Once a Shadow

I woke up sooner than I intended, because something was touching me. I opened one of my eyes and saw that Solemn had her forelegs wrapped around one of my forelegs. Meh, I can stay in bed a while longer. I like this picture. Me in bed with my family. It's a big day today. Solemn starts her training, and I, along with Ni, Barry, and Soarin go to Los Pegasus. This should be an interesting day indeed.

I think I have an idea on how to get away from the bed. I softly took one of Rainbow's forelegs, and carefully removed mine from Solemn's grip. I then put Rainbow's foreleg in place of mine. After my success, I snuck out of bed and trotted downstairs. Stealth level over 9000 for sure.

I trotted into the kitchen, and made a large breakfast consisting of, you guessed it, hay bacon, eggs, and toast. After once again contemplating suicide because of the spatula made of cloud, I set everything out. I heard hoofsteps coming from the stairs and looked over to see Rainbow and Solemn trotting down.

"Something smells good." Rainbow said.

"That would be the best breakfast ever prepared. I promise I went easy on the rat poison this time."

"You're hilarious." Rainbow said as she got a plate made of cloud.

Don't kill yourself Landon, you just got a daughter... "So how did you sleep Solemn?"

She rubbed her eyes. "I slept pretty well. Thanks for making breakfast Dad."

I smiled. "You're welcome. When you finish, I'll take you to the sanctuary so you can start your training."

"Alright. How long does training take?"

"I'm really not sure. I'm guessing it changes depending on the individual. It might also take you a little longer, given your age."

"How long did it take you?"

"About a month. I was a rare exception apparently, because I'm just that awesome." I finished with a smirk.

"Alright Mr. Awesome, sit down and eat with us." Rainbow said.

"Let me enjoy myself a moment longer." I said with my eyes closed and a smile on my face.

"...Dad, are you okay?" Solemn asked.

"...And self love moment over. Alright, lets eat!" I said before sitting down.

"Does he always do that?" Solemn asked Rainbow.

"Sigh*. Yeah. It's part of why I love him though, I guess. You'll get used to it Solemn."

"I'm just curious, and please don't hit me, but why are you different from when I first met you Rainbow?" I asked.

"I don't know. I guess I grew a little more mature to counter your immaturity."

"Imma-what?" I said with a mouth full of hay bacon.

Rainbow laughed. "Nevermind."

"You'll miss me when I'm in Los Pegasus."

"If you say so." She said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, I guess I should get going. Come on Solemn." I said, getting up.

"Coming Dad." She replied.

"Wait outside. I need to talk to Mom for a little bit."

"Alright." She said before walking outside.

Me and Rainbow kissed each other for a few seconds. "I'll see you in a few days." I said.

"Alright. Have fun Shadow."

"You know I will. Love you."

"I love you too."

I trotted outside, and allowed Solemn to hop on my back. I flew us over to Cloudsdale, and went down into the sanctuary underneath the Wonderbolts HQ. The squad was there at the Round Table.

I trotted over, and let Solemn off at one of the chairs.

I looked at Soarin and Ni. "So are you two ready for some serious fun?"

Soarin grinned. "You know it."

"Now that's the spirit!"

I looked at Spitfire. "Hey, you'll make sure Solemn and Rainbow stay safe while I'm gone, right?"

"You don't even need to ask. Don't worry, they'll be fine." She replied.

I nodded. "Thanks. Well, come on you two, lets fly over to Ponyville and pick up Barry."

I looked at Solemn. "Be good. I'll be back in a couple of days."

Solemn got up and trotted over to give me a hug. I knelt down and returned it. "Take care." I said.

"Alright, bye Dad."

I nodded, and trotted upstairs with Ni and Soarin behind me. When we got outside, we took flight towards Ponyville.

"So Ni, how are things with Derpy?" I asked.

"Things are going great, actually. She's letting me live with her."

"Where did you live before?"

"A cave on the mountain that houses Canterlot."

"What the hell bro? Why didn't you tell me? I would have hooked you up."

"I thought it was cozy. Trust me, if I wanted a house, I would have bought one. Like I told you before, I normally prefer solitude. Until you came along, I hardly went out unless it was for a mission. You helped me get out more and find a mare, so thanks."

"Don't thank me dude. I'm glad I was able to help. But what about you Soarin? Did you ever end up contacting that mare from Baltimare again? What was her name? Purple Lotus?"

