Hiding in the Shadows

Shadow slowly opened his eyes as he awoke from his slumber. He sat up and looked around the room he was lying in.

"Where am I again?" Shadow thought to himself. Then he realized where he was. "Oh right... I'm in Fluttershy's place." He looked out a window on the opposite side of the room. It was dark outside. He had either been sleeping until the late afternoon, or the early morning. He really couldn't tell what time of the day it was. Shadow layed his head back down on the pillow. He was trying to remember the dream he had just experienced.

Shadow was sitting in the middle of a field. The field was beautiful. It had all kinds of trees scattered across it. It also had a small stream running through the middle of it. Shadow looked at the field in awe, when he suddenly saw his mom sitting next to the stream. She looked young and happy, almost like how she looked when he was young. She turned her head and looked straight at Shadow. Suddenly, she slowly started to age. White hairs appeared in her mane, and her face started to wrinkle. Her beautiful smile slowly turned into a frown. Her body grew skinnier, almost to the point where half of her ribs were visible.

"Why did you leave?" she asked, still staring at Shadow. Her figure slowly started fading away.

"Mom!" Shadow shouted, trying to run towards her. Every step