Once a Shadow

Damn, I slept well, seriously, cloud was freaking comfy. I opened my eyes to find two huge magenta eyes staring down at me.

"Ah!" I yelled raising my head up as fast as possible, which in hindsight wasn't a good idea because my head collided with Rainbow Dash's.

I rubbed my head. "Well that hurt. You okay?" I asked Rainbow

"Yeah, I'll live." She said while holding her head.

"What was that all about anyways?"

She turned away and blushed.

"I was walking by when I tripped, that's all."

I thought for a second and decided not to press on and changed the subject.

"Right, so I need to get to town and start my job hunt, I'll see you later." I said as I got off of the couch.

"Oh, okay. I guess I'll hang around here and practice my moves."

"Alright. Thanks again for letting me stay. I'll be back later."

I trotted out of the door and spread my wings. I took off in the direction of town. I was starting to get the hang of these things. I bet with some practice, I could be a match for any Wonderbolt. I picked up speed, and in about three minutes, reached the middle of town. As soon as I landed, I saw a pink blur racing towards me. Oh shit, it's-OOF. It tackled me to the ground, knocking the wind out of me.

"HI WHATSYOURNAME IMPINKIEPIE IHAVNTSEENYOUBEFORE THATMEANSYOU'RENEW GASP* IHAVETOGOSETUP APARTYNOWBYE!"

And just like that, she was gone, I still couldn't breathe, and I was shaking. I got back up and looked around. Apparently Pinkie tackling new ponies wasn't that new because hardly anypony paid any attention. Right, so where should I start my job hunt? I started to explore around town a bit.

Somewhere around 2 hours later, because I can.

I'd been searching for hours, and was just about to give up hope until I spotted a bar that had a help wanted sign. I looked at the name of the place, 'Silver Thunder Bar'.I smiled and walked in. The place looked like a hard rock bar, except there was no hard rock. Did Equestria even have hard rock? Or any kind of rock for that matter? There was a small stage with a band on there playing stuff that resembled Johnny Cash's music.

I could work here. I walked up to the bartender, who was a unicorn that had a tan coat and silver mane and tail, with a mug filled with what looked like beer for a cutie mark. He looked up at me expectantly.

"Can I help you?" He said.

"Yeah, I'm here about that help wanted sign out front."

"You need to talk to the manager then, his office is by the stage, beside the busted light."

"Got it, thanks, uhh-"

"Silver will do." he finished for me.

Well then, I don't suppose they give a shit about my age.

"Okay, thanks again." I said as I trotted towards the manager's office door.

Manager's Office

Current Manager:

Thunder Gunner

I knocked on the door.

"Come in." came the response from a deep voice.

I walked in to find a medium sized office, with a few filing cabinets in the corner, and a few papers on the floor. The manager, Thunder Gunner I assumed, was sitting behind his desk looking like he was in deep thought. He was a large earth pony with a dark blue coat, and a crimson mane and tail like the outline I had on mine. I couldn't tell what his cutie mark was, because it was concealed by the desk.

"What can I do for you, Mr..."

"Shadow Flash." I said.

"Of course, so what can I do for you Mr. Shadow Flash?"

"Well, I came about that help wanted sign out front, and was hoping you would have a job for me."

He seemed to blank out for a moment in thought, then spoke up.

"Oh that, you're the first one to actually answer that thing in months. You see, this place isn't exactly overflowing with occupants."

He's right, I hadn't paid attention that much on my way in, but this place did seem pretty empty.

"And," he continued, "I would only be able to pay you minimum wage for now, since we're a little low on income at the moment." He said, looking slightly depressed.

"That's fine, I just need a job right now, by the way, if you hired me, what would I be doing?"

"Well, you would mostly be cleaning up around here, and maybe helping Silver out there if we somehow got busy."

I smiled, "I'll take the job then." I said extending out my hoof

He looked somewhat relieved at that. He shook my hoof and smiled too. "Great, you can start tomorrow, be here at 10:00 AM."