"Yeah, that's her. No, I haven't by the way. I'm not really looking for long-term relationships. I doubt I ever will. I don't think I could live with myself if a pony I loved for years died. Well, again anyway. That's why I'm worried about you two. I'm sorry to say this, but when the time comes, and they do pass on, come find me. I'll help you out. I've been through that depression once, and how I coped with her loss wasn't exactly the best thing I could have done."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"The first thing I did was try to commit suicide, but the potion won't let you die unless it's in battle. After suicide didn't work, I started drinking. A lot. Turns out that after a while, all that does is multiply your pain. Sure, it helps at first, but that doesn't last long."

"So how'd you overcome your depression?"

"I moved away to the Griffin Kingdoms. I went to a very bad part there, where there was all kinds of war and crime. Every single day there, I would kill. I must have killed over a hundred griffins. Not good ones I told myself. They were all thieves, killers, and rapists. They deserved to die. Turns out that murdering a bunch of people doesn't do much for coping either. After a month of living there, Spitfire found me in an alley just as I was tearing a griffin in half that had stolen from a merchant. After beating the hell out of me, she said something I'd never forget, even after hundreds of years went by. 'If we all fell apart like this after somepony we hold dear died, then there wouldn't be any society. We all go through a severe pain like this at least once in our lives. I'm sure that if she could see you now, she'd be sickened. You know she wouldn't want you to do this to yourself. The only thing you can do is move on. Don't drink to forget, don't kill to forget. Set aside room in your heart, and always remember her. It hurts to remember, I know, but things will get better. I promise.'

"After that, she brought me back home, and got me a place to stay. She knew that I was still depressed, so she tried to keep me busy with missions. There were only two things in the end that helped me. My best friend, and time. A lot of time. That's why I don't look for anymore long term relationships. I doubt I'd be able to deal with something like that a second time and come out sane."

"That's quite a lot. I do appreciate the concern Soarin, but I guess we'll have to see where it goes. In all honesty I'd rather not think about it right now." I said.

"I don't blame you. I didn't either. Just enjoy your time with her. Don't let a single second go to waste."

I nodded. "Easy enough. Let's descend a little, we're almost in Ponyville."

"Alright. Just remember what I said."

"I will, don't worry about me."

We arrived in Ponyville, and we flew over to the library.

I knocked on the door, and Barry answered.

"You ready for this?" I asked.

He grinned. "Damn straight. One sec though." He said before closing the door.

A minute or two later, he trotted outside and closed the door behind him. "Sorry about that, I had to say bye to Twilight."

"Did you use tongue?" I asked.

"Shut up."

"If you won't answer, I'll ask Twilight." I said as I trotted over to the door.

"What are you-" He started to say.

I banged on the door. "Hey Twilight! Did you and Barry use tongue?!"

"What the hell man?! Yes! We fucking used tongue!"

I grinned. "That's hot."

Soarin was holding back a laugh, and Ni was shaking his head.

"Go die."

"Meh, I'd rather go to Los Pegasus. Hop on Ni's back. He's the strongest flier here."

"Fine."

When Barry climbed on Ni's back, we took flight to the west.

"So Soarin, you've probably been to Los Pegasus, what's it like?" I asked.

"It's just like any other big city I suppose. I guess Applewood is the thing that stands out the most. We're bound to bump into a few celebrities."

"Like who?"

He shrugged. "You name 'em. Any movie star, maybe a few Wonderbolts, political figures, etc."

"What would you say is the most fun thing to do there?"

"It's a big city, there's tons of stuff to do. We won't run out of fun."

"Alright, cool. Hey Ni, why did Sally drop her ice cream cone?"

"Aw come on Lando-" Barry started to say.

"Nonono! Let him speak! Well Ni?"

"I don't know. Why did Sally drop her ice cream cone?"

"She got hit by a..." Fuck, this place doesn't have vehicles. "...by a train." Close enough.

"That's terrible."

"Knock knock."

"...Who's there?"

"Not Sally."

Soarin fell out laughing, and Barry and Ni shook their heads.

"Aw come on, Soarin is the only one here with a sense of humor!"

"You have a messed up sense of humor Landon." Barry said.

"Fine, stick to your 'clean' humor." I said with my tongue sticking out like I was sick.

