A Shadowed Past

ShadowBurn

Chapter 2: What’s My Mark Again?

By Gmtom

It was a lonely Saturday night for ShadowBurn, he had no plans except to lay in his own self-pity and listen to the same song over and over again. Just another typical Saturday night, just another typical weekend. Shadow lay on his bed wishing he could go do something new, something slightly more exiting… And his wish was answered.

A heavy knock came from Shadows door, he got up trying to hide his excitement about having visitors and made his way to the front door. He opened the door to find the one group of ponies that he felt comfortable calling his friends. “Hey, come on we’re off out” said StormDasher. Storm was a brick red Pegasus with a slick black mane that usually covered both of his eyes and a short tail of the same colour. For the past five years Storm had been working in Cloudsdale gathering lightning for storms all across Equestria, until he was transferred to Baltimare so he could oversee the weather in the city.

“Awesome, where we going? Cider Barn? Trot Shop?” Asked Shadow, it wasn’t often he got to go out like this.

“Even better, we’re heading down into Ponyville, see what they got there!” Explained Makko.
Makko was also a Pegasus, he had a jet black coat, dazzlingly white hair that was cut short and neat and had dull yellow irises. Makko was studying storm dynamics at Baltimare university and was on his way to getting his master’s degree
“And how exactly are we going to get down there, there’s no more trains until morning”

“We’ve got it covered” said Storm
“Yeah we rented out a Sky Chariot for the weekend. Makko and I are going to pull it, you and spark are going to be in the back powering it with your magic” Storm clarified.

“Yo,” Spark contributed.

“Okay let me get some bits and then we’ll go!”

The group were on their way to Ponyville, as planned the Pegasi were steering the chariot and the unicorns were providing power. Shadow and Spark had decided to look over their map and pick out the best places they could go.

“How about this place here?” Asked Shadow.

“What?” Said Spark “’The Hay Bale’ the way I’ve heard it no pony’s gone there in years, that place is going to be more dead then Makko’s hopes and dreams ”

“Hey, I heard that”

“Oh. Kay. How about the one across from the town hall?”

“You mean the trough,” Spark took a moment to think, he didn’t do it very often. “Yeah sounds good. Storm, Makko take us down as close to town square as you can!”

As it would seem “As close as you can!” isn’t very close at all, the closest spot they could find was on the very edge of town, a couple minutes trot from the club. On the way there they decided to talk to try and pass the time. “Tonight’s going to be awesome!” Storm almost shouted.

“Yeah, it’s going to be just like your hearths warming, only with more mares.” Makko replied calmly

“Yeah that night was awesome I still don’t think my liver has forgiven me,” Said Shadow with a nostalgic grin “we went through, like, five barrels of cider that day.”

“At least.” said Makko they all shared a warm laugh, remembering the good times they had.

“Hey look, we’re here.” Said Spark after minutes of silence. As a group they walked up to the front door which, to their surprise was unattended.

“I thought these places usually had bouncers.” Said Shadow more thinking out loud then talking to anypony in particular, before quickly following the other three inside. When he got inside he saw his friends stood in the doorway, there was no dance floor no loud music and no interesting night life. As it turns out ‘The Trough’ was a quaint little bar the played gentle classical music and served a wide selection of whiskeys and champagne.

“What the hell Spark, you said this place was good.” Makko whispered but the force behind his words made it obvious he wanted to shout.

“It is,” Spark said running over to one of the booths that lined the walls. “Have you seen the amount of whiskey they sell here?”
“Of course he would take us to somewhere like this” Makko grumbled but reluctantly walked over to the both, followed by the two unicorns. “Looks like we’re here for the night guys better get comfortable.”

“It’s not that bad I guess, at least it has booze.” Shadow said with a forced smile.

“Okay look, I’ll buy us the first couple of drinks to make it up to you guys.” Spark suggested on his way to the bar.

“Yeah that’d be for the best.” Hissed StormDasher.

After a minute or so of awkward silence Spark had returned with the drinks “I asked the bar colt what he had in stock, the only stuff they’ve got that isn’t whiskey or champagne was some Buckwiser” Spark then presented a bottle of ‘Buck’ to each of his friends a put a tumbler of whiskey down for himself.

“This night might be as bad as I thought” Said Storm before taking a swig from his drink.

After a few hours (and many drinks) the gang of stallions were finishing their last round of the night before heading to the inn in which they were staying, when a group of four young mares entered the bar. The first, a unicorn, appeared to be the oldest of the group, she had a light blue coat with a darker blue and white striped mane, her cutie mark was covered by a simple white dress with golden stitching.
The second mare was a beige earth pony with pink and midnight blue mane. She wasn’t wearing a dress, leaving her cutie mark, which was three wrapped sweets, completely visible, instead of a dress she had an overly large summer hat adorned with flowers that were the same colour as her mane and tail.
The third was mint green unicorn pony, her mane and tail were the same colour as her coat with a white stripe going through both, similar to the mane of the first unicorn. She wasn’t wearing any clothes, which brought more attention to her striking golden eyes, which appeared to glisten even in the dim light of the bar, her cutie mark was a three stringed lyre.
The final pony to enter was definitely the most noticeable, she was a Pegasus with a golden coat that almost out shone the lights in the bar, she had a pure white mane which flowed delicately behind her as she walked. She too wore no clothes so it was easy to see the sover flute on each of her flanks. When they were all together the four ponies walked up to the bar and began ordering drinks.
“Well this just got interesting.” Makko said looking at the mares with a devious smile.

