Hiding in the Shadows

"I guess the best place to start is from the beginning," Shadow said, scanning the ponies sitting around him. "My life was great. I had the most wonderful parents. My mother was a nice mare. She had a tender heart and always cared for me. She had a dark blue coat, which was contrasted by her dark red mane. My father was a strong stallion. He had a similar grey coat like mine, and his mane was a much darker color than mine. He worked in the weather factory for almost half a day to support my mother and I. It was a tough job, but he didn't care. He would always come home with a bright smile on his face, knowing that he was coming home to a loving wife and son. After work, when there was still light out, he would take me to a park nearby our house and do all kinds of neat flying tricks. He was so amazing. I couldn't believe he wasn't a Wonderbolt. My father was a better flyer than any member on the Wonderbolts. Err... In my opinion at least. He would always try to give me tips on how to fly and all that. He was an amazing flyer. He was my hero.

       "One day, he walked into the house with an even bigger smile on his face. He showed me an acceptance letter for me in the mail. I was so happy when I read that I had been accepted into some kind of flying academy thing. The name doesn't matter, but the academy apparently produced some if the best flyers in all of Equestria. Everything in my life seemed perfect, until one day, my dad didn't come home. My mom and I didn't even know what had happened, until a worker from the weather factory came to our house and told us the horrible news. There had been an accident at the weather factory. There had been a huge explosion in the section where my dad worked at. The initial explosion killed at least half a dozen ponies, and injured a dozen others, including my dad. I remember running as fast as I could towards the hospital since I was too young to fly at the time."

Shadow ran as fast as his little legs could carry him.

"Please be okay daddy!" he shouted as he galloped towards the hospital where his dad had been hospitalized. He spread his little wings and jumped into the air, trying to fly to the hospital, but he came crashing down onto the cloud terrain under him. He could feel blood trickling down the left side of his face. He got up as fast as he could a started running again. "Don't worry daddy! I'm coming!"

Shadow burst through the doors of the hospital and skidded to a stop in front of the receptionist.

"WHERE'S MY DADDY?!" shouted Shadow, tears flowing from his eyes.

"Does he have a similar coat color to you, and a darker mane?" the receptionist asked nonchalantly.

"Yes! Now where is he?!" Shadow shouted again. The receptionist just looked down at him.

"Down the hall, three doors down to the left. Try not to make too much noise," the receptionist said, looking back at the monitor in front of her. Shadow started running as fast as he could towards the room that the receptionist had told him to go to. He skidded to a stop and opened the door. He quickly trotted in to see a familiar grey pony with a very dark grey mane. The left side of his face was covered in bandages, along with all four of his hooves and side of his stomach.

"Daddy!" Shadow exclaimed, running and stopping next to his father's bed. Shadow's father slowly turned his head to look at the little pony sitting next to his bedside.

"Shadow?" he asked in a raspy voice.

"I'm here daddy! Don't worry. You'll be okay," Shadow said, moving a bit closer to his father. He had tears running down his face, which mixed with the blood on the left side of his face. "It'll all be okay daddy!"

"I wish I could say that to you Shadow," he said in his raspy voice. He didn't look like the strong pony that Shadow knew him as. Here he looked broken down and weak. His condition wasn't great.

"Shadow, are you here?" a familiar dark blue mare called into the room. She poked her head through the door to see Shadow sitting next to his father's bed. "Sweet Celestia!" cried Shadow's mom, when she noticed how bad Shadow's father looked.

"Hey honey," he managed to say, his voice raspy. "Can you come here for a second?" Shadow's mom nodded her head and walked towards the bed. "Come up close. I need to tell you something." With that, she stepped closer and leaned her head closer to his. He started whispering something into her ears that Shadow could not here. Her eyes started filling with tears as he continued whispering into her ears. She wrapped her front hooves around him and cried into his shoulder.

"I don't want to lose you," she whispered into his ears, tears flowing freely from her eyes.

"I don't want to leave you or Shadow," he whispered back into her ear. They embraced a little longer, before Shadow's mom finally let go. She looked at Shadow's father one final time, before moving forward and kissing him on the forehead.

"Good-bye," she whispered, tears still flowing from her eyes.

"Please don't tell Shadow. Not yet," he whispered back. The blue mare looked at him with shock, but nodded her head in understandment.

"Come on Shadow. We should get going," she told Shadow, who was still sitting next to his father's bedside.

"But I don't want to leave daddy! I'll miss him!" the little pony pleaded.

"Shadow," his dad said. "Remember, that no matter what happens to me, I will always be with you, no matter what happens."

