A Walking Shadow

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Tailor grew up in Trotingham but moved here to Manehattan to start his career. He worked for various companies before he was able to make enough bits to set up Stitch Twitch. After kicking Sting's ass for a second time today, he became more open with me. We shared as few laughs as he worked on the measurements.

"All right, that should do it. Drop by tomorrow morning and I'll have it ready for you." He says putting away the measuring tape. "And thanks for the help."

I make my way through the streets, ponies crossing the street when they saw me. It bothered me a little that they looked at me like that, but hey, if you saw something like me casually walking down the side walk you'd want to stay away from it too. I realise that it's about mid evening and I haven't had anything to eat since I came here. I'm hungry.

I find a restaurant and go inside for something to eat and plan out what I'm going to do next. the place was an assortment of chatter and pleasantries, you know, the second before I walked inside. Now it was eerily quiet. "Hello, how can we help you?" A turquoise mare that looked like that girl from Cooking Mama asks me. She gave a forceful smile to make it seem like nothing was the matter, but looked rather fearful of me.

"A table for one, is there anything next to a window?"

"Y-yes, right this way please." I follow her through the restaurant, everyone looks at me and instantly away as to not make eye contact. "Here you are. Can I get you anything to drink?" I sit down in a chair facing the window.

"Just some water." And just like that she was gone. Other ponies begin to leave in a hurry, especially those with children. I lean back in the charge and think things through in my head. 'Maybe my next move should be doing something to show that I don't mean harm. But what?'

"Oh uh, hey there." I turn around to see two familiar mares. Cloudchaser and Flitter.

"Hey. Didn't expect to see you two again." I say to them pleasantly.

"We're glad we bumped into you again. We never thanked you for helping us back in the alley." Flitter says.

"Yeah, if it wasn't for you who knows what would have happened to us. So thanks dude." Cloudchaser finishes.

"Well by the way he was talking to you and that way he looked at the two of you, I could think of a few things." They shudder at the same thought.

"Yeah, that." Cloud says coming out of her shudder. :Anyway, we feel like we owe you one."

"That's unnecessary, I didn't do it for a return favour, I just wanted to help out."

"Well at least let us pay for your bill." Flitter suggests.

"Are you going to leave if I say no?" They shake their heads. "Then you might as well pull up a seat and order something yourself." They do just that, Cloud on my left and Flitter to my right. "So, can I get a name from my rescuees?"

"I'm Cloudchaser."

"And I'm Flitter." I'll let you decide who said which.

"Cool names, by the way. Are you two sisters?" This has been bugging me. Are they sisters because their coat color are identical, Cloud's is a bit darker though. But their irises are the same. It's always been bugging me if their sisters or best friends for the fans to ship. I actually don't get shipping, it's like some weird fetish or something.

"Yeah, we're sisters. Why do you ask?" Cloud answers.

"No reason." I say quickly. Well, I guess this means incest shipping. Facepalms all around. "So anyways, how'd you two meet an ass like Sting?"

"We went to a club the other night, you know, just wanted to have a good time." Cloud starts.

"Then he showed up, offered us some drinks, we accepted, and actually had a fun time meeting him." Flitter adds. "We danced, laughed, talked, had a few more drinks and he started smooth talking us. After a while he suggested we go to his place."

"We may like to have fun, but we are not those kind of mares." Cloud continues on. "He took it as an offence and started saying we owe him for those drinks. We owe him? He was the one who offered them to us. After that he began saying some pretty harsh things."

"The next day he and those other three found us. He said that he wanted repayment. It was either our money... or us." Flitter finishes the story uneasy.

"And that's where I came in." A proud smirk creeps across my face.

The waitress comes back with my water. "Here you are, sorry it took so long." She sounded like he was apologizing for her tardiness out of fear rather than actually being tardy.

"No problem. We'd like to order. What would recommend that's not not one hundred percent leaves, hay, or flowers?" I ask the waitress.

"Uhh, the lasagna?"

"Perfect! Ladies?' I turn to the other two.

"Petunia salad." Flitter says.

"I'll have the same." The waitress take sour orders and hastily rushes off to the kitchen. I take a sip of the water and my eyes shoot wide. This was by far the greatest water I've ever tasted! So clean and pure!

"So where are you from? And who is it that we have to thank exactly?" Flitter asks putting on a pleasing smile. Crap, what do I say? The truth? no that's stupid... or maybe not.

"You can call me Shadow. I live far north of Equestria, past the Crystal Empire. My race has stayed hidden from everyone else, we rely on no one but ourselves. As far as I can tell I'm the first to leave. We're actually a very advanced race despite being disconnected from the rest of the world." That's the truth with a few details missing, and stretched. I mean sure, it seems a little far-fetched, but it makes sense doesn't it?

"So what exactly are you? You look like a dragon, but you've got feathers all over your body, and not to mention your wings. I've never seen a dragon with feathers before." Cloudchaser examines my naked body curiously, trying to figure me out. Okay, what do I say this time? More stretched out truth?

"I'm some sort of dragon-phoenix hybrid, a dragonix if you will." Shadow the dragonix, kind has a nice ring to it. "Don't ask me how my parents were able to do it, but they did, and don't ask me who was the father and who was the mother, I didn't even know them."

"You have no idea who your parents are? That must have been harsh for you growing up." Flitter says sympathetically.

