief, Chrono. He was hard on all crime, and Umbra was now the most wanted criminal in the kingdom. One day he asked me, Feel Good, and a blue Angel I hadn’t met before to hide in a warehouse for a while. We waited in that dark, damp, dirty warehouse for hours until Umbra was thrown into some crates in front of us. I went to run and help him, but he raised his claw for me to wait, and then faced his attacker, “Wow, you really don’t hold any punches, do you, Chrono?”

A figure in a trench coat and fedora walked up to Umbra, “I wouldn’t have had to hurt you if you weren’t a criminal.” He sounded just like he looked, a middle aged noir detective. He was clearly a Rockskin, but with all that clothing I could only see his silhouette.

Umbra smiled, “I bet you’re one of those guys who sais ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’. You wanna know what my intentions are?” Chrono said nothing, but nodded. Umbra waved for us to come out, and threw a satchel full of apples in front of us. We acted like we were starving, and I opened my wings to try helping Umbra persuade this guy. No idea why he brought Feel Good, I mean, she eats by shoving her hooves into the ground and absorbing its nutrients. Anyway, Umbra looked back to Chrono, “I’m doing it for them. I know to a lot of you cops and upper class jerk bags, we’re worthless, but we are all we’ve got. We care for each other, fight for each other, and if need be, die for each other. We aren’t just some lazy, wastes of space, we are a family, and all we’re trying to do is live another day. So go ahead, take me in, I’ll gladly admit to helping those who need it. I know that everything I did was truly righteous, but at the end of the today, will you be able to do the same?”

Chrono paused, and eyed all of us, “I haven’t been able to do that in a long time. One more regret won’t mean much to me.”

He took a step toward Umbra, but I jumped in between them, “Can’t you just let him go!” Chrono shook his head, “Please, let him go!” Chrono was ignoring me now and headed for Umbra. I summoned up all the power I had. I had never learned how to actually use magic, but I could always feel I had some. My eyes exploded with energy and my horn began glowing bright grey, “I said, LET HIM GO!” Chrono was pushed backwards, and as my light faded, I collapsed.

Chrono was silent for a good minute before he spoke again, “You know what, I think I know of a way we can all be happy at the end of the day.” He faced Umbra, “If you join the military, and the kid here joins the Force, I’ll wipe your record clean and keep the Force from harassing your friends. What d’ya say?” Umbra and I looked to each other, then faced Chrono. We nodded in agreement.

When we returned to the Alleyway Umbra announced to everyone that we would be safe, but that he had to leave in order to ensure it. He put me in charge of everything, and before anyone could say a word, he jumped over the crowd and ran off. They all turned to me. There eyes full of questions. I stood tall in front of the crowd, “I’m going to set some groups for ‘scavenging’. The ones who run the buildings will not be part of the ‘scavenging’ groups. I’m going to join the Force to ensure we are all safe, and I’m naming Feel Good as my second in command.” Everyone obediently got in line so I could order them into groups. I broke it off with Feel Good that night as well. For the first time, I left the Alleyway alone.

I walked through the Marble Square to the massive HQ of the Force. When I entered the red Rockskin behind the desk eyed me suspiciously, “You’re too young to be in here, and haven’t I seen your face before?” I shook my head, but he didn’t buy it, “No, I’ve definitely seen your face before. You’re on of those freeloaders aren’t ya? Yeah, I remember you now; you’re the one banging that quack. How old is she anyway? Way to old for you I think.”

I opened my wings, “No I’m not, and you want to quit now.” It’s impossible to tell if he went cross eyed since his eyes are blank, but he listened.

He levitated up a phone on the desk, and pushed some buttons, “Hey chief… Yeah it’s me. Just letting you know I quit… Yeah I quit… This little guy walked in and made some good points. I’m in my prime; I shouldn’t be wasting my life with this dead end job. I should be living life, experiencing new things, all that jazz. Anyway, goodbye chief, it’s been fun.” With that he stood up, and left the building.