"Yeah, we'll do that."

"Alrighty then Buzz Killington, lets hear a clean joke that's actually funny."

"Alright, why didn't the skeleton cross the road?" Barry asked.

"I don't know, why?"

"He didn't have the guts!"

"...Ni, fly faster and get away from me now. I can't be held responsible for what I'm about to do to Barry."

Barry gave a bad poker face. "Uhh, I think he's serious. GOGOGOGOGOGO!"

Ni took off flying incredibly fast, leaving me and Soarin behind.

I grinned. "Alright, let the dirty jokes commence!"

About thirty minutes of horrifyingly dirty jokes later.

Soarin and I were wiping the tears off when we finally caught up to Ni and Barry.

Barry rolled his eyes. "So did you two enjoy your jokes?"

"Yes, yes we did. We lol'd out loud. How did you two enjoy your not funny clean jokes?"

"We didn't tell jokes, we just talked about the future and-did you just say lol out loud?"

"Damn straight I did." I replied.

"This is gonna be a long couple of days..." He murmured.

"I hope it will be. This is my party, and I want you three to remember it forever." I said, bringing everypony in with my hooves.

"Yeah, you can let us go now." Barry said.

"Shhhhh, don't ruin the moment."

Barry lifted my hoof off of him, and I decided to let Ni and Soarin go.

"Onward!" I yelled, dramatically pointing my hoof in the distance.

"You're acting pretty...weird. You feeling okay, Shadow?" Ni asked.

"Never better! Just excited is all."

"If you say so..."

That was it for the conversation until we could see Applewood in the distance about two hours later.

"Finally here. Welcome to Los Pegasus everyone!" I said with a large smile on my face.

"Wow, it looks just like a slightly smaller version of Los Angeles." Barry mused.

"You're right about that. Let's fly in and get to our hotel room."

He nodded and we flew into the city. We flew over to the Four Seasons Los Pegasus and trotted inside. The white mare pegasus from when I visited a few days ago was behind the counter. She looked up and smiled when she saw me.

"Mr. Shadow! Here for your party?" She said.

I nodded. "That's right. Would you mind giving me the key and room number please? We're looking to relax for a bit after that long flight."

"Of course!" She reached somewhere behind the counter and pulled out a card key. "This is a new kind of key. By magically imprinting a code on it, your door will open only to this key, and no other."

Magi-technology eh? Nice. Hopefully they stick to conveniences and not weapons. "Alright, thank you."

"It's no problem, I'm very happy to help. Your room number is 1512." She said before giving me the key.

"Thanks. Have a good day." I said before trotting off with everyone.

"You too Mr. Shadow."

We went up to the fifteenth floor, and found our room. I slid the card key in the slot, and unlocked the door. I opened it and we trotted in.

"Holy shit this place is big." Barry said.

"I'll say. This place is big even for me." Ni replied.

It had one large living room, around the size of a small house. The two bedrooms had two large beds, with a desk in between. There was also a bathroom connecting to the bedrooms. There was a spare bathroom connecting to the living room. The kitchen was fairly large, with an island counter in the middle. Then I witnessed the best part. The bar. Hell yeahhhhh. I'll enjoy some of that later. The living room also had a fantastic view of the city. It was starting to get dark.

I looked at everyone. "Alright, call your rooms, unpack whatever crap you brought, and meet back on the couch right here when you finish."

Everypony nodded, and went to their room. Barry went into a room with Soarin, so I guess that means Ni is my roommate. When everyone finished unpacking, they took a seat on the U shaped couch.

"So did you three want to go and do something today? Or are you too tired to do anything?" I asked.

"How long are we staying here? Two nights?" Ni asked.

"Yep. So we'll have all day tomorrow, and part of the day two days from now. I don't care either way."

"I'm actually pretty sleepy right now." Soarin said, rubbing his eyes with a foreleg.

"Fair enough. Alright everyone, let's turn in for the night. We'll hit up the city tomorrow."

We got up from the couch and headed to our rooms. I took the bed next to the window, and Ni took the one closer to the door and bathroom. I yawned and crawled into bed.

"Hey Ni, ready to dream about the hidden banana temple?" I asked.

He chuckled. "Nah, that ended already. I'm about to dream of the potato and the lost city of copper."

"Oh okay, at least that one makes sense."

"You know it." He yawned. "Night Shadow."

