Once a Shadow

Yesterday was the worst and best day of my life. Make that both of my lives. I nearly lost the one I love, but sang a song and got laid instead. Did I mention I love it here? I opened my eyes to find Rainbow huddled next to me. She was awake.

"Morning Shadow." She said with a smile

"Good morning yourself."

"I love you."

This would be the moment when a lot of guys would run like hell. I didn't hesitate with what I said next.

"I love you too Rainbow, I love you more than anything." I said as I pulled her closer

"So what are we doing today?" she asked

"Aren't we going to Cloudsdale today?"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that."

"When do we leave?" I asked

"We don't have to leave for another four hours I believe."

"I guess I'll go get a training session with Thunder then."

"Alright, be sure to thank him for me."

"I owe him a thanks as well."

"Alright, I'll get a few things together while you're gone."

"Alright, see you in a few." I said as I trotted out the door and walked downstairs. I grabbed an apple to eat on the way and went outside. I flew to town, trying to do some tricks along the way. I have a few things in my arsenal. Maybe they might get me first place. I finished my apple just before arriving at the bar. I trotted inside to have Silver wave at me.

"Hey Shadow, when you get a chance, you need to give me some more of those songs! A few young folks outside heard your little performance last night and demanded to hear more. If you give us those songs, it will get this place going again."

"You're gonna have to ask Mint for those, I only picked the song last night. He's the one that knows how to play them.."

"Alright, thanks Shadow."

"Anytime."

I trotted to Thunder's office and walked in.

"Shadow, I'm guessing things went well with your girl last night. It looks that way, judging by the stupid smirk on your face."

Have I been smirking the whole time? Oh well. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. Thanks again for helping my sorry ass save my relationship."

"It was the least I could do, plus I didn't want to see you and Mint doing nothing around here but stay depressed the whole time. That would be bad for business. Speaking of business, you and Mint attracted us a whole new group of customers with your music!"

"Yeah, Silver told me when I walked in."

"So what can I do for you today Shadow? I gave you almost a week off for your trip to Cloudsdale and Canterlot."

"Yeah, before I leave for Cloudsdale, I was hoping to get in another training session with you."

"Alright, but before we start, from now on, things won't be as easy. Up 'till now, I've only been warming you up for the more difficult stuff."

"You mean that stuff we were doing was the easy shit?"

He chuckled "That's right. You see, there are four levels to this style of training. The last couple of days, you were training on the beginner's level, which is for basic self defense only. What I'm going to train you in now will get you on par on hoof-to-hoof combat with your average royal guard. This stage is called the adept's training level."

"Wait, if level two would put me on par with a royal guard...WHAT THE HELL COULD THE OTHER TWO DO?"

"Easy there. This is probably as hard as the training will get. Very few make it passed stage three, and there are only four in the history of Equestria to make it through stage four."

"Okay, so let me get this straight, level one will get me basic self defense training, and level two is royal guard training. So what would levels three and four be compared to?"

"I doubt you will get that far, but level three would put you in the top five deadliest warriors in Equestria. Level four is even more legendary, not even I myself have even attempted it. Mainly because I don't know how to, and only a pegasus can master it. Level three and four's title always associates itself with the wielder's name. Level three takes your first name, and adds on the word beast. The title itself is translated however. Take my title for example, Thunder Beast. After translation, it sounds like Tonitrua Bruti.

Did he just translate to Latin? They probably call it something different here. Also, Latin makes everything sound bad ass for some reason.

"Okay, so what is the title for stage four?"

"The title for stage four is something you should expect. It is Daemon."

"Daemon...Demon?"

"That is correct, and rightfully named. Things may seem peaceful now, but long long ago, the world was chaos. Equestria was very young at the time. We were constantly being drawn into conflict by nearby territories. We needed a way to assassinate their leaders to calm things down, and at the same time, it would divert pressure away from us. We needed the Fugiens Mones. "

Thank God I took Latin in school. "That means Flying Demons right?"

He nodded "There were four pegasi so deadly, so stealthy, so gifted in the art of combat, they could bring down legions of enemies before needing to retreat. Most importantly though, they served Equestria. The enemy didn't know this however, and that resulted in other nations calling a truce with each other to unite against this threat. Soon, they came to Equestria to join the alliance of nations to hunt down the threat of the Fugiens Mones."

