Once a Shadow

"Please let it not be five minutes until work." I said to myself as I rose up. I glanced at the clock. 10:30 AM it said. Right, so it's actually 9:30. That gives me thirty minutes to get to work. I walked into the kitchen rubbing my eyes along the way. I opened the refrigerator, (which was made out of cloud...I'm not even going to give myself the headache by thinking about it.) and looked around for some breakfast. I found some orange juice and poured myself a glass.(which thankfully wasn't made of cloud)

I sat down at a table and drank my juice while thinking about what was in store for me today. There better not be any more surprises, I was starting to hate that word. I looked up and saw Rainbow trotting in. "Morning Shadow, sleep well?"

"Yeah, I guess I slept well, what about you?"

"I slept well too. So what are your plans for today?"

"Well, after work, I guess I'll just go around town to get a feel for things."

"That's cool, I don't really have any plans for today, so I'll be here after work."

"Alright, well I guess I'll head out now, see ya later." I said as I gave her a goodbye kiss.

"Okay, bye Shadow."

I trotted out the door and took flight towards the bar. I got there in no time at all. I walked in and headed towards Thunder's office. I went through the door to find Barry talking with Thunder.

"Okay, so all you have to do is play about five songs, then you get a ten minute break. Any questions?"

"None at all, I'll get to work then." Barry responded to Thunder. Barry nodded to me on his way out while I headed up to Thunder.

"Okay Shadow, all you have to do today is sweep up and clean the tables."

"Yes sir, I'll see you at lunch." I trotted outside to Barry playing the music he was instructed to play. He seemed to be a little rusty, but then again, getting a new body will do that. No one seemed to really care that he would miss a note or two. He seemed to be enjoying himself. I guess I better get to work too.

While cleaning the tables, to my surprise I saw Twilight walk in. She took a seat close to the stage and watched Barry play for a while. She would be the only one to applaud after he finished a song. When he got a ten minute break, he walked over to Twilight, and they talked for a bit. I smiled to myself. It looked like Barry was finding that special somepony already. When they finished talking, Twilight walked out, and I trotted up to Barry.

"So are you two going out yet?" I said with a smirk

"Shut up."

"Aw come on, I'm just having fun. No need to get so serious."

"I'm going back to work." Barry said as he headed towards the stage

"You know that I'll find out Barry! You can't hide these things from me!" I yelled after him

He knows I'll find out. I don't even know why he bothers to keep it from me. Maybe it's because he knows that I'll tease him. Or it could be that one time I told his girlfriend that he had an STD. I only did it as payback because he stole my bag of chips though. An eye for an eye right? Okay, maybe I went a little too far, but come on! They were B-B-Q! Ugh, I guess I should get back to work too.

It was soon lunch time, and I headed over to Thunder's office.

"Hey Shadow, go ahead and take the rest of the day off, I can manage things here."

"Wow, are you sure? I mean, I appreciate it, but you really don't have to-"

"Things are fine here, go enjoy the day off."

Best. Boss. Ever.

"Thanks, I'll see you tomorrow then!"

Right, well what should I do with my free day? I walked around outside for a little bit, before bumping into a little filly. I looked down to see it was Apple Bloom.

"I'm sorry mister, I didn't see ya there."

"Don't worry about it, it was my fault for not paying attention."

Her eyes darted towards my flank, and her eyes went wide. "How come you don't have a cutie mark?"

"That's just because I never found my talent."

"You should come with me! I was just on ma way to a CMC meetin'!"

"CMC? What's that?" I asked, playing dumb.

"It means Cutie Mark Crusaders! There's only three of us so far, but if you came with me, you could be our newest member!" Oh boy...well, I don't have anything better to do.

"Why not?" I said with a smile. This should be good. Besides, how could I resist this epic level of cuteness?

"Alright! Right this way mister!" she said as she trotted in the direction of what I assumed was the CMC clubhouse.

"My name is Shadow Flash by the way."

"Oh, you're that new pony that everypony's talkin' about!"

"I didn't know I was so popular." I replied

"Oh sure, lots of folks are talkin about the new pony with no cutie mark suddenly arriving in town and going out with Rainbow Dash. By the way, watch yourself around Scootaloo, she might not like it when another pony is getting Rainbow Dash's attention."

"Got it."

"Well, here we are Mr. Shadow!" Applebloom said, pointing her hoof to the tree house.

"Impressive." I said

She smiled. "Thank you Mr. Shadow."

"Please, call me Shadow."

She nodded and led me up to the tree house, where Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell were waiting. Scootaloo saw me and spoke up.

"Hey, what's the big idea Applebloom? What are you doing bringing a non-member here?"

"That's why I brought him here, so he can become a member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders!"

"Wait, you're the buck that's going out with Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo said

"That is correct, is there something the matter?"

"Thanks to you, Rainbow doesn't want to hang out with me anymore!"

"You two didn't hang out anyways." Sweetie Bell said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, but now she'll never hang out with me!"

"If it makes you feel any better Scootaloo, I can hang out with you if I become a Crusader. And besides, if I'm cool enough for Rainbow, shouldn't that mean I'm cool enough for you?"

She thought about that for a moment, then silently nodded.