"Night.."

I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

….....................................................................................................................................................

When I opened my eyes, I was in front of Rainbow Dash. She had on a beautiful dress that had rainbow streaks going through it. Wait, is this my wedding?

I looked around, and saw Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to my right, and a bunch of ponies to my left. Rainbow's friends were there, some ponies I had never seen before, and everypony I invited. Dad, Mayor Mare, Thunder Gunner, Silver, a few of the Wonderbolts, Lyra, Bon Bon, the CMC, and more.

"Do you?" Princess Celestia asked, as if she was repeating herself.

"I'm sorry?"

"Do you take Rainbow Dash to be your wife?"

I don't know what's going on, but screw it. "I d-" I was cut off by the sound of explosions outside of the palace.

A bloody royal guard burst through the door. "The city-it's...it's the-" He expired before saying anything else.

Everypony started to panic.

"Everypony, please calm down! You will remain safe here."

Princess Luna leaned in and whispered in my ear. "He's here. I will teleport your equipment to you when you get outside."

I nodded, not really understanding what the hell was going on, but ran off in the direction of the exit. I was stopped by a pony holding onto my back with a foreleg. It was Rainbow Dash. She had tears in her eyes.

"Please be safe..." She said.

"I'm not really sure what's going on right now, but yeah, I promise. You stay safe too. I'll be right back." I said before running off.

When I got outside, my armor appeared on me, and the rest of the group was with me. Spitfire, Ni, Soarin, Blaze, and myself, all wearing our armor.

A lot of the city was on fire, and we could hear screams in the distance.

"What the fuck is going on?!" I yelled.

"He's here." Spitfire said.

"Who the fuck is he?!"

"Sorrow Curse."

"What?! Why is he here? And now of all times?!"

"He probably figured it was best to wait until we were all gathered together in a single place, but that's where he's wrong."

"What's attacking the city anyways? I don't see any necromancers."

"No, we killed most of them. It has to be something else. Something like...oh no. This is very bad."

"What? What is it?"

Just then, a skeleton blasted out of the ground, and charged Spitfire, only to be obliterated by a punch from her.

"All of those necromancers years ago...they lost on purpose."

"Why? Why would they do that?"

"At the time, we didn't care much for what became of them, so we just burried them where we found 'em. That was the biggest mistake we've ever made. What just happened, what you just saw, was one of the necromancers killed over a hundred years ago. This was their plan all along. They never intended to win all those years ago! They were planning to win over a hundred years in the future! Damnit! Why didn't I ever think about this?!"

Just then, dozens more necromancer skeletons shot out of the ground.

"We need to defeat them all! Move!"

We split and started fighting the skeletons. These feel...different from the ones I've fought before. They're much stronger for one. It's like I'm fighting abominations, not skeletons. How did they get so strong?

My thoughts were interrupted when I had to duck just in time to avoid being decapitated. I shoved a hidden blade in its neck, and snapped the head off. It fell limp, and I moved onto the next one.

After finishing the last of them in the area, I heard screams coming from inside the palace building. I rushed inside just in time to see Rainbow getting stabbed in the neck by a skeleton, and see the life fade from her eyes.

............................................................................................................................................

I flew up wide awake in bed, sweating and panting heavily. What the fuck was that?! That was way too real for a goddamn nightmare! Was that a vision or something?

I put my head back down on my pillow and closed my eyes. If that was a vision of the future, I sure as shit won't let anything happen to Rainbow, even if it costs me my life.

Yep, so there ya go. This chapter took much longer than it should have. I worked on the last fourth of it for over four hours, and only did thirty minutes of actual story writing. I'm a world class procrastinator, alright? Also, if it seems like the emotions jump around a lot, it might have to do with me listening to music. (For example, when Tenacious D is playing, I'm feeling humorous. If Breaking Benjamin, Rammstein, or Dragonforce is playing, I'm feeling badass. Slipknot if it gets dark, and if the Red Hot Chili Peppers are playing, I'm feeling chill.) So that was more of a rundown of some of the bands I listen to. It was more to make myself feel special than to be informative. Hooray for brutal honesty! (to myself :P) (Another side note, do you guys like the new story pic? Cuz I think it's BAD ASS!)

Chuck Norris fact of the day: For an extra kick, Chuck Norris spikes his aftershave with just a splash of battery acid.