Once a Shadow

I awoke next to my favorite cyan pegasus. She was asleep but had a sour look on her face. I wonder wh-ohhhhh shit. Yep, I passed out before sex. I'm fucked, and not in the literal sense unfortunately. I'll do what I always do when I'm in trouble; don't worry about it until I need to cross that bridge. That always works, right?

I started to sneak out of bed when two cyan hooves reached around me and pulled me back. "NOOOOO! Don't harm my beautiful face!"

I covered my head with my hooves for the inevitable smack across the face. It never came.

"Huh?" I said as I looked up.

She just looked at me and sighed.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have passed out last night, but I was just really tired, an-" My eyes shot wide as she silenced me with a kiss.

"I'm not mad, Shadow. Yesterday was the best day of my life. I got a tryout for the Wonderbolts, and got engaged to you. Not to mention we can have our wedding in the Royal Palace!"

"So you're not going to hit me?"

"Do you want me to?"

"Not really. How about I make up for last night?"

"That's fine with me." She whispered in my ear as we got closer to each other.

Still not writing clop :P (Oh, and twenty minutes later)

Okay, this was seeming a little too good to be true. I got engaged to the most beautiful mare in Equestria, got a tryout for the Wonderbolts, I'm training on how to kick some ass, and I just got laid...again. I couldn't possibly be any happier.

"Ready for the next round?" Rainbow whispered

Okay, scratch that, NOW I couldn't be any happier.

1 hour later (That's right, no joke or anything, just the point of saying an hour later)

"So are we going to head over to the train station now?" Rainbow asked.

"Yeah, we might as well. Lets go home." I said as I got out of bed.

We went downstairs, and out of the building. We started trotting to the train station. The train was supposed to leave in a few minutes, so we started flying there. We decided to take a shortcut through an alley. I heard something behind me and ducked down just in time to dodge a knife. I whirled around.

I looked across the alley and saw a silhouette of what looked like a griffin. "What the hell?" I yelled

It didn't respond. It started coming closer. I turned to Rainbow. "Run."

"No way! I'm not leaving you!"

"Don't even try to argue this with me, now go!"

She gave me a worried look, then took flight.

I turned back to face the griffin, but it was gone. I looked around, then felt a sharp pain in my back. I turned and saw the griffin had gouged me with a talon. I charged the griffin and gave it a headbutt. It staggered back, but recovered quickly. It swung a talon at me again. I ducked and gave it an applebuck, knocking it to the ground. It rose up and charged at me. I caught it in a bear hug and slammed it head first into the ground. I heard a very sickening crack. I looked down. It had stuck that knife into my chest.

At least I took it down. It's neck was completely twisted. I started staggering away, then heard something. I turned around to see it rise up! It's neck started slowly aligning again. It started walking to me. This was it, I'm done. I've lost too much blood, and I had no idea how to fight something that could heal itself. I closed my eyes as it rose a talon. I'm sorry Rainbow...

I waited for the blow, but nothing was happening. I opened my eyes to see what looked like a pegasus holding it back! Another pegasus flew down and snapped its neck again. A third pegasus appeared. It slowly walked up to the griffin.

"Accipies non vivit hodie, bestia." The pegasus said before stabbing it in the heart with a short sword. The griffin shrieked and started to melt. Yep, I'm either really fucking high, or I've lost too much blood. The last thing I saw before passing out was Spitfire cleaning off the sword while Soarin released the griffin and Blaze coming to check on me.

Some time later.

I opened my eyes to a very bright room.

"He's waking up! Get the doctor!" somepony yelled.

"Ugghhh, I swear to God if I died again." I groaned as I rose

"You didn't die asshole, but you came pretty close to it." Barry said

"Please tell me Rainbow is okay."

"She's fine. She just went to go get something to drink right now. She'll be back in a bit."

"Does anypony know what happened?"

"Rainbow said you were attacked in an alley. You told her to run away, and she went to go find help." Barry started to say.

"The first ponies I ran into were three of the Wonderbolts. I told them what happened, then they took off in your direction. When I finally caught up, there was some weird goo on the ground, and you were on Soarin's back and unconscious." Rainbow finished as she trotted in.