It wasn’t long before Chrono stormed in from some doors behind the desk. He looked straight at me, “What the fuck kid?” I just shrugged, so he angrily waved for me to follow him. He led me through this set of cubicles he called ‘The Bull Pit’, and into an elevator on the other side. It was a pretty long ride up, but when we got there, we entered this little office. There were various decorations that I paid absolutely no attention to, and I sat down in a chair in front of his desk, “Okay kid. I’ll be doing all your paperwork. First thing first, what’s your name?”

I stared at him blankly, “My name?”

He sighed, “Yes kid, what’s your name?”

I was stumped, “I, uh, I think it's kid, or little dude, or something.”

He eyed me, “You mean you don’t know your own name?”

I shrugged, and looked around. The walls were crowded with junk, and I was lost. Then my eyes fell on a mirror. I saw my own reflection, and answered Chrono, “Let’s go with, Blue. I like the sound of that.”

I spent the next few answers hours reading paperwork. Finally just before sunset, he let me go. Starting first thing tomorrow morning, I would be an official member of the Force. I returned to the Alleyway, and saw everyone waiting for me. They had all gone out and ‘scavenged’ like I said, but I guess they just wanted to make sure their fearless leader was coming back. With me safe at home, everyone returned to business as usual. I went straight home and tried to sleep. However, that night, I was restless. My mind kept drifting to what would happen without Umbra, am I capable leader, if I die will Feel Good be a good leader, and why the fuck did I break up with her? Things like that.

When the sun rose again I rallied up my troops and sent them off. I waited till each of the groups left before I departed to meet Chrono at the Force’s HQ. He was waiting outside for me, “Come on kid.” Again he led me through the building, but not to the elevators. We ended up in this long hallway full of doors, “These are the interrogation rooms. Honestly the only reason I made that deal with you is because I saw how useful you could be. With that power of persuasion you could get criminals to admit to every crime they’ve ever committed, or even better, snitch on every crime boss in the kingdom.”

I was a little shocked, “Wait how do you know? Everyone I’ve used it on didn’t know I was using it.”

Chrono chuckled, “More like, everyone it worked on, but the problem with that is, it didn’t work on me. I felt it, but I don’t give in so easily.” He led me into several interrogation rooms. Each one of them cracked and admitted to the crime, and the ones who still pleaded innocent were let go. Once each interrogation was complete, he took me back to his office, “Great work kid, I mean, officer Blue. From now on, you’re our official Lead Interrogator. Congratulations. A set of Blue armor will be waiting here for you early tomorrow.” I thought for a moment. Maybe if I focused really hard, I could convince him to let me be an actual officer, like out on the streets. I’d be a loose cannon, or a renegade, or some other synonym for those kinds of cops. I went to open my wings, but I couldn’t. Actually the more I tried opening them, the more the area around my wings hurt. I turned to face them and saw my wings were duct taped to my body, “I’d recommend not trying your wings on me.” he paused and thought for a moment, “Actually, seeing you duct taped gives me an idea.”

I did not like how any of that sounded at all, “Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. I do NOT roll that way. Plus I’m a kid you sick freak. What kind of perv.”

I never got to finish my insult. From out of nowhere my head exploded with pain, “Not like that you moron. I mean maybe you can learn to use that persuasion thing without opening your wings. Keep them concealed with the armor.”

I was rubbing the back of my head, but nodded in agreement. That’s how the next few years passed. Well, Drakonian years. One of theirs is about ten Pony years, maybe a little more. I probably should have mentioned that earlier, but whatever. I kept tabs on Umbra. That’s when I found out his full name, Chaos Ostensor Umbra. It’s originally Latin, but in ancient Drakonia, it meant something else, Chaos Shadowbringer, the one who leads the shadows out of the darkness and chaos, and back then, shadows referred to those left behind, forgotten, or lost. His name meant he would bring hope to the forgotten souls that society, or even the person themselves, abandoned. It’s actually pretty beautiful, but this is my story not his. He had a new code-name, Shadow, and he rose through the ranks like you wouldn’t believe. Every mission he went on was successful, and he usually did more than what he was asked. He was the kingdom’s top infiltrator, and the enemy had never actually seen him. With my grand persuasive power, I got a hold of some of his files. I was shocked to find that with as many missions as he’d been on, he had zero confirmed kills. Even zero unconfirmed kills. In fact, he never had to even fight an enemy.