"It was a sudden turn of events for Equestria, because nopony would have thought the other nations would actually ally with each other. The leaders of Equestria warned the Fugiens Mones that Equestria would be allying with the other nations to prevent destruction. The Fugiens Mones understood that it was for the good of the country, and they went into hiding. Nopony has ever seen them since. Some say they died out long ago, others say they still exist, blending in with modern society."

"How do you know all of this?"

"Well, it's not because I'm one of them, it's just because you can find lots of dirty little secrets when given captain class access to things, also, you need to be a pegasus."

"So why tell me?"

"Because I know you can keep it to yourself, and because no one would believe you even if you did tell them. Who knows, you might actually beat stage three. But I doubt you will even get passed this stage of training. That was just a little fun story I never got the chance to tell before. Anyways, let's begin!"

That was a pretty kick ass story. I wonder if the Fugiens Mones still exist...maybe if I train hard enough, I could become one! But wait, that wouldn't work. One reason was because they might not exist anymore, and second, I need to join the Wonderbolts. That doesn't mean I can't get through stage three of my training though, and be able to kick some serious ass!

"Yeah, let's go!"

Two very painful hours later

"Fuuuuck, how the hell am I going to keep this up?" I groaned as I walked out

"That was twice as bad as the other training! If this training was bad, I can only imagine how bad stage three training is, not to mention stage four! Fuck that."

My ranting continued until I noticed quite a few ponies were staring at me. "Uhh, sorry, don't mind me." I said to them

They just turned away and went about their business. I guess I could go make sure my friends are going to support me at the competition tomorrow. I decided to head in the direction of Twilight's. I arrived at the library and walked in. I found Barry just relaxing on the couch.

"Hey Landon, what's up?" he asked

"I came here to make sure that you're going to Cloudsdale to back me up during the competition."

"Of course, just don't do anything to get your sorry ass killed again. You may not care about yourself that much, but you care about Rainbow and your friends. So think about that before risking your life."

"You know Barry, no one likes a Buzz Killington."

"And no one likes a dead friend or lover, or whatever."

"Fine, I won't do something suicidal."

"Thank you. Is there anything else you wanted?"

"Nah, I'm gonna head back to Rainbow's, then go over to Cloudsdale."

"Alright, I'll see you at the competition then."

"Later man." I said as I trotted out.

Right, so now it's off to home. I need to get used to calling it that. I headed off to 'home' and arrived in about a minute.

"Hey Rainbow, you home?" I said as I opened the door.

"Yeah, I'm just packing a few things, come on up."

I trotted upstairs to find Rainbow just packing things in some suitcases...made of cloud. My head just exploded from confusion and passed out. I woke up to find Rainbow looking worriedly at me.

"Shadow? Shadow are you okay?"

"...clouds..."

"Huh?"

"Everything is made of fucking clouds...how does it work?

She rolled her eyes and got back to packing. I just sat there for about another five minutes trying to keep my head from blowing up again.

"Right, so I finished packing Shadow, you ready to go?"

"...Sure..." I said as I stared at the cloud bags like they were an ancient evil wanting to consume me.

Rainbow didn't seem to notice. "Right, so lets go."

I shook it off and nodded. "Alright, how long is it to Cloudsdale?"

"It's gonna be about 45 minutes for us."

"That's not too bad."

"Right, so lets get going."

We walked outside and I let Rainbow take off first, because I didn't know where the hell Cloudsdale was located. After she took off, I followed close behind her.

"So why don't you get along with your father?" She hesitantly asked

"It's okay now, I don't mind you asking. I'll explain why I don't like him for you. When I was very young, around two years old, my mom died. My dad was left with me. One other thing, we have this sport called NASCAR, and it involves racing of a kind. Well, he was one of the participants of it, actually, he was the best racer the sport had ever seen. We may have had money sure, but what good is money if you don't have anyone to enjoy it with? My dad never talked to me, the closest thing I ever did with him was ride with him on the way to the races."