"Okay, and where are they now?"

"After they brought you here, they said they had to go check on something, and flew away."

"Well well Mr. Shadow, you're pretty lucky it seems." An earth pony with a white lab coat said as he trotted in.

"I just got stabbed and I'm lucky?"

"No, you're lucky because you should be dead. When you arrived here, you had several lacerations over your body, a punctured lung, and if that wasn't enough, you had lost blood far passed the point any normal pony would have bled out at."

"You forgot the part where I made a perfect recovery, and can leave anytime I want."

He rolled his eyes. "Do you have any idea how long you were out?"

"I'm guessing a few hours?"

"You were out for seven days Mr. Shadow."

I sat back. "Well damn, I was only off by a little."

"He almost dies and he's sitting here cracking some damn jokes." Barry said.

"I joked about it last time, why wouldn't I do it again?" I said with a smile.

"By the way, can I leave now?" I asked.

"Even if I said no, you would probably leave anyways, from what your friends tell me." The doctor said

"And they're right." I said with a grin

He sighed. "Just try not to lose almost all of your blood again."

"Why make a promise when I'm not sure I can keep it?" I said as I rose out of bed.

"You got lucky this time. Next time you might not be as lucky."

"Only time will tell then."

"Shadow, I really think you should stay the night here." Rainbow said.

"No way, I've already lost seven days, and I'm not losing any more."

"At least come home then."

"Sorry, but I need to go to Cloudsdale."

"Why Cloudsdale?" She asked

"I need to see the Wonderbolts."

"I know they saved your life, but we are going to see them in three days."

"This isn't something that can wait Rainbow, I'm sorry."

I left the building before anyone else decided to argue with me. I want to know what the fuck happened before I passed out.

I took off in the direction of Cloudsdale going full speed and arrived in twenty minutes. I flew high above the city, and looked for the Wonderbolts HQ. I spotted a large building with a larger training area behind it. It also had the Wonderbolts insignia on it. I flew down and went inside. There was a receptionist to greet me.

"Hello, and welcome to the Wond-"

"Is Spitfire, Soarin, or Blaze here?"

"Soarin and Blaze are out, but Spitfire is here. If you want to see her however, you're going to have to set up an appointment."

"Okay, do you mind if I ask where she is though?"

"I guess that's okay, she's at the training area out back."

"Thanks."

I trotted out and flew around the building to the training area. I found Spitfire resting at some bleachers...made of cloud...I'll worry about that later.

Spitfire looked up and smiled. "Hey there, glad to see you're alright."

"What. The fuck. Happened."

She sighed. "So you didn't lose consciousness fast enough. That's unfortunate."

"What the hell are you talking about, and what the hell attacked me?"

"If you calm down, I'll tell you."

"Look at it from my perspective; I got stabbed and battered by some weird looking griffin, and almost bled out. But before I could, you arrive with Soarin and Blaze. Soarin holds it back, Blaze snaps its neck after I already did that, then you speak something in Latin and stab it in the heart, making it melt. Don't tell me to calm down."

"We would have told you later, but it looks like you have to find out earlier than we thought."

"Who is we?"

"Myself, Soarin, Blaze...and Princess Luna."

"Princess Luna?"

"She's the one who gives us our orders, so yes."

"Orders for what?"

"Orders to protect Equestria from any threat to much for the public or royal guard."

"Who are you?"

"I'm a member."

"A member of what?

"A member of the Fugiens Mones."

"Well fuck me, so you do still exist."

"That's right."

"Are there any more of you?"

"No, there can only be five of us; three members, one captain, and Princess Luna."

"So who's the fourth member?"

"That's what the tryout I gave you was for. I was going to tell you then. You were going to try out for the Fugiens Mones."

"Why me?"

"On top of being one of the fastest fliers in Equestria, we have reports of you training with hoof-to-hoof master Thunder Gunner. They also say that in a month, you will have surpassed your mentor and beyond."

"What's that mean?"

"It means that you would be ready for the stage four training."

