Once a Shadow

I didn't sleep well at all, I had way too much on my mind. I just need to get this straight, I got attacked by a regenerating monster, the Fugiens Mones still exist, they want me to become a member, Spitfire and Soarin are around a thousand years old, and Princess Luna commands them...please let me be high.

I turned to see an empty space in the bed next to me. That's weird, I usually wake up before her. I got out of bed and trotted downstairs.

"Rainbow, you here?"

No response. She's probably hanging out with Twilight or something. I went into the kitchen and found a note that said Rainbow was going to be at Twilight's all day. It also said she wanted me to go there after I finished with my day. I grabbed an apple to eat on the way to the bar. I trotted outside and took flight. Maybe some work will take my mind off of things. I landed outside of the building and went inside. Silver was at the bar to greet me.

"Hey Shadow, how ya feelin'?"

"I've been better."

"I'll say, you look like hell. Here, have one on the house before getting to work."

"Thanks Silver." I said as I grabbed the beer.

"Don't mention it."

I quickly drank my beer and got to work. I gave the place a good sweep. When I finished, I saw Thunder trotting up to me.

"Shadow, I need to talk to you."

"Sure thing."

"In private."

"Lead the way then."

He turned, and I followed him back to his office. He closed the door and locked it.

"What happened?" he asked

"What?"

"I know you met the Fugiens Mones Shadow. What happened?"

"Wait, how do you know?"

"Because I have connections. Lets just leave it at that."

"Fine. I was just on my way out of Canterlot with Rainbow. We were going to be late for the train, so we took a shortcut through an alley. When we were almost clear, someone threw a knife at me. I turned and saw a griffin figure, but it wasn't a griffin, it was a-"

"A regenerans bestia."

I raised an eyebrow. "You seem to know more about this than you let on."

"Like I said, I have connections. Continue."

"...Like I was saying, it attacked me and Rainbow. I told Rainbow to fly away. I took on the regenerans bestia by myself. I managed to snap its neck, and found out the hard way thats not how you kill them. I had already lost a lot of blood as it was. I was just about to die when the Fugiens Mones flew down and killed it."

"Interesting. Did you see who they were?"

I lied. "No, I didn't. I lost consciousness before I could get a good look."

"Oh yeah, how are you by the way?"

"I'm fine, aside from a massive loss of blood and a punctured lung I feel fine."

"Right, so are you ready for training today?"

"Sure, what are we doing this time?"

"This time, I'm going to teach you how to run fast."

"Why do I need to run when I can fly?"

"Thats the thing though, if your wing ever gets injured and you can't fly, you're going to need some ground speed."

"Fair enough, what are we going to do for it?"

"Follow me."

Thunder unlocked the door and trotted out. I followed, and we were soon in a residential area.

"Now do as I do."

Thunder went up to one of the houses. He knocked on the door then ran ridiculously fast into a bush. An earth pony with a brown coat, mane, and tail appeared. He had an hourglass as his cutie mark. He looked around for a second, then angrily went back inside. Thunder came out from the bush laughing.

"THIS is your plan?" I said

"Of course, it's fun, and most importantly, it teaches speed. Now it's your turn."

"Okay, which house?"

"The same one."

"What? No way, he'd be expecting it!"

"Which is why you should be going even faster."

"Ugh." I groaned as I trotted over to the door. I gave a knock and ran like hell to a bush. I peeked my head out and the same pony as last time answered.

"Once I can handle, twice is going to far." He said as he pulled out some weird looking device.

Before I knew it, the bush I was hiding behind disappeared!

"There you are!" He said as he started running for me.

"Oh shit!" I yelled as I took off.

I eventually lost him. Thunder found me pretty soon.

"Alright, next house." He said

"What? You want me to do another one?"

"A couple more actually."

I groaned and nodded. He led me up to a fairly large house and pointed to it. I walked up to the door. I knocked and ran into a nearby bush.

"Who'sh there?" A purpleish pony looking quite drunk said as she opened the door."

"I kno youz kids ish out there somewhere!" She yelled as she threw her bottle into my bush, hitting me in the head. I did my best not to cry out in pain as it busted across my face.

The drunk pony went back inside, and I trotted out of the bush up to Thunder.