"No one ever paid me any attention, the only friend I had was Barry. All I was was his shadow. That's what partially caused my death. I become obsessed with escaping his shadow. I soon became NASCAR's new racer. I was in my first cup, I was doing great, until the accident...well, there you have it, that's why I don't like my dad. He never paid attention to me, and I was left in his shadow."

"I, I'm sorry to hear that Shadow."

"Don't be, none of this is your fault."

We still had about thirty minutes until our arrival to Cloudsdale. Most of that time was spent with her begging me what my costume for the Gala would be, and every time she asked I would tell her she had to wait. We finally arrived in Cloudsdale. It was a lot cooler up close than it was on the TV that's for sure. Not to mention this place is fucking huge!

"I know this place is impressive Shadow, but don't fall behind."

"Can't I explore a little bit?"

"We can go out to eat after we get to the suite I've been given."

Did she just say suite? "Meh, exploring is overrated anyways."

She laughed "Alright then, follow me and we'll go to the suite."

I did so as she lead the way to our hotel. Which made of cloud...wait, this whole place is made of cloud! Fuuuuck, just don't think about it Landon, don't think about it...

"Equestria to Shadow, we're here." Rainbow said as she waved her hoof in front of me.

"Oh, right, I knew that."

She just rolled her eyes. "Lets go."

I nodded and followed her in. The interior wasn't made of cloud. How the fuck was the exterior cloud, and the interior solid? At this rate I'm going to have a fucking brain aneurism. Rainbow trotted up to the front desk.

"Uh hi, I have a suite on reserve for Rainbow Dash."

"One moment please." the receptionist said as she looked through names on a book.

"Ah, here we are, you're on the top floor, room 2203. Here's your key."

"Thanks." Rainbow said as she took the key.

She trotted up to me. "Alright, lets head up."

Instead of waving her hoof in front of me to snap me out of my cloud-induced trance, she just slugged me on my head.

"Owww, dafuq Rainbow?"

"If you continue to go out of it like that, I'm going to continue doing it, now lets go."

I rubbed my head and followed her up to the room. Rainbow unlocked the door and we trotted in. This place was enormous! It had a living room, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, and...wait whats that? Oh shit! This place had a bar! I flew over to the bar and poured myself a drink. Rainbow laughed and trotted up beside me.

"I take it you like this place?"

I downed my drink before speaking. "This place is awesome!"

"Glad you like it. Let's catch some shut eye, you're gonna need it for tomorrow."

"Alright. By the way, what time is the competition?"

"It's at 2:00. Why do you ask?"

"Because, I still want to explore this place."

"When we wake up, we'll look around, go eat, then go to the competition. How does that sound?"

"That sounds great!" I said as I poured another drink

"If you drink too much, you're going to be hungover Shadow."

"Nah, I'll be fine."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay Shadow, whatever you say."

"Come have a drink with me." I said, raising my glass.

"I'm good, I don't need a hangover."

"Come onnnn, one drink ain't gonna kill ya."

"Fine, ONE drink, that's it."

"Of course." I said as I poured her a drink

I handed her the drink, and we started drinking together.

She finished her drink and sat up.

"One more?" I asked

"No more Shadow."

"Please?" I said with puppy dog eyes.

"Fine, one more." She said as I smiled and poured her another one

5 strong drinks later

"Ugh, I think thatsh enough..." Rainbow slurred

"Alright, go...go ahead and go ta sleep...I'll be there ina bit."

"Oh-hic*- okay." Rainbow said as she stumbled to the bed.

"I can probly haz a few more..."

Slam! Was the last noise made that night as I passed out, and my head slammed into the bar.

And that's the end of that drunken night. What did you guys think about the story with those elite pegasus warriors? I have plans having to do with it, but that was just foreshadowing for the sort of near future. I thought it could give you guys something else to look forward to. By the way, I'm going on vacation to the beach in a few days, so I will give you guys a few more chapters before then. I'm going to end it the chapter before the Gala, and work on that chapter in my free time at the beach. It's going to be a long one. Consider it thanks for sticking with me.

Quote of the day: "Are you sad? Lonely? Depressed? You know those are the signs of genital herpes." - My friend to me at the most random moment.