“Why what’s happening,” Spark said turning round quickly and almost knocking his beer over, before spotting the young mares. “ooh, very nice… And the perfect number!.. You know, because there are four of them and four of us.”

“Yes, we know” Storm deadpanned, then turned to face the mares again. “I don’t know why, but I feel like I’ve seen the green one before.

“Yeah I have the same feeling” Makko replied. There was a short silence as they tried to figure out who the filly was.
“Oh yeah, that’s Lyra” Spark said in-between sips of his whiskey “Lyra Heartstrings, one of Ponyvilles most famous musicians. She’s won best young musician at the Royal Canterlot Classical Music Awards three years running” He paused to finish his drink in one quick gulp, “She is also happens to be Shadows favourite musician in all of Equestria.” Suddenly everypony’s attention was on Shadow, meanwhile Shadow was slumped in the corner of the booth watching with glee as he spun a cocktail umbrella between his hooves. After almost a minute of waiting Shadow finally looked up at his three friends, “what?” he asked.

“Look over there and tell me what you see.” Said Storm pointing a hoof towards the group of mares.

“uh, what. The bathrooms?” Shadow said through a groggy drunken haze.

“No, left a bit”

“Oh, you mean those mares?”

“Yes the mares, they look familiar at all?”

“Well, now that you mention it, that one there looks like…” Shadow trailed off staring slightly in awe at the mare across the room.

“Something wrong?” Said Makko with a smirk

“You have got to be kidding me,” said Shadow still looking on in awe. “That isn’t actually *italics* her * is it?”

“Looks like it. Why don’t you go say hi?”

“Do you really think I should?”

“Of course what could possibly go wrong?” Spark said, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

“Y-yeah, your right, what have I got to loose” With that, Shadow got out from the booth and headed towards his idol. Before he was half way across the room the mare at the edge of the booth noticed him and gave a very off-putting stare, but he kept going to the point where he was only a metre or two away and he had the attention of every mare at the table, that’s when he realised he had no idea what he was going to do. Shadow began to panic. What if they’re here to get away from fans and I’m ruining their night? What if I can’t think of anything to say? Losing all hope Shadow makes a sharp turn and runs to the bathroom, before running out of there and into the stallion’s bathroom.

“Well that’s embarrassing.” Makko said with a little chuckle.

“He looked like he was about to cry! “ Added Storm

“We should get out of here.” said Spark

“What?” Makko and storm said in unison.

“Well this place is quite dry, the barkeep is giving us weird looks now and Shadow is probably going to be emotional for the rest of the night, do you really want to hang around with him if he’s like that?”

“I guess not,” replied Makko. “Come on, let’s go.” And with that the three stallions finished their drinks, paid their tab and left.

Meanwhile Shadow, locked in a cubicle and nearly at tears, was trying to figure out a way he could get out of bar without anypony noticing ‘Why I am I always so stupid’ he thought to himself ‘I’m going to have to lock myself in here until they leave…. Unless’ he thought as he looked up to bathroom window which was about pony size. After splashing some water in his face Shadow decided to go for it, he opened the window as far as it would go the stepped up onto the sink so he could reach the windowsill ‘this is such a bad idea’ he thought as he made the small leap. To Shadows surprise his fore hooves caught the outer wall and the upper half of his body landed on the windowsill, however he managed to hit his head on the windowsill making a sizeable gash just to the left of his eye “fucking horse feathers!” He yelled before scrambling the rest of the way through the window.

Continuing his clumsy streak, Shadow managed to fall out of the window into the alley behind and graze his chest and brose a few limbs. Shadow let out a slightly pained sigh as he got up and inspected his injuries, “go to Ponyville they said, It’ll be fun they said!”

A few minutes after leaving the pub Spark Makko and Storm stumbled across what appeared to be the centre of the night life in Ponyville, a club called “Hoofbeats? But this wasn’t on the map!” Spark informed the others.

“That’s probably because it’s soooo underground” Makko replied his voice coming with tone that made it seem like he thought he was better than everyone else.

“Stop that. Now!” Deadpanned Storm as he glared at Makko.

“Yeah let’s just go in.” Replied Storm, before he trotted inside followed by his two friends.

Meanwhile Shadow had found a store that sold really cheap bottles of apple cider and had spent all his remaining bits on them. He was currently drinking himself to death on the bank of the river that runs through Ponyville. “Urrrh I don’t even like apple *hick* cider “he groaned as he took another swig from the bottle. “I just can’t catch a*hick* break.” He finished his last bottle with a few quick gulps, threw the bottle into the river and lied down
to take “a quick nap”.

Authors Notes: This took Waaaaaaaay to long to do, I started this about a week after I Finished the prologue. Most of this was written on the train, as that’s been the only free time I’ve had lately

Also the next part is already in the making.