I also shot through my ranks. I was the head of the Interrogation Unit. Yeah, I was about as high as I could be, and it was a decent position in the force two. Thank Loki they don’t do drug tests on Force members. Chrono had trained me relentlessly, but it paid off. I had pretty much mastered my power. It was now like a calming aura that I could then use to tap into people’s head and make them agree with me. If my aura failed however, I could open my wings for a major power boost, almost no one could resist me now. Yeah, I had become a mind controlling badass. Even the Alleyway got better. With no Force harassing us, we built a large door at the entrance, and extend the roof to cover the whole space. We turned that hole into one giant makeshift hotel. No more tents or hanging rooms, and I took the entire top floor as my penthouse suite.

Everything had gone back to being great, until this ‘Ace’ entered interrogation. She was some teen Draxe who apparently had a thing for explosives, but no one could crack her, “Well guys, looks like Blue is gonna save all your asses yet again.” I triumphantly walked to interrogation with a crowd of laughing officers behind me. It was like a ritual now, whenever they found someone uncrackable, they all watched me make them spill the beans. I waited for a few minutes to make sure all the Force was behind that reflective glass. I wanted them to see me win, “Wow, you’re kinda cute. Doesn’t make you any less in trouble, but I thought you should know. So, Acey, mind if I call you Acey? Don’t answer. Listen Acey,” I opened the file and quickly skimmed it, “All I want to know, is how you ended up on the top floor of Spiral Keep. I mean you have no wings, the castle itself is enchanted so you can’t climb the outside, and the place is crawling with guards. The Force can do whatever we want, so if you like keeping that beautiful smoky skin attached to your body I would recommend you start talking.”

I thought I didn’t break her at first, because what she said was ludicrous at the time, “Well, me and the doctor kinda landed there. You see, we’re time travelers and we got a distress signal. Every page of the psychic paper was screaming for help. Almost like thousands of people were all dying at once.”

Suddenly a voice began screaming over the intercom, “CODE RED! CODE RED! THE CITY IS UNDER ATTACK! I REPEAT, THE CITY IS UNDER ATTACK!” I heard everyone outside running and scrambling to go defend the city. I thought of doing the same, but for some reason, I stayed with her. Let’s call it destiny, or the fact I’d been single for a while. Suddenly the room exploded with noise. It was the first time I heard that majestic wailing sound, and the first time I saw that blue box form from nothing. When the noise ended a Draxe walked out. He wore an off-white safari-styled jacket with a red paisley scarf worn under its lapels and a matching handkerchief in the left pocket, a fob watch chained to the left lapel, a plain white shirt, a red paisley tie, a yellow fair isle-inspired pullover adorned with red question marks and blue-green zigzag patterns, sand-colored tweed plaid trousers, white/brown brogued spectator shoes, and a white colonial-styled Panama hat with a paisley hatband and an upturned brim. What? I learned some things about fashion when I had a fling with a professional tailor. She tried sewing some of my favorite body parts together when we broke up. That’s where my fear of them Drakonian bitches probably stems from. Anyway, I’m getting off track.

I looked that Draxe dead in the eyes and proudly proclaimed, “Suh dude?”

That Draxe took pause when he looked at me, “Pony? Hello young Pony. What’s a Pony doing in Drakonia? The borders between the two kingdoms are closed right now.”

I chuckled at his obvious statement, “Well not only does this Pony live in Drakonia, but I kinda run this B.”

He laughed with me, “Well I’d love to stay and chat, but me and Ace have to get going now.”

He gestured for Ace to enter the box with him, but I quickly cuffed us together, “Sorry bro, but she is in Force custody. Anywhere she goes, I go.”

There was a sudden pounding on the interrogation door, “Officer Blue! Open the door! Report for duty! Blue!”

Without hesitation the Draxe grabbed us both, and dragged us into the Blue Box, “Okay, fine, let’s go then.”