"Right, now that that's out of the way, I'd like to welcome the newest member to the Cutie Mark Crusaders: Shadow Flash!" Applebloom said.

"So what now?" I asked

"Now, we try to get our cutie marks as chiropractors!" Applebloom said while looking at me.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked as the three Crusaders stepped towards me.

Oh shit...

One (very painful) hour later...

"Ah was sure that we would be good chiropractors!" Applebloom said, looking disappointed.

"You're just not suited for this. You will find your talent, but being a chiropractor isn't it." I said holding my back. You wouldn't think they could hurt you that bad, being little. I've never been more wrong in my life. I won't be sleeping right for weeks!

"Shadow's right girls! We just need to keep trying. Let's go see if we would make good dentists!" Sweetie Bell said.

Fuck no. Before they had a chance to look at me, I was long gone. I flew over to the library because Barry should be off of work by now. I trotted in the library only to see spike cleaning up around the place.

"Hey Spike, is Mint here?"

"Yeah, he's upstairs with Twilight right now in some kind of study session."

Oh the scandal! I'm going to bust his ass so bad right now!

"Thanks." I said with a large grin on my face. I flew up to what had to be Twilight's room and put my ear to the door.

"Why does it have to be so hard?" I heard Twilight say.

"You get used to it" Barry said

"Arrgh, this is driving me insane!"

"You just have to stick with it, it gets easier"

Okay, I'm on the verge of crying I'm laughing so hard right now. I walked in the door without knocking.

"Barry you son of a bitch, you said-" I took a closer look around, and I saw their heads stuck in books.

Oh.

"Something I can do for you Shadow?" Twilight said, poking her head up from the book.

"Uhh, no, I just..I thought that..."

Barry rolled his eyes. "No Shadow, we were studying, it turns out that I'm not the only one interested in learning."

"Mint, you are seriously the only one in the world that would be studying instead of having a good time."

"Believe it or not Shadow, this IS having a good time. I bet even you would enjoy it if you tried." He said, holding up a book that had way to many equations on it.

"AHHH! MATH! GET IT AWAY!" I yelled as I flew away.

Well, there goes hanging out with Barry, no way in hell am I sticking around to do advanced freaking math. Maybe I'll go see what Rainbow is up to. I changed direction towards Rainbow's. I walked through the door and called out to see if anyone was here.

"Hello? Rainbow you home?"

"Yeah, I'll be down in a sec."

She walked down a moment later. "What's up?"

"I'm bored, you wanna fly around for a bit?"

She smiled "Yeah, I'd like that."

"Alright lets have a race." I said as we walked outside

"Where to?"

I glanced around, there was a darker cloud than most about two thousand feet away. "That dark cloud over there." I said, pointing my hoof towards it.

"You're on."

"3, 2, 1, GO!"

We took off in the direction of the cloud, and within moments arrived.

"HA! I beat you!" Rainbow said.

"I'm pretty sure I'm the one who won that one."

"No way! I arrived at least half a second before you did."

"Okay, okay, how about another race?"

"Where to?"

"How about to Sweet Apple Acres?"

"Alright."

"3, 2, 1, GO!"

We darted over to the apple farm, which was probably three miles away. Me and Rainbow kept changing positions, she would be ahead for one second, then it would be me. I got an idea. I flew closer to Rainbow and gave her one of my surprise kisses. That made her slow down enough to pull ahead just enough to win.

"No fair! I told you to quit cheating!"

"And I told you all's fair in love and war."

"One more race, to determine who really is the best!"

"It's up to you if you wanna lose again." I said while holding my famous smirk.

"Okay, let's race back to my place this time. And loser has to sleep on the couch"

"I can't lose on this one, I've been sleeping on the couch since I've gotten here."

"Then you won't mind taking the bet."

"Okay, lets do it."

"3, 2, 1, GO!"

Once again, we flew side-by-side in a race to determine who was faster. And once again, it was going back and forth between us. This time, however, she caught me off guard and gave me a kiss just before reaching our destination. She waited for me at the door, with a smirk on her face.

"Well, I guess you win, I get the couch again."

She trotted closer to me and gave me a long kiss. "How about we call it a draw?"

I gave a stupid looking smile "Sounds good to me."

We went up to her bedroom, and both got in the bed. We lay there in silence for a while before Rainbow spoke up.

"Hey Shadow, do you care about me?"

"..."

"Shadow, I'm serious, do you really care about me?"

"...Zz..."

"Huh?"

"...ZzzZZzzZzz"

She chuckled to herself. "I'll ask you another time then. Goodnight Shadow."

To my surprise, Slipknot did NOT turn out to be a wise music choice while writing, who woulda thought? I'll stick with some lighter music next time when I write. Anyways, it looks like Shadow and Rainbow are getting closer to each other, and the same could be said for Barry (Mint) and Twilight. Now I'm going to pass out because I'm very tired, and don't forget to review and comment! Goodnight everypony! (Even though it's like 3:00 PM for me)

Quote of the day: "I was NOT over-doing it! That thing was in my ROOM!" -My friend to me after I asked him why he tortured a large roach by gluing it to a piece of paper and lighting matches and putting them out in it, then giving it a viking funeral in his toilet.