"Wait, wait wait wait. I havn't even completed stage two training, and you're saying you can tell I can train at stage four in less than a month?"

"Bingo."

"How? I havn't even touched stage three."

"You will, don't worry."

"What do you do? Specifically."

"As I said earlier, we protect Equestria from threats. Sometimes that involves going to foreign places, sometimes the threat is more domestic, such as the one you faced yourself."

"What the hell was that anyways?"

"That was what we call a regenerans bestia."

"A regenerating beast?"

She nodded. "It can shift forms like your average Changeling, but not as well. It can take the basic shape of something, but remains a color of pitch black. They are also nearly indestructible. The only way to kill them is by piercing their heart. Injure anything else on them, and it only slows it down."

"And what was one doing in a Canterlot alley?"

"It was probably trying to gather information on our capital. You must have accidentally stumbled across it, and it attacked to prevent being discovered."

"Where do they come from?"

"Nopony knows. The only thing we know about them besides their shapeshifting is that it's impossible for there to be more than five in a one hundred mile radius. We discovered this over time."

"How long have you been active since you went into seclusion?"

"Only since Princess Luna returned. We have existed all this time, but have only recently been active."

"What happened to your fourth member?"

"He died, of course."

"How?"

"Being stupid, he tried to take on five regenerans bestia plus an additional two hundred enemy soldiers. He managed to kill three of the regenerans bestia and over a hundred soldiers, but ultimately was killed."

"When was this?"

"Just before we went into seclusion, around a thousand years ago."

"How do you know that if it was that many years ago?"

"Because I was there."

"So you're telling me you're over a thousand years old?"

"Mhm."

"And how is that possible?"

"I can't tell you until you join."

"That makes sense...not really. What about Soarin and Blaze, are they that old too?"

"Soarin is, Blaze joined us about a year ago."

"So what would I be doing if I joined?"

"You would be protecting Equestria by eliminating any threat to it."

"And why would I want to join?"

"To become stronger and protect the ones you love."

"I guess. I don't want to run across run of those monsters again unprepaired. I want to be able to protect Rainbow."

"This would be your best way to do it."

"I'll do it then."

"Not yet, when you finish your current stage of training, we will train you in the next two stages."

"Fair enough."

"According to the reports, you'll be done in two days. Three days from now is your's and Rainbow's official tryout for the Wonderbolts. That's when we'll officially name you a member."

"Do the other Wonderbolts know what you are?"

"Yes, while they aren't actual Fugiens Mones, they know. They help me, Blaze, and Soarin keep a low profile somewhat. Every fourty years or so we change our identities."

"Well, I think my mind has been raped enough for one day, I think I'll head home." I said as I rose.

"I'll see you in a few days then." Spitfire responded.

"You will. I need to go think about what you just told me. Later."

"See ya."

I flew away and headed home. After about thirty minutes of flying, I arrived. I went inside and sat down on the couch."

"Shadow, is that you?" Rainbow called from upstairs.

"Yeah, it's me."

She trotted downstairs and got on the couch next to me. "Are you okay? You don't look so good."

"I'm fine, it's probably just the massive loss of blood." I said with a grin.

"Why would you make me fly away? Why wouldn't you let me help?"

"Because I didn't want you to get hurt. I would do anything to protect you, even die."

"You're to awesome to die, and you know that."

"I guess you're right." I said, pulling her closer.

"Come on, lets go to bed."

"Alright." I said as I rose. We went into her room and got on the bed.

"Goodnight Shadow."

"Nite." I have way too much to think about right now to sleep peacefully. From best day of my life to fucking strangest.

Yes, this chapter was different I know. It's also what I was planning on doing. I've been wanting to put the Fugiens Mones in for a while, but the time never seemed right. It did this chapter, so I did. I realize this might alienate some viewers, but this is what I'm going with. Sorry if you don't like it, but I'm doing it. It won't be completely about the Fugiens Mones for now, but they will be in it. You know the drill, review or comment for me, and pm me for some xbox ;)

Quote of the Day: "You are what you eat...wait...AH FUCK!" -My friend to me after I called him a dick.