"Yeah, it must have been." Cloud doesn't sound like she's buying it. Damn, she must know something's up. Our food arrives. Oh good, maybe I change the subject. I grab a fork and dig into the lasagna. Not half bad. Made from reel cheese, not that pre-made crap you find in the frozen section of a store.

"So what do you eat? I mean you are a half dragon and half phoenix, so you must have some odd eating habits." Cloud says munching on her salad.

"Not really," I say with a mouthful of lasagna. "I'm an omnivore. I eat fruit, vegetables, dairy, and uh..." I stop before saying the last thing and swallow the lasagna. Meat. Think about it, I'm sitting with two ponies having a pleasant conversation with a dragon-like creature, and I'm think something like ponies is a dragon's natural diet. How would you like it if you're having a casual meal with someone and they instantly say 'Yeah so, I eat human flesh, better than chicken.' You'd get pretty freaked out too.

Flitter puts down here fork. Hey wait, how did she even hold it with those hooves? Meh, probably another thing that follows the laws of physics of cartoons. "It's fine, we understand. Different bodies need different substances to keep them healthy." She doesn't look at me, but she sounded like it was okay. Uncomfortable, but okay.

"Thanks." For the first time in my life, I'm actually sorry I eat meat.

"So what about gems? You eat them?" Cloud asks me again.

"Gems? I'm not sure. Maybe." I scratch the side of my head wondering if I do. I'm half dragon so, yes right?

They smile at me, a reassuring smile like everything is okay. Like they trust me, that I mean good. I guess this is proof that I can be accepted by ponies. I just need to figure out how to do that.

Meanwhile Flitter and Cloud are still holding those forks with their hooves'. "How- How are you holding those forks?" They look at their forks, at each other, and then me.

"We're... Not sure."

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"So then he says, 'To the train station!'" I spit my water back into the glass and laugh uncontrollably. Oh god, that was one of the funniest jokes ever I've heard in my life.

"Excuse me, but I'm afraid we're closing right now." The waitress come up behind us.

"Really? Hehehe. Okay, we'll be gone in a minute." I wipe a tear from my eye and catch my breath. It's gotten dark out, how long have we been here? I feel bad for having these two pay for me. It's rather late out, we stayed at the restaurant longer than I expected.

"So Shadow, what's happening tomorrow?" Cloudchaser asks me as we step outside.

"I was going to pick up some supplies and start my journey, then head to Cloudsdale. There's something in that town that I wanna try." A smirk grows on my face and rub my hands together thinking about it.

"Clousdale? Hey we live near that place." Flitter says. "we live in the town beside it, Ponyville. We were planning heading home tomorrow."

"Why don't you come with us?" Cloud suggests. "We can probably help you with whatever it is you need to do there."

"That may not be such a good idea. The thing I have in mind involves... ignoring some rules." They look at me questioningly. They're probably thinking I'm going to do something really bad. "Don't worry, no one's going to get hurt or anything. At least I hope not. I just want to break into the Weather Factory." That just made things seem worse. "Okay let me rephrase that. I'm not going to rob the place, sabotage anything, or destroy anything. All I want to do is sneak in and taste a rainbow."

They look at me confused. "Why would you want to taste a rainbow?" Cloud asks.

"Or break in to do it?" Flitter adds.

"Well, being part dragon, fire and heat doesn't effect me, And I've heard that rainbows are very spicy. So I want to to put that to the test." I explain my interests to them. It's true, I really do want to know what a rainbow tastes like. In the episode when Dash performed her second sonic rain-boom, Pinkie Pie tasted a rainbow, her face turned like seven different colours, she spat fire, and said it was spicy with a hint of horror in her voice. And let's not forget that this is the mare that dumped half a bottle of hot sauce and coated a cupcake with it, only yo say it was good. Not even asking for water or anything.

"Then why break in?" Flitter asks again.

"Because I don't think they'de let just anyone in for a tour of the factor. Plus, I'm not exactly normal. They will have their suspicion. Besides, it's more fun when there's a chance of getting in trouble." I snicker.

"Well if that's the truth, we may know of a way to help you out. We know three guy who work there." Cloud offers.

"Oh no! I am not running the risk of getting you two in trouble." I protest. "You owe me nothing! It's nice that you'de like to help, but you can't do this."

"Well, what if we just 'happen' to ask for a private tour of the factory during the same night you just 'happen' to break in? Besides, it's more fun when there's a chance of getting in trouble." Flitter says using my own words against me.

"If this is about paying me back, then forget it. You really don't owe me anything."

"Good, because this isn't about paying you back. This is about helping out a friend." Cloud lifts her nose a little and smirks. She's not taking 'no' for an answer.

Karma, they say if you do something bad, something bad will happen to you. And if you do something good, something good will happen to you. So where does it say that you're not allowed to refuse the return favour?

"So where are you staying?" Flitter asks changing the subject.

"No place particular. Besides, I doubt a bed built for a pony could fit me."

"Hey, you can crash at the motel room we're staying at. You'd have to sleep on the couch though." Cloud offers me.

"Nah, it's fine. Besides, I see a cloud with my name on it. Those things are unbelievably comfortable." I spot a lone cloud hanging over the city, not moving or anything. Of course it's not moving by itself, pegasi do that.

"Yeah sure?" Flitter pushes.

"Yeah, it's fine." We say our goodbyes and promised to meet again at that spot in the morning. Well, day one in Equestria: beat up a thug, got on some peoples good side, and I'm getting some knew threads tomorrow. Cool!

'... Did she call me a friend?'