"10:00 AM, got it, see you then Mr. Thunder." I said as I exited.

He held up a hoof waving me out. As I walked out, I noticed this place could definitely use some more customers, it was probably only filled to a sixth of its capacity. I walked out of the door, and decided I would head back over to Rainbow's. I opened my wings and took off. I flew as fast as I could to her place, and arrived in a couple of minutes. I knocked on the door, and she answered shortly.

"Oh, hey Shadow, I was just about to head over to Twilight's, wanna come with? And why do you look out of breath?"

"Yeah, I'll come with you, and I'm out of breath because I flew as fast as I could here to try and get my speed up."

"You may be fast, but I bet you can't beat me in a race!" She said looking cocky

"I bet I cou-WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" I shouted pointing my hoof behind her.

"What? What is it?" She asked turning around. "I don't see anything...HEY!"

By the time she noticed I was gone, I was easily 500 feet ahead of her, laughing like a maniac. I looked back to see if she was still there. Holy shit she was gaining fast! I picked up my pace as she did the same.

"Get back here Shadow! I need to whack you for cheating!"

"No way, and I wasn't cheating, I was being resourceful!"

"I'll show you resourceful when I catch you!"

"Whoa, Rainbow Dash, I know you like me, but isn't that a bit much?" I teased, looking back.

Her cheeks went from cyan to solid red.

"Oh, that's it!" She shouted, and just like that, she shot forward with tremendous speed right for me!

Oh shit! Not good! She tackled me onto a nearby cloud. We tumbled around for a bit before she ended up standing over me. I better think of something fast before she hits me!

"Now, what was that you said earlier, becau-MMPHH." was all she got off before a gave her a surprise kiss. That stunned her long enough to turn the tables with me standing over her instead.

"No fair! That was cheap!" She said while still blushing.

"All's fair in love and war." I said while smirking.

"Well in that case..." She said while grabbing my head and pulling me in for a long kiss.(dayumn!) Now it was my turn to be surprised. She took advantage of my stunned expression and once more turned the tables with her on top again. I decided to speak up.

"How about we call a truce?" I said with a sheepish grin.

"You can get off easy this time, next time you won't get so lucky."

And damn was I lucky

"Right, help me up?"

She helped me up and our eyes met for a brief moment, then we blushed and turned away. I spoke up.

"So, this mean you wanna go out?" I said.

She grinned and gave me another kiss.

"I'll take that as a yes then." I said, giving the dumbest grin imaginable.

A couple of minutes later, we arrived at Twilight's. Rainbow Dash didn't bother knocking and walked in ahead of me.

"Hey, hold up!" I yelled.

I walked into the library, but all the lights were off. I looked around wondering what was going on.

"SURPRIIIIIISEEEE!" A lot of ponies yelled as the lights cut on and confetti rained down.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" I fell over and yelled in surprise, getting a shocked look from a few ponies. I rose up, and gave a sheepish grin.

"Uhh, sorry, just startled me is all." I think I just had a fucking heart attack!

Pinkie Pie bounced over to me. "Did we surprise ya? Did we? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

"I'd say surprising me is an understatement Pinkie."

I'm still fucking shaking!

She grinned wider than I thought physically possible and sped off in another direction. Rainbow walked up to me with the Mane 6 save for Pinkie.

"Shadow, I'd like you to meet my friends: Rarity, and Fluttershy. You've already met Twilight and Applejack."

"Hello darling, my name is Rarity, and I run the Carousel Boutique. If you ever need a set of clothes, you come find me, your first set is free." She said while extending her hoof.

I gently took her hoof and gave it a polite shake. "It's good to meet you Miss Rarity, my name is Shadow Flash, and thank you for the offer, but I'm afraid I have to decline. I can't accept such a generous gift."

"Such manners! Nonsense, though! They're free whether you like it or not." She sternly said

"Well, in that case, thank you kindly." I said with a smile.

