What Lies In The Hearts Of Men?

"What in Sam-hill are these doing all over my school?!" Principal Celestia shouted as she looked up to see a poster had been tapped to her office door, the poster depicted a tall figure draped all in black with a hat and aiming a large sub machine gun, the classic .45 ACP Semi-auto Thompson sub machine gun. She'd gone by many names in her day; the trench Broom,  the trench Sweeper, the Chicago Typewriter, the Chicago Piano, Chicago Style, the Chicago Organ grinder, the chopper, and the Brooklyn burper. It's man stopping barrel aimed at the poster's reader and a caption reading, "A special message to Canterlot city, compliments of The Shadow, visit Shadowofthenight.podcast.com for details, and remember..."The shadow KNOWS!" Principal Celestia saw more of these posters hanging up along the walls all advertising the podcast. "I want them down...all of them...now."

Little did she know just a few feet away from her, and several flights up. Justin Sunfire had "taken control" of the AV room. It was currently being decorated with the facades and backdrops to give the impression of downtown Canterlot City, save for one corner which resembled an old news room, the kind with desk fans and coffee mugs. He was in full costume, his long black trench coat flapped behind him as he walked from the others he'd invited to this "Presentation." They where mostly other students from the drama clique, a few of them wore ratty street clothes and ski masks while carrying duffle backs that gave the impression of some hoods who just pulled a heist. A lime green girl with brown hair, now all mussed and out of place, stepped up to Justin and coughed into her hand.

"So what's my motivation J? I need details for delivering a performance." She said rereading a script he's written. Justin only sighed and shook his head.

"You Dramas are all alike you know that? Details, details, motivations and all that melodrama jazz. This isn't Shakespeare, you just robbed a bank and are making off the dough and I swoop in when you think you'll be safe in a dark alley and pump your guts full a lead from my Tommy gun. That enough motivation for ya?! He didn't mean to be mean, but rather he was doing just what the Dramas needed, to stay 'incognito' and not break character. The girl, her name being Sophisticata, was only quite impressed with his dedication. "You're...not actually doing this with the intent on killing people right?" She asked as she adjusted the ski mask over her face.

"That's none of your concern, I paid you to act, so frigging act alright?" He said turning away and fluttering his coat.

"Darling I admire your dedication to performance, but must you be so brash with it?" Octavia Melody (who yes is a Drama) said as she stuffed some tee shirts into her duffle, "To make it more believable that I'm carrying something." Her words. Justin sighed again and reluctantly broke character.

"I'm sorry; It's just, my position in what I do...calls for a hard line and not very sociable attitude, the pulp heroes unlike Peter Page Turner's little Jr. Justice League in the basement and old boiler room of the school, didn't have many allies.

"And they didn't kill either." A boy in a black beret with lime green hair said as he gnashed his teeth with every word he spoke. He spoke like some pretentious snarky, snob. With his words almost giving off that posh high society accent, clearly William Cervantes didn't want to be a part of this.

"Hey Billy boy, a hundred thousand a pop means don't question me."

"And don't call me "Billy!" It's so plebeian! My name comes from the playwright William Shakespeare and Author of Don Quixote Miguel Cervantes and you shall address me as such." He said with his teeth so clamped shut it wouldn't surprise Justin if his jaw was sore from talking like that so much. The Dramas took their positions in front of a backdrop meant to look like a bank, camera two in place to capture it under the guise of an amateur reporter tailing them. Camera one was on standby in front of a guy in a newsie hat and bow tie named scoop century. (no relation to Flash) Scoop sat at the news desk and was ready to turn his ambition as a school paper reporter into an acting role.

"So how does that prop gun of yours work anyway?" Scoop asked just as the final touches on the little charade were being put in place. Justin held a silver finished mock up Thompson in his hands, it looked real down to the little detail of the air hose connected to a small Co2 tank clipped to his belt.

"Just like the famous scene in The Godfather, the one were Don Corleone gets shot while out shopping, they pulled it off by using prop guns hosed into Co2 tanks that shot pellets filled with red dye packs that looked like blood, I've done the same with my prop, films for used after used similar technology to pull off gunshot deaths even now it still pops up. Okay places everyone...Ready camera one." He said as he got into character and perched above the backdrop building. The first camera on the tripod clicked on as Bright idea started the feed on the podcast, all went silent. The camera aimed at Scoop as he shuffled some papers and then set them down on his desk.

"Good morining Loyal veiwers and welcome to a special podcast, I'm Correspondant Scoop Century, normally my syndicated collum is found on the Canterlot High Gazzete, but this shocking story we uncovered is too much for Principal Celestia to publish, so I and some annonomus help have set up this podcast for it to be known to all."

Across the school some students had slipped away from their classrooms or in some cases like Ms. Cheerilee, who used a school computer so her class could watch it. The mane seven among them in her class. "So what do you guys think? Are these guys for real is it all some hoax?" Sunset asked as Scoop spoke.

"Darling, I think whatever it is, we should listen and see what the hubbub is all about." Rarity replied with her eyes fixed on the screen. Just a few floors above them in the Av room, Scoop continued to deliver his "Bulletin",

"Last night a hiest pulled on the Trust Company Bank was foilled not by the boys in blue but by a masked figure that claims to be the iconic pulp hero The shadow. The Shadow, first apperaed as a narrartior foor the detective story hour in the summer of 1930."

"The era you clearly got your podcast apperance from Scoop." Pinkie said with a gigghle at how dated and cheesy the thing looked. "He's even using a black and white filter with grain to make it look old fashioned." She said giggling harder.

"Pinkie hush!" Ms. cheerrilee said as the podcast continued.

