Once A Shadow - From the other side

Today I had a certain spring in my step, though I couldn't remember why. Oh, that's right! I'm heading off to Cloudsdale with the others for the Young Flyer's Competition. But then I remembered that I also had to talk to Shadow's dad. Oh, joy. I packed my things, remembered to pick up my HQ room key and headed off. As I reached the meeting point, I could definitely see that everyone was getting excited for the competition tomorrow. I sat down and waited a few minutes, and sure enough, Shadow's dad arrived. "Over here!" I shouted.

"Well, you wanted to talk to me about something?" He asked.

"Yes. While it is apparent that what you did yesterday was a huge mistake in terms of ruining your son's life, I believe that you might be able to get him to trust you. It won't be easy, and it will take a while, but in the end you should have your son loving or at the very least tolerating you. I think you should start off with maybe a few things to start earning his trust. "

"Any ideas?" He said enthusiastically.

"I've got one right now, you could enter with him as a pair in the Young Flyer's Competition, see if that helps. If not, then there's not much you can do. He'll hate you and that's that, but it never hurts to try.

After we chatted for an hour or two, I finally realized it was time for me to go. "Listen, I have to go. I'll see you around, but if your son asks about my idea, we never had this conversation. It was nice talking to you."

"Likewise Daniel, likewise." He said.

I gave him a sharp look.

"Sorry, Hornet. Goodbye."

I flew away, wondering what he did to make Shadow hate him so much. Before I headed off to Cloudsdale, I decided to visit the Thunder Silver, to see if Shadow had already left. "Hey Silver! how ya doing?"

Silver looked surprised to see me. "Hey Shadow,I'm doing fine. What do you need? I thought you'd be heading over to Cloudsdale for the Young Flyer's Competition."

"I just wanted to have a little talk with Thunder"

"He should be in his office, just go on in."

I knocked on Thunder's office door. He mustn't have been expecting anybody because I could hear some clammering inside. "Come on in." He said and as I entered the room I got greeted with a wrench to the face.

"Ow! What the fuck?! Is that how you greet everyone who comes into your office?"

Thunder gasped and clambered to help me up. "Sorry about that, Thought you were Shadow. What can I do for you?"

"I was wondering how things were going, especially with Shadow."

"Oh, you heard then, didn't you? Well, he's doing fine right now. I've started him up on some fighting training and he seems to be handling it well, but he does get cocky at times, but I usually just beat it out of him."

I chuckled. "Say, feel like going a round?"

"If you can survive, sure."

After a few sparring sessions, I finally headed off. As I headed into Cloudsdale, I could see that the place was rather busy, with a decent amount of non pegasi here as well. Looks like this year is going to be a much bigger turn out than last year. The booking centers for seats at the Cloudiseum had queues that stretched for meters at the very least, and the main square was brimming with activity and gossip. However, the area around the Wonderbolts HQ was less populated than I had expected. I walked into the HQ to find everyone preparing for the competition. "Hey everybody! You lot miss me?"

Soarin turned around to see me."Hey Hornet, where've you been?"

Around, just sorting things out. What 'bout you guys? What've you been up to?"

Blaze spoke up. "WE have been picking up YOUR slack, that's what."

"Yeah, sorry I wasn't here earlier, but I had some things to attend to. So how's it looking for tomorrow?"

Soarin cut back in. "If all goes well, we should have some new candidates by the afternoon, and then we can hit the booze for a little relaxation."

"Alright, well I'm just going to unpack, then I'll be back to help."

Sorry for the short chapter, but my creativity is kinda dull at times, and I couldn't think of much to write.