"Not bad, but there's one more house we're visiting today."

"Which one?" I said rubbing the impact area from the bottle.

"It's a surprise." He said with a grin.

"I hate surprises."

"Then you'll hate this one."

I'm pretty sure what we just said was backwards, but whatever. We went up to the final house, and I trotted up to it. I knocked and ran into a nearby bush. A mare with a light aquamarine coat and same color mane and tail except with white highlights trotted out. She also had a harp as her cutie mark. Oh shit, is that-

"I. SMELL. A HUMAN!"

"Fuck me." I said as I took off.

"THERE YOU ARE!" She yelled as she went after me.

"YOU'RE A HUMAN, I KNOW IT, COME BACK HERE!"

"Hell no!" I called back.

I turned back in front of me only to see that I was about to smack into a building. The impact stunned me giving enough time for Lyra to grab my hooves.

"You're coming with me!" She said excitedly.

"Noooo! I'm too young to die...again! Thunder, help me!" I wailed as Lyra dragged me back to her house.

He didn't answer, but I knew I could hear laughter in the distance. Wait...that son of a bitch! He knew what would happen! Lyra finally finished dragging me inside her house and throwing me on a couch. She locked the door behind her, then turned to me.

"You're a human! I can tell! You are aren't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about! You just abducted me!"

"Lyra, what's going on?" A pony who I'm guessing was Bon Bon trotted in.

She saw me curled up in a fetal position and sighed. "Lyra, not again."

"Bon Bon, I know this looks bad, but this one is really a human!"

"For the last time Lyra, humans don't exist." Bon Bon said calmly.

"I know I've been wrong before, but I'm sure about this one." She turned to me. "You ARE a human, aren't you?"

Time to make myself look like a pony. "What the hay is a human!"

"What did you do to THIS one Lyra?"

"Nothing! All I did was..."

"Waassss?" Bon Bon pressed.

"Ponynap him..."

"I thought so." She trotted up to me. "Are you okay?"

I didn't answer, I was too shaken up.

She turned back to Lyra. "I'm through. I can't live like this Lyra."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm leaving. This was the last straw. I can't take the constant ponynappings and babble about humans!" Bon Bon yelled as she stormed out the door.

"Bon Bon wait!" Lyra cried out.

Lyra started sobbing and sank down on the couch next to me. "I'm sorry, you can leave now."

Well shit, I guess this is partially my fault. I'd feel too guilty if I let this go. I got up and walked on my hind legs over to Lyra. "You're right."

She gasped. "You mean-"

"That's right, I was originally human."

"Then that means...I was right all along!" She quickly sank back down though. "And all it cost me was Bon Bon.." She said as she broke into sobs again.

"If I could prove I'm human, do you think she would come back?"

"I don't know, maybe. How would we do that though?"

"Leave that up to me. I'm going to need a few things though."

"Anything if it gets Bon Bon back."

"Alright then."

I leaned in and told her what I needed. She nodded and went out to get the supplies. I took a seat on the couch and took a notepad and a pencil. I'm so glad that I was a social studies guy. I wrote down a few things. Lyra trotted back in carrying a bag.

"Is this it?" She asked.

"That's right. Now I'll just need a moment to prepare."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to give a brief description of my planet and a little history of one of our countries. I'll need you to get Bon Bon here."

She smiled and nodded. She went out of the door. I opened the bag and pulled out a dry-erase board, some markers, and some erasers. I started writing, and pretty soon Lyra arrived with Bon Bon.

"Nothing will change my mind Lyra." Bon Bon said.

"Just please listen to him, and then I'll leave you alone. I promise."

"Fine."

Bon Bon looked at me. "You really told her that you're a human?"

"I told her because it's the truth, and I'm about to prove it the best I can." I said

Warning: Long education sequence ahead, enjoy if you like history, if not, you have been warned.

"Humans have had a relatively brief existance compared to other things. We live on a planet called earth in the Milky Way Galaxy. Our solar system has eight planets orbiting our sun-"

"Wait, your planet orbits the sun and not the other way around?" Bon Bon asked.