"The character was so popular that demand for Shadow dective magazines rose, which the original publisher soon filled, and the Shaodw's legacy expanded into comic books, radio dramas, movie sericals and eventually a modern film in 1994. Now it seems the lines between fiction and reality are blurred as we bring you this footage from last night. The second camera clicked on and the Drams grabbed their bags and began running down the set piece street like a pack of thugs on the run, the camera operator tillitesd and shook it too give the impression of being a handheld phone taking the video. He ducked out of sight when they got into the blind alley and hid while at the sound board of the Av Room behind the backdrops, Atom Link engaded a fake police siren sound over the spreakers. The camera operator tilted it up to the roof tops and Justin made his move, darting acroos it like his namesake, and folloing from above, as spotlights, disgused as street lamps, hid the faces.

"We'll hide in this derilect flophouse until the constibles lose intrest in our actions." One of them said. "The Shadow," was tempted to cut the feed and tell the idiot (possibly William) that bank thugs wouldn't talk like that and tell him to stop screwing it up, but that was out of the question. Instead he let out a long, manical laugh as they looked around waying fake guns searching for the sound. Octavia was more in tune with her role and she  spoke next.

"What was that? I think we've been followed!" She said with the perdfect mix of belivablity and tension, she even made up for her ''costar's'' foolishness by saying. "I know you took one too many blows to the head as a kid joey, but even you gotta have the same feeling as me." She even pulled off a convincing accient, a little Jersey but you could harldy cathch her natural British one that was still there. FRom up above them, "The Shadow," Opened his coat and descended from the roof top, they looked up at him and aimed their guns at him he only laughed and spoke.

"You! Vile fiends have stolen money from honest citizens of this fair city, DEATH HAS COME FOR YOU! AND I AM...IT'S SHADOW!" He said opening his coat up and making the long coat tails flap like bat wings. He drew his Tommy gun and they froze as they starred down it's barrel. Justin used his elbow to push a button on a control pad in the inside of his coat, the control made a blue light at the sound board flicker, this signaled the sound technichian to make the speakers blare the sounds of a submachine gun. He pulled the trigger and the recoil of the Co2 prop gun copuled with the sound effects, lead all watching the podcast gasp, scream, even revile in horror, it was so real, so convinvcng that he gunned them down in cold blood.

"The Shadow" Picked up the basg and walked away vanishing into the "night." The camera feed cut back to scoop who closed the message.

"Landies and gentlement, you have just witnessed the reveal of a new face of crime fighting, it looks like life truly does imitate art, who is this strange vigillant that has turned a once cult icon of the past, into a one man war against crime. I'll keep this footage on this podcast lopped and I'll keep you updated on any further news regaurding this masked shadow, I'm Scoop Century signing out." The podcast feed cut and not too far away from the students watching could only stare as the scene started all over again.

"I am so downloading this and posting it on FaceBook, it's gonna get a ton of likes." Pinkie said as she got to working just that on her phone, simillar events such as that occured all over the school, intresed students began downloading the video and postying it all over social media, a link to someone's posting on youtube was retweeted like fifty different times and had tons of comments.

You guy's just gotta see this  crazy guy wasted the bank thugs and says crime isn't gonna pay in the city!

LOL pinkie pie you are so random!"

I say it's fake

Shut up Photo

The actors sat around the AV computer and every time they hit refresh the screen loaded more comments on so many sites like it, it was the old mixing with the new, the connected and wired world of the twenty first century and the twentieth nostalgia of the radio dramas and movie serials of the 1940's, the age of trench coats and two fisted tales merged with the social media and social networking that would have been only seen as works of fiction more far fetched then the idea of a man dressed like a bat to scare the superstitious and cowardly criminal mind.

"I trust you all given the money I've given will keep any future stories of my double life to yourself right?" Justin asked as he had the computers wiped of all the evidence they had been used for this entire spectacle. The Av club and the Drama club collected a hundred grand a piece, obtained thanks to the generosity of the late Scotch Bonnet's safe that was cleaned out the night he died. They ruffled the bills in their ears and a few smiled at the total as they pocketed the cash. Octavia turned to him, a somber look in her eyes.

"Are you really going to...kill criminals with almost no other thoughts darling?" she asked as she placed her hands on his chest, he tilted her head up to look at her, the pose was taken right out of the film noir love stories that seemed to be shaping Justin's life.

"Listen sweetheart, It's a mad mad mad world out there, I've seen its faces, I know it's evils, and if I don't do this, then evil will only grow like weeds strangling the life out of blue ribbon wining begonias and petunias. Don't worry about me, don't wait up for me, just promise you'll keep my secret safe, like a newborn sound asleep in its cradle, can you do that for me darling?" He says as he softly lays his hand like a fallen leaf on her cheek and the other wraps around her waist like a vine and he draws her close to him. She gazes into his eyes as her own ones shine like the finest cut amethysts, and her smile could soften the hearts of pure stone and steel.

"I promise," she says as she leans in and kisses him softly on the lips, its a purely loving and tender kiss, there's no tonging or feeling each other up, but it's a true, and gentle kiss. A kiss that feels lost to the world where love is cheap and almost meaningless to all but a privileged few. "Your secret is safe with me; them, us." Octavia says as she giggles into her hand and then collapses onto a chair, her hand on her forehead as she sighs and shudders like she just slipped into a hot bath treated with coal tar soap and expensive body oils. She watches as he walks away, wondering if that little spark can ever become a big roaring flame between them.

"You AV club boys will have your AV room back before you know it...and thank you...all of you...for this, and for keeping my secret safe, I'll be in touch if you ever feel like doing this again." He said as he walked away, The facade of The Shadow being replaced by Justin Sunfire, your everyday High School raised by a single mother, willing to do anything to make her life as one just a little just a little bit easier