All I managed to get out before being carried away was, “That’s not what I meant, Dick!” When I got inside, the next thing I said was, “Dude! Is so big. Also, that’s what she’s gonna say.”

I pointed to Ace who quickly said, “What?” And since she said what, so did I.

The Draxe ignored what I said, “Okay, Pony, I’m The Doctor. Nice to meet you and such, but right now I’m trying to find out what’s going on with my psychic paper. Any ideas?”

I thought for a moment. This meant everything Ace told me must be true. That meant they were time travelers, and if I helped them now, they wouldn’t need me. I could help them, or make them let me join, “Some things are better left unanswered, man. But, I could be a serious help to you guys on things. Time things, and all that.” As expected they had a small eye problem, and started seeing things my way.

The Doctor turned to me, “Alright, where’s the first place you want to see then?”

I didn’t even have to think about it, “I wanna see the dude in the sky.” Ace and The Doctor turned to me with confused looks on their faces, “Man, don’t tell me neither of you have seen them. They look pale and only have fur on their heads. They got like flat faces and stuff.”

The Doctor began messing with this giant console in the center of the room, “Well, I have no clue what you mean, but why don’t we just let the Tardis surprise us?”

That was the beginning of my adventures with The Doctor. My charm worked flawlessly on Ace, but we kept that under wraps till she left. We journeyed through all of space and time. I got to joust with knights, and convince emperors of far away, future, planets to make peace with each other. I even discovered my special talent when I was making memento statues of enemies we had bested. It was a stone bust of an earth Pony’s head. Those little statues I made may or may not have ended up in early Equestria, and created the game chess. I’m not saying I invented chess, I’m just saying I was the biggest contributor. It was weird though, no matter how far away from home I was, I always thought back to my, my friends in the Alleyway. It was just after we had held back some black, swiss-cheese looking, shapeshifting, bitches from overthrowing their queen, that I decided I needed to help my people.

I asked The Doctor if we could visit early Drakonia, “Oh, and Doc. I’m gonna need some money for food and souvenirs. That cool?” The Doctor laughed, but let me bring as many Drachmas as my satchels could carry. I knew from working in the Force that Drakonia never changed its original design. It only grew around and upgraded what was already built, which meant I knew the exact location of the City Bank. I had a plan. Step one: Convince the current king to permanently legalize marijuana (since currently it wasn’t exactly… yeah) and put up mandatory interest rates on all bank accounts. Step two: Deposit money in bank account under the king’s name, with the stipulation that the interest be used to create and supply the first, kingdom funded, open for all, orphanage.

He stayed and did sciencey recharging stuff on the Tardis’ control console, and I went on my first, solo, out of time mission. I was pleased to see that absolutely no one gave a fuck that I looked different than them. Just kidding, it pissed me off, royally. Like I was now the first Pony to ever be in Drakonia, “Really? Really! I’m the first of my kind here, and no one gives a single, flying, fuck! Fucking Drakonians acting like y’all know everything. Fuckers.” So I after I made my public temper tantrum, with no one bothering to ask questions still, I just walked to the castle. At this point was just like, a giant dining hall with a throne at the far end. When I saw who was at the end of this table, I knew him immediately. We had dart boards with his face on them at the Alleyway, King Chronic, the king who illegalized marijuana. Ironic, huh?

I didn’t want to waste any time so I just walked around the table, straight to the king, “So I’m gonna lay it down for you, I need you to re-legalize marijuana.”

Chronic was a green Rockskin with spikes that looked like buds sprouting all across his body. Completely honest, he looked like a weed plant grew legs, “Why would I legalize something that I myself, could not enjoy myself?”

Kind of made sense, as a Rockskin he had no mouth… but he did have a nose, “Let me show you some grade-A magic I learned from the best doctor ever.” I had to remember we were in old ass Drakonia so it took me a moment to think of what I could use, “I need some kind of small vase with a lid, two really bendy bamboo chutes, an Angel’s mask, some sealant, and some of the illegal substance I’m here to legalize.” It seemed solid at the time, until they asked me what sealant was, “Shit, fine. I need something to seal holes and keep stuff together.”