"Come on Shadow," the mom said in her soft, soothing voice. "We should leave your dad to rest." Shadow reluctantly agreed, and started walking towards the door. He stopped and looked at his father.

"I love you daddy," Shadow whispered loud enough for his father to hear.

"I love you too son," he answered back. Shadow slowly walked out the door of the room and followed his mom, leaving his father alone in the hospital room.

"The next day, I got the worst news of my life. My dad, he... He had died. He passed on, as some say. He was gone forever. I wasn't there for him when I should have been. At that point I hated everything. I hated the hospital for not helping him live. I hated the weather factory for not being safer. I just, hated life in general," Shadow told the six ponies, tears visible in all of their eyes. "He died alone. No other pony was there. I should have been at his side like a good son, but I wasn't there. He was my hero. He was the one who showed me how amazing flying can be. When he was gone, I promised him that I would become the greatest flyer in Equestria, just for him. After he was gone, things started changing rapidly. Without my dad, there was no one to provide for my mom and I. So she got a job and started to work longer hours than what my dad had to work. She would wake me up in the morning and head off to work. I had to make my own food for the entire day. I would eat breakfast, and head off to the flying academy school thing. After I got home from that, I would have to make my own dinner from anything I could find in the fridge or cabinets. After that, I would go to sleep. I would be lying in bed by the time my mom got home from her work. I could hear her in her room, crying, sobbing, pretty much anything to show how sad she felt. She missed my dad. I missed my dad. But my pain wasn't just from the emptyness without my father. That flying academy thing wasn't all that I thought it would be."

Shadow slowly walked through large hallway of the flying academy's main building. There were many ponies hanging around each other and socializing together. Nopony seemed to notice Shadow walking by them. He knew what would happen if any of them would talk to him. They would just make fun of him. They would mock him because he couldn't fly. Everypony else could fly. Why not him? It wasn't fair. None of it was fair. Shadow hated the school. He hated the ponies that attended the school. He hated the teachers who worked at the school. But, there was one thing, or pony that he didn't hate. She was a beautiful cyan blue mare with a rainbow colored mane. She amazed him with her flying skills. What impressed him most was when she performed the mythical Sonic Rainboom, which blew his mind. She had performed something that people believed wasn't possible. But by the time Rainbow Dash had performed the Sonic Rainboom, all Shadow could do was hover of the ground by an inch or two.

"It's not fair!" Shadow yelled, punching the wall next to him. "Why? Why can't I fly?"

"Ya. Why can't a loser like you fly?" said a hot headed Pegasus that walked up to him. He had a brown coat, and a white mane. He always had two other pegasi following him around. One of them had a dark green coat and had a golden colored mane, while the other had a red coat with a dark blue mane.

"Not you guys again," Shadow said while staring at the three pegasi in front of him. He slowly started backing up.

"Oh yes. It's us. You going somewhere?" said the brown pony, noticing that Shadow was backing up.

"Leave me alone!" Shadow yelled. He started backing up faster. But the trio of bullies kept advancing forward. Shadow turned around and bolted away from the bullies, galloping as fast as he could and trying to get away. He looked behind him to see if they were following him, and failed to see a cyan blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane standing in the hallway. He crashed into her, tumbling down the hallway, before coming to a stop several feet away from where they first collided.

"What the hay man?" Rainbow Dash shouted. "Watch where you're going!" The bullies came to a stop near Rainbow Dash and Shadow.

"Hey look! Is Rainbow Crash gonna defend him like she defended Cluttzershy?" mocked the red pony. All three of them laughed.

"As if!" responded Rainbow Dash. "Why would I waste my time on a Pegasus who can't even fly?"

Shadow stepped back defensively. Hearing those words from the trio of bullies everyday was hard enough, but hearing it from Rainbow Dash, the Pegasus he looked up to, hurt even more. Shadow just looked at Rainbow Dash in shock. A single tear formed in his right eye and fell to the floor. He quickly sprinted towards the closest exit of the building and ran away from the school. He kept running and running until he reached the one destination he wanted. He slowed down to a stop on the edge of Cloudsdale. He walked close to the edge and looked down. It was a tremendous height above the ground. Shadow sat down and looked forward, letting his mane catch in the cool breeze. He closed his eyes. He was deep in thought, pondering the one thing he wanted to do at the moment, when he suddenly heard the flutter of wings somewhere behind. He turned his head slightly and opened his eyes. He saw a familiar cyan Pegasus hovering a far distance away from him. She must have stopped when he turned his head to look at her.

"Hello Dash," Shadow said to the pony hovering far away from him.

"Shadow, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you like that," she replied, hovering a bit closer. Shadow just stared at her for a few moments.