"Right, well that's Rarity, and now I'd like you to meet-wait, where's Fluttershy?" Rainbow said, looking around for Fluttershy. She looked around a bit longer before spotting a pink mane rising just above the punch bowl. She flew over, and I heard an audible 'eep' shortly after. Rainbow then flew over, dragging Fluttershy with her. Fluttershy opened her eyes, staring directly at mine, before panicking again. She started to dart off again before I stopped her with a hoof.

"Hi, my name's Shadow Flash, what's your's?" I said, putting on my friendliest smile.

"I-I'm Flutt-Fluttershy."

"It's nice to meet you Fluttershy, are you okay? You seem a little panicked."

She seemed to lighten up a bit after realizing I wasn't some kind of monster bent on world domination.

"I, I think I'll be fine." She quietly said.

Just then, the loudest BANG I'd ever heard sounded outside, startling most ponies, and making Fluttershy faint on the spot.

"What the fuck was that?!" I yelled

"I don't know, lets go find out!" Rainbow said.

Me, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Twilight, and Pinkie ran outside to see what it was while Rarity tended to Fluttershy. What we saw surprised us all. There was a crater about twenty feet wide with smoke rising out of it. We looked inside, and to our shock, saw an unconscious unicorn in the middle. We ran into the crater to try and help. Twilight lifted the unicorn with her magic and brought him inside. She cleared a spot on the couch and set him down. Almost all of the ponies that weren't myself, or the mane 6 were gone by now.

I took a closer look at this unicorn, He had a neon green coat, with neon orange mane and tail. Something else was strange though, he had no cutie mark!

"Applejack, get the first-aid kit!" Twilight yelled.

Applejack quickly did as she was told and returned to Twilight.

Twilight leaned in to clean his wounds. She treated him for about another five minutes before he shifted. It looked like he was trying to say something, I leaned in closer. I could just barely make out the words 'kill', 'you', and 'Landon'. That made me freeze in place with a wide- eyed expression on my face.

"Shadow? What's wrong?" Rainbow said.

"It-it's nothing, I just think we should help him as fast as possible."

"I've done all I can. His injuries weren't that serious, but he needs time to rest. You can come back tomorrow to see how he's doing." Twilight responded

"Okay, well me and Shadow will head back to my place...you coming Shadow?" She asked, looking worried.

"Uh, yeah, coming." I said, snapping out of my trance.

Who the fuck is that? How did they know my name? Could it have been coincidence? I hope it was, and what was with the word 'kill'? Arrrrrgh this is to much for one person to figure out!

I shook it off walked up behind Rainbow, who was exiting the library. I took one more look back before exiting as well. We took off towards her place. We flew for about a minute in silence before Rainbow spoke up.

"Are you okay Shadow? You look like you've seen a ghost since we brought that strange unicorn in."

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I lied.

"Whatever you say."

I decided to change the subject.

"I got myself a job at the Thunder & Silver Bar. Now I can start paying you for letting me stay at your place."

"I told you not to sweat it." She said

"And I told you I'm never in debt." I said as I smirked.

"Since we're going out, I don't think that's necessary." She countered.

"Maybe I could repay you with this then." I said before I gave her another kiss.

She was ready this time, and kissed back. When we finished, we flew back to her place, and stepped inside.

"Goodnight Rainbow, I'll see you in the morning." I said pulling her in for a hug.

"''Nite Shadow." She responded

We broke the hug, and she trotted upstairs. I walked over to the couch, and got myself comfortable.(Which was easy to do on clouds)

My thoughts were going wild. Who the fuck was that? I guess I can find out after work tomorrow. I closed my eyes with one thing on my mind: dafuq just happened?

This chapter was slightly longer than chapter 2, and if you haven't noticed, I will be updating frequently as long as nothing comes up. Who is this mysterious new unicorn? Will he turn out to be friend or foe? Find out next time on Dragon Bal-whoops, wrong story, find out next time on Once a Shadow! (Review or I will destroy you)

Quote of the day: "Drop the plant or I'll kill your family!"-My friend when I pick up one of the plants in his place.