It was Chronic who spoke up, “Like tree sap? Hmm…. Guards, get what the alleged sorcerer requests.” They brought me everything I needed to MacGyver that shit. It took me a good minute, but I ended up with what looked like a single tubed Immortan Joe mask connecting to a vase with a straw poking out of it, “What is this… garbage you present to me?”

I opened the lid, had a guard put some lit Ganga in the vase, and offered the mask to Chronic, “Just take a deep breath buddy. In through the nose, out through the…the…the nose. Just inhale man.”

He looked at me like I was fucking crazy, but listened. He was breathing like a champ, and I could already see in his blank eyes, he was as high as a, a, a cloud. So, seeing as he was thoroughly baked, it was time for the threat, “Okay so considering that you just got baked, which is highly illegal because of you, you have two options. Legalize it, or I convince all of your people to revolt against you.”

Chronic looked off into the corner of the room before slowly answering, “Sure thing, dude.”

I’m not lying, I was a little shocked, “Hey man, one more thing. Could you, maybe, make an orphanage that is run by and paid for by the kingdom?”

With a nod the King’s Drakonian assistant began scribbling down notes. I left and realized I still had all the bits, and had already accomplished both objectives. It took me off guard for a moment, before I realized something. You know what, I’ve helped kids and served my country, it’s time for me to enjoy the finer things in life. I trotted on over to the bank with all my bits, and made myself a nice cushy bank account for future me. It was considerably smaller than I expected, but at that time they were using a different currency. It totaled to about a tenth of what it would currently be worth. Cheap bastards. I, of course, ‘acquired’ some souvenirs so The Doctor wouldn’t get suspicious of my lack of funds. As I entered the Tardis I shouted toward The Doctor, “Can I head home now?” I didn’t wait for answer, just walked down the winding corridors.

I entered one of the Tardis’ extra console rooms in the waaaay back. Not gonna lie, before I left I wanted to do one thing. Obviously I was baked out of my gourd at the time, like always, so basically I wanted to leave The Doctor with a goodbye gift. I remembered how he claimed the Tardis was a living being, and made it crystal clear that it was a she. I walked on over and rubbed the Tardis controls, “Shh, I know this’ll sound crazy, but I need something from you.” The console hummed to life, “Open up, show me your heart.” I heard her beep and buzz, “No, no. He’ll never find out, besides, don’t you want to give me a little goodbye present. Something to seal all the time we’ve had together? Come on. Just once?” I heard her casing pop open, and I gazed into the heart of the Tardis. It was beautiful, all of time and space locked away in a cold metal shell. I climbed in, and I’m gonna be blunt here, I fucked it. I fucked it real good, and I’m proud to say it was one of the better fucks of my life.

As I climbed out of her, I noticed I was in some weird, blue, long sleeve, hooded, shirt thing. I decided to call it a hoodie. That’s right bitches; I invented the hoodie by fornicating with a time machine. It was really warm, soft, and very roomy. Just like the Tardis. I felt the hard crashing of The Doctor’s horrible landing, and walked to the door, “Okay. I’m done.”

The Doctor looked at me with confusion, “What do you mean you’re done?”

I opened the door, “I mean I’ve had my fill. I’m done with you. Bye.” With that, I left The Doctor high and dry. It was afternoon now, and I had no clue when I was. I wandered around the kingdom, looking for when I was. Everyone was so much happier than I remember. I understood when I saw how bloodshot most of their eyes were. I stopped a random walker to ask the time, “Bruh, it’s four-twenty, duh.” After that, I was on a hunt. They were all stoned, which meant what I had done worked. It took me nearly an hour, but I found it, the massive, grey orphanage in the Marble Square. The sign above the doors was labeled, ‘Stoner’s Orphanage.’

A voice spoke from behind me, “Hello again, Blue.”

I turned to face the voice, and saw Chrono, “Oh, dude. What’s up?”

Chrono sighed, “You’re dead.”

I took a step back, and readied myself for a fight, “Hey man, calm down.”

He punched my shoulder, “I mean you’ve been gone so long the Force changed you from MIA to KIA. You vanished during the Great Rebellion. Also, I know what you did. Thank you for helping them… and me.” With that he walked toward a yellow Rockskin, and they left together.

“Woah, so I’m dead now.” I gazed back to the orphanage, “I’ll need a new name then, huh? ‘Stoner’s Orphanage’. I guess… Stony works then.” And from here on out, we get to the real story.

I went back to the Alleyway to find it gone. All that we had built was nothing more. I wandered to where the tent Feel Good ran had been. It looked like this ground hadn’t been touched in ages, “So, who am I know, what have I done?” I sat down, unsure of what to do. I mean, I had all that money in the bank to play around with, but how should I do it? “Eh, Fuck it. Ima sleep, wake up in the morning, and smoke a shitload of weed!” That night I had a dream. I saw my new life, and I actually kinda liked it. I had been an orphan and I met Umbra in the orphanage, but I had a nice little side job. I was a pot distributer for our local drug lord. He was not a nice one however. I woke up with a new plan. I walked down to the bank and checked my account, “Twenty-eight million!” The size of my money blew me away, but first thing first.

I took a kitten print checkbook, and left for our local arms dealer, “I need weapons.”

The orange Angel behind the counter… well I think he smiled. Like all Angels he wore a mask, but whatever, “A man with your style, I think I know what you want.” He opened his wings and his feathers began glowing. In an instant, machetes flew from around the room to fill the counter in front of me. I grabbed one and slid it into my pocket. The whole thing fit, so I grabbed another, and another, and another. Soon the counter was empty and my pocket still felt empty. I wrote a check to the flabbergasted clerk, and went on my merry way.

“Weapons… check. Next are the bribes.” With my new knowledge of the drug ring, I spoke with, and payed, all of those close to Ganga, the current drug lord. With that, I made my way to his white mansion. With my expert talkingness I managed to convince everyone I had a private appointment with our noble drug provider.

Once in his study, he addressed me, “What? Who are you?”

I took off my hoodie and opened my wings, “Write in your will that everything, and I mean everything, you have and own goes to me if you die.” The green Drakonian obeyed. He opened his desk and wrote a new will. He called for his second in command, whom I payed to be on my side, and told him to take it directly to his lawyer. With all that finished I pulled on my hoodie, and slid out a machete. I walked over to him nice and slow like, “You’re in my desk bitch.” I sank that blade deep into his skull. I saw the blood slowly trickle down from around my blade, and when I pulled it up and out, he fell to the ground with a heavy thunk. The blood poured out over my new carpet. Can you believe that shit? He just bled all over my new carpet. What an asshole!

I called for two guards to remove his body. I didn’t even persuade them. Actually, they seemed grateful I had killed him. I sat in my new desk, searched through the drawers, and found a pipe, “Hey! I need something grade-A weed for my relaxation time.” Suddenly, a blue Angel walked in. It was the same guy me and Feel Good met when Umbra tried using us against Chrono. He was chuckling, but put a bag in front of me. It was definitely weed, but it had blue specks in it, “What the fuck is that?”

He let out a small laugh, “It’s called Stank-Masta. Trust me, it’ll be life changing.” He ran out laughing.

“Whatever fuckboy,” With that I pulled a fat nug out of the bag, ground it up, and packed a bowl. I rummaged through the desk for a lighter, and took a nice deep hit. It felt good. It actually did feel life changing. Once the bowl was nice and clear I hit the floor. When I woke up it was morning, and I felt pissy. First thing I did was kick my desk so hard the leg broke off, “One of you fuckers get me a new desk ASAP, or I’ll be chopping dicks off at nine!”

I left the room, and when a guard saw me he sighed. He looked over the balcony and screamed, “Damnit McFuckboy!”

I pulled a machete out of my pocket and launched it at him. It slammed into his ear and pushed deep into the wall, “What the fuck did you just call me?!”