"Like you said, I can't fly. Those bullies always remind me of how pathetic I really am. I've always wanted to be a great flyer like you," he said, looking at Rainbow Dash. He moved a little closer to the edge of Cloudsdale. "Do you think I can fly off the edge of this city?"

"Shadow! What are you saying?" Rainbow Dash asked with concern in her voice. She flew a little bit closer.

"Good-bye Dash," Shadow said staring straight at Rainbow Dash. He leaned back and fell off of the high cloud city.

"Does any of this seem familiar Dash?" Shadow asked the cyan Pegasus sitting across from him.

"Sweet Celestia... It really is you," she said in a low tone, staring straight into Shadow's crimson eyes.

"You finally remembered me. That's good. I was afraid you had forgotten for sure."

"Shadow! We all thought you were dead! The search parties never found your body. After months of searching, they told us that you were dead. They told us to move on with our lives."

"Seems like that was easy for you."

"No it wasn't! I felt responsible for it. You looked up to me."

"Yeah. DID Emphasis on the word did. But not anymore."

Rainbow Dash looked hurt after Shadow had shared this statement. "Shadow, your mom was devastated when she was told about what happened to you."

"Well, what happened to her? I haven't seen her for years."

"She... She suffered from extreme depression. The two most important ponies in her life were gone."

"Then I'm guessing she's not alive then. She probably figured she had nothing else to live for, am I right?"

"Shadow! She died thinking she outlived you."

"Well that's a beautiful lie to believe in." Tears started to form in Shadow's eyes again. He had to face the facts. His mother was gone. Both of his parents were gone forever, and he wasn't there for them when they left this world. He wiped the tears out of his eyes and stared straight at Rainbow Dash.

"Wait. How did you survive the fall from the city if you couldn't fly?" Twilight asked curiously, looking at Shadow. Shadow just turned his head and looked at Twilight.

"I really don't know. It still doesn't make sense to me," he answered back.

Shadow knew it was only a matter of time before he hit the ground. He could see it rapidly growing closer and closer with each passing second. He knew it was only a matter of seconds before he hit the ground. He closed his eyes and waited for the impact. A few seconds passed and nothing had happened, but he seemed to have slowed down. Shadow slowly opened his eyes, and realized that he was surrounded by a light grey aura. He was floating about half a foot off the ground.

"What's going on?" Shadow shouted out in panic. He started flailing his hooves around, trying to escape the aura surrounding him.

"It is not your time to die yet," a voice hissed. It seemed to be surrounding him. The voice came from all directions.

"Who are you? Let me go!" Shadow shouted, still trying to escape the grasp of the light grey aura.

"You can't fight your fate," the voice hissed, still surrounding him. The aura around him started fading, until it was completely gone. Shadow fell to the ground under him. He looked up as the light grey aura reappeared and started forming into a small ball. The ball started hovering towards Shadow and zipped into his head.

"Ahhh!" Shadow screamed when the ball shot into his head. "What are you doing?"

"You will need my guidance. I am now a part of you," the voice hissed, which now sounded like it was inside his head.

"No! Get out of my head!" Shadow screamed, bring both of his front hooves over his head and lying on the ground.

"You are so young. So foolish. You were the perfect choice."

"What do you mean 'perfect choice'?"

"You will have answers soon, but for now, you must get out of here."

"Why?"

"They are looking for you. Search parties from Cloudsdale will be here soon."

"But I'm still alive. Wouldn't they be happy to see me?"

"Think about it Shadow. You just tried to commit suicide. Do you think they'll bring you back and let you live life normally? Do you think the bullies will be nicer to you?"

"No. I guess not. Wait... How do you know this stuff?"

"You will get answers soon enough, but for now, you need to run."

"Run? Run where?"

"Just run. You cannot let them find you."

"Okay," Shadow said as he started galloping away from where he had almost landed. He ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction of Cloudsdale. He couldn't go back. He never would go back.

"It doesn't make much sense. I still don't even get it," Shadow explained to the six mares sitting at the table. "But ever since that day, I've been on the run. I didn't talk to anypony, and I stole the food that I ate. I even took some fabric from a clothing shop and made this cloak on my back. I usually slept in cardboard boxes in dark alleyways, and I never stayed in one city or town for too long." Everyone was silent as Shadow spoke. Nopony knew what to say.

"You don't have to keep running Shadow," Rainbow Dash told him comfortingly. "They're not looking for you anymore."

"I don't know if I can," Shadow said, staring into Rainbow Dash's rose colored eyes. "I still haven't forgiven you after all these years."

"Shadow! I didn't mean any of it! I swear! I don't know what got into me."