"That's correct. All of our planets do. Earth is the third planet from our sun. It is comprised of seven continents and four large oceans. The continents are known as Australia, Antarctica, Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, and North America. The oceans are the Pacific, Atlantic, Arctic, and Indian. I used to live on the North American continent." I said as I drew a rough sketch of the world on the board.

"Did you have countries?" Bon Bon asked.

"Of course, mine was known as the United States."

"And how do I know you're not just making this up on the spot?"

"Because I'm about to give you a brief history of my country's struggle for independence. It was a relatively young country compared to the others. It was a little over two hundred years old when I was born. Our country was originally a bunch of colonies. We were part of the most powerful country in the world known as Great Britain. As time went on, the British were imposing unfair taxes on the colonies, and also took away some of their rights as British citizens. As a result, tension started to rise. That eventually lead to armed revolution against this menace. I'll even go into more detail for you."

I took a deep breath and continued. "The vote for independence had to be unanimous among the thirteen colonies. Twelve of the colonies voted for revolution, while only one respectfully abstained. It was decided, revolution it was. The first official battles were known as those of Lexington and Concord. I'll tell you some other things. The head general was a man by the name of George Washington. The colonies were about to go up against the most powerful military known to man. As the war raged, it became clear to one of Britain's rivals, France, that we had a good shot for winning. The French would help supply a navy and troops for us."

I took another breath and continued. "Time goes on, a betrayal occurs, more battles are fought, and eventually the United States and France have the enemy general, General Cornwallis, trapped in a bunker at a place called Yorktown. The general is forced to surrender. He is so ashamed that he sends out a subordinate to wave the white flag for him. America had won its independence."

"That's quite a lot, and I highly doubt you made it up." Bon Bon said.

"I could go into much greater detail,(I really could, cuz I'm a nerd.) but that would take too much time. And that was only the revolution era."

"I suppose you're right."

"So do you believe I'm a human?"

"There's no other explanation." She turned to Lyra. "I'm so sorry I didn't believe you Lyra, could you find it yourself to forgive me?"

"You don't even need to ask." Lyra said as she pulled Bon Bon in for a hug.

They broke the hug and turned to me. "Thank you. You helped prove my theory that humans do exist, and most importantly, you got my best friend Bon Bon back." Lyra said.

I smiled. "Don't mention it."

"Do you mind if I ask one more thing?" She asked

"Depends, what is it?"

"Could you come over some other time and explain more about your history?"

"Sure, I'd love to. I've always been a big history nerd."

She hugged me. "Thank you."

I blushed a little. "No problem."

I started to trot out of the door before Lyra called out. "Wait, what's your name?"

"It's Shadow Flash." I said as I flew away.

Well that was an experience. "I'm so going to get that asshole Thunder back."

I flew over to the library. I opened it up and trotted inside.

"SURPRIIIIISE!" Everypony yelled as the lights turned on.

"..."

Rainbow trotted up to me. "Did we scare you again?"

"...sniff..."

"Are you crying?"

"Of-sniff*- of course not!"

"Good, because then I would be calling you a chicken."

"Yeah, it's a good thing I'm not. Will you excuse me for a second?"

"Uh, sure."

I didn't respond, I ran outside and threw up in between sobs.

"Oh God...sniff*...I think my heart really did stop that time! Why me?"

I was outside for about five minutes before I finally shook it off and trotted back inside.

"Are you sure you're okay Shadow? You don't look so good." Rainbow said.

"Never better...what's this party for anyways?"

"It's a party to celebrate our tryout for the Wonderbolts."

"Wouldn't it make sense to wait until after we make it?"

"You would think, but that's not how Pinkie does things."

"I guess. I'm going to go get a drink."

"Okay."

I went over to the booze and started drinking away. I want to forget what just happened.

I'm going to stop it there so it sets up my next chapter nicely. To answer some possible questions; yes, I really am a history nerd, the Lyra and Bon Bon part was to help set up a good relation with the townsponies, and the crying after the surprise part was there because I thought it was funny. Leave a review or comment for me or I'll force you people to have more education, and nopony wants that. (I'll seriously do it too.)

Quote of the Day: "...After I get out of the hospital, I'm going to rape and devour your soul." -Me to my friend after he trips me before some stairs. The fall broke my left arm and gave me a mild concussion.