The Drakonian guard trembled, “Not you sir. I swear. It’s…It’s… just look in a mirror, it was all McFuckboy, I swear!” He grabbed his ear to try and stop the blood from staining his nice black suite.

I walked back into my office and turned to face a mirror right next to the door, “The fuck?” I was grey now. Like everywhere. All my blue and brown was gone. The last physical and I guess legal connection to Blue, was gone. He was just a memory. I had completely become Stony, in every way shape and form. All my usual cheerfulness was gone, and was replaced with bloodlust and anger. My peons awaited my commands, and I gave it to them. We wiped out the competition across the kingdom, increased how many plants we had for growing, and recruited more distributors. Three years had passed, and all through the kingdom, my ruthlessness was known. The favorite story for the masses was how I took a rival drug lord and his family captive. Chopped all their arms off and made him eat them, tortured each and every one of his family members in front of him, murdered them, made them into a nice stew, and forced him to eat it. I then made him eat quick dry cement, and tossed that B into a ravine.

Yeah, life was good. I turned that run down shack they called a small mansion, and turned it into a full blown palace. I was living the life, smoking weed, fucking bitches, killing my enemies, and taking long naps by the pool. One day a Pony walked into my office. He was covered in scars and swastikas, “How can I help you, you racist looking dipshit.”

He scoffed and yelled in a thick German accent, “I am here to help you. I am a scientist, sure I mainly focused on experimenting with lesser creatures, but how different could plants be?”

I crossed my hoofs, “A: Where the fuck did you come from, and B: You must have some balls coming here with that shit.”

He rolled his eyes, “Look, zhe Stony, My name is Clyde. I am a Pon-Z war criminal. I made good deals to get here. I just want to show zhe bastards in Equestria, I am truly untouchable,” he saw my glare, “Except by you of course.”

I put my hooves together, “A Pony supremacist, scientist, and one ballsy son of a bitch. Why the fuck not? Welcome to the team you ugly fuck.” I extended my hoof and he happily shook it, but then I pulled him close, “But you try to double cross me, or piss me off in anyway, I will end you. Now go have fun.” I smiled and pushed him away. He actually was a good asset to my team. Sure, every few years he did some sciencey shit and had a new body, but whatever. Anyway, the story is getting close to the end. A lot of shit happens really fast, so pay attention.

A few months passed with nothing exciting happening. Pointless murder, drug dealing, all that jazz. Then some asshole tried to be my competition. His name was Kush, and apparently he was just as good a drug lord as me. I… did not like that, so I discreetly sent word to him, asking for a private meeting in the slums of Drakonia. I was surprised to see he accepted my invitation. I brought McFuckboy, Drakonian Clyde, and the Drakonian I had nearly killed when I first turned grey. I saw met him in the Alleyway, he was alone, and not expecting me to show up with three others, “What is the meaning of this Stony?!”

I walked in front of them, “I’m not a big fan of competition, get it?”

I heard a familiar voice shout in confusion, “Blue?!”

The next thing I knew Energy shot from my horn, I didn’t even know I could do that back then. It just happened out of fear. Then I saw who I had shot, “Doctor?”

Kush ran past me, but McFuckboy’s wings began glowing bright blue, and hundreds of blue feathers impaled Kush, “Damnit fuckboy! Do you have any fucking clue what his men will do?! And Doctor, what the fuck are you do…oh…shit.” There was blood oozing through a small hole in his chest, “You, extra with no name, get a doctor here, Clyde, you and me need to get rid of this body, McFuckboy, if I see you again, you’re dead!” They all listened to me. Me and Clyde dropped Kush into a ravine and headed home. I haven’t seen McFuckboy since that day. I was in a pretty emotional state, I had just injured an old friend, maybe even killed him. That slowly left my mind as I smoked, but it was always in the back of my head. Two days passed with nothing happening.

I had completely forgotten about Umbra, until a brownish grey Drakonian walked in. He was wearing a nicer suit than most of my men. He cleared his throat, “Are you Mister Stony?”

I gave him an annoyed look, “No, I’m just some random asshole keeping his seat warm. Of course I’m Stony you fucking imbecile!”

He chuckled, “Well aren’t you the angry one today.”

His bright mood annoyed me, “What the fuck do you want!”

He held his smile, “I am here to set up a steady supply of your goods to my Master, Shadow, and some for me.”

My anger vanished for a second. Shadow was Umbra’ code-name, “Shadow? I…I…How is he?”

The Drakonian’s joy turned into slight confusion, “He’s… fine. How do you know Master Shadow?”

My anger returned, “That’s my fucking business. Anyway, yeah. I’ll set up some shit. Expect delivery by tomorrow. Now get the fuck out!”

I felt a sudden tightness on my neck, “Listen here, boy. Protecting Master Shadow and his image are my main duties, so if you try contacting him in away, well, it won’t be pretty. Have a nice day now.” I looked down to try and pry off what was on my neck, but it suddenly vanished. When I looked up to kill that bastard, he was already gone, “Whatever, Asshole.”

I decided to research my old friend. He had been through a lot. The innocent infiltrator I knew, was now a War Prince. He nearly wiped out all the Draxe, and took place at the head of every battle since. He even discovered his Destiny Mark during the Great Rebellion, and so did some white Drakonian named Order. I didn’t look further into his Destiny Mark back then, but I wonder what I would have done if I had. Anyway, he had married the princess, Khopesh, and had a child. Her name was Khôra, and I already thought of her as my little niece. Shadow had aced his Love Trials, so the king consented to their wedding. From what I read, it was a beautiful one too. I had been reading up on my main man Shades for three weeks now, and then disaster struck. I saw the smoke spiraling towards the sky, “Men, what the hell is going on?!”

It was Clyde who ran in to report, “It’s zhe orphanage sir. Kush’s men are burning it down. Ve believe zhey are doing it as retaliation for throwing their leader into zhe ravine.”

My heart sank, “How many kids are trapped inside?”

Clyde paused, and looked down. His panic turned into true sorrow, “It is night time sir, zhey vere all sleeping. It looks like none vill make it out alive.”

For the first time in a long time, I felt true sorrow. I stood up and walked past Clyde, “I’m going out for a while Clyde. I’m not sure if I’m ever coming back.” I took the back door so I wouldn’t have to see the fire and smoke. I wandered through town, into the Slums. I just kept walking. I heard the thunderous typing in the sky, and rain began to fall. I didn’t care though, I just kept walking. I walked to the edge of the forest, “The Drakonian Forest of Suffering, or as it’s now called, The Forest of the Damned. Seems fitting, I’m already damned.” I walked through the thick forest, stumbling on leaves, ignoring the sounds of all the terrors around me. I just kept walking. I had ‘Died’, been born anew, shot The Doctor, all but abandoned Umbra, and caused the death of so many innocent children. I was truly a shadow.

I must have fallen asleep at some point, because I heard his voice. He truly lived up to his name, “Trust me, kid, things will get better. They always do. It doesn’t matter how bleak or dark things seem, but it does get better, so what d’ya say?”

That’s when I woke up someplace new. The ground was much softer, and the air felt thinner. It was weird, everything was so vibrant and cheerful, “Where am I?”

A gorgeous green pony walked over, “Man you must be sky high right now. How else could you forget you’re at Ponystock?”

I realized two things that day. I would make it up to Shadow for leading me out of the dark, and that this green Pony would be my one and only from now on, “You are like super gorgeous, ya know that?”

We spent the rest of that day together. I told her my entire life story, down to every boring detail. She didn’t care about all the terrible things I had done, she claimed that it was cleansing my aura. I truly love her, and she truly loves me. It turns out that nap I took was a lot longer than I thought. Shadow had been through so much, but that’s his story, he should tell it. I made friends with Fluttershy, and met the rest of the gang through Treehugger and Fluttershy. Now, I know you must be asking, ‘Stony, why are you telling us your life story?’ and, ‘Stony, why is it invisible ink?’ Well, what’s a better way to start a new chapter of my life, than telling you my previous one? As for the invisible ink, well, you’ll have to wait and find that out for yourselves. And that, my friends, is the Origins of Stony.