"I don't know if I can believe you or not. I... I need some time to think." Shadow's stomach rumbled as he finished his sentence. He placed a hoof on his stomach area. "Can I have some food please?"

"Sure," Fluttershy said in her soft voice. She got up from where she was sitting and headed to counter, which had a plate already filled with food. Shadow assumed it was for him when he woke up. She carefully carried it back to the table and placed it down. She pushed it in front of Shadow, who was eyeing the food hungrily. "Go ahead and eat," Fluttershy told him. Shadow did just that. He quickly gobbled down the meal, much to Rarity's disgust.

"Sorry about that," Shadow said apologizing after he had swallowed his food. "I haven't eaten for a while."

"It's quite alright darling," Rarity answered. She still had a look of disgust on her face. All six ponies looked at Shadow.

"So, that's how your past was?" Twilight asked.

"Yes. I don't like thinking about it," Shadow answered back. "It's too painful."

"Gee sugercube, Ah didn't realize your past was that horrible until ya told us about it," Applejack said sympathetically.

"It's just a reminder of how cruel life really can be," Shadow said, tears forming in his eyes. He quickly wiped them away.

"Maybe you can start over here in Ponyville," Twilight suggested. "You don't have to run anymore, and you already have six new friends."

"Five," corrected Shadow. "I still haven't forgiven Dash."

"Come on, Shadow. You know I didn't mean any of it," said Rainbow Dash, looking at Shadow.

"Like I said, I need time to think about this," Shadow told her. He slowly got up and started walking towards the doorway. "Thanks for listening to my story, and thanks for the food. I need to rest." He walked back into the room with the the couch-bed thing. He took his cloak off and hung it up on the coat hanger. He walked over to the couch-bed and looked at the blankets. He closed his eyes and started concentrating. He opened his eyes up, which were glowing a strange grey color. The blanket slowly lifted off the bed and hovered about a foot into the air. He got onto the bed and layed down. He stopped concentrating as hard and let the blanket slowly descend on top of him. "I can get used to using that," he thought to himself, laying his head down and falling asleep almost instantly.

"You think he'll be okay? I mean, we are the first ponies to hear about his past," Twilight asked the other mares sitting at the table.

"I can watch over him, to make sure he is okay. I mean... If it's okay with you guys," Fluttershy suggested quietly.

"That ain't a bad idea," Applejack said, adjusting the hat on top of her head.

"Ya. I just hope he forgives me," said Rainbow Dash sadly. She looked down at the table in front of her.

"Give him time. He'll come around," Pinkie told Rainbow Dash comfortingly.

"I hope so," Rainbow Dash added. All six of the ponies were silent for a while.

"I was just curious. What did you guys think of that aura that saved Shadow from dying?" Rarity asked the group, breaking the long silence.

"I don't know," Twilight answered back. "It was quite strange. The only explanation I have is a unicorn, but it seems highly unlikely." Nobody else knew what to say at that point. They all just sat in silence.

"Do ya think the library has a book that might explain it?" Applejack asked Twilight.

"I don't know. I can go check right now," she answered back, getting up from her seated position. All the other ponies got up too.

"I need to get back to my boutique anyway," Rarity said. "I wasn't expecting to be out this long."

"Ya, and Ah need to get back to the farm," Applejack said. "Ah told Big Mac Ah would come back to help buck some trees after Ah had eaten breakfast with you guys." All the other ponies came up with their reasons to leave, and started heading towards the door. They all looked at Shadow sleeping on the couch-bed thing as they passed by. All six of them walked out the door. They all said their good-byes and left in different directions. Fluttershy waved to her friends and turned around, heading back into her cottage. She walked through the doorway of her cottage. She looked over at Shadow, who was sleeping on the couch-bed. He started to stir in his sleep.

"Mom," he whispered, turning from side to side in his sleep. A single tear formed in his right eye, which wasn't covered by his mane. Fluttershy walked closer, seeing Shadow tossing and turning in his sleep. She stepped a little closer, until she was standing near the side of the couch-bed. She reached her hoof forward and brushed the mane out of the left side of his face. She leaned her head forward and kissed Shadow on the forehead. She pulled her head back.

"It'll all be okay. Everything will all be okay," she whispered in a soothing voice. She reached forward and brushed Shadow's mane with her hoof. Shadow's tossing and turning slowed down a bit, until he finally stopped and was laying still again. The blanket he was wrapped in was rising and falling in a rhythmic motion. Fluttershy was about to turn around and walk out of the cottage and tend to some animals, but instead she looked at Shadow again. She swore she could see a small smile visible on the grey pony's face. She smiled and left the room to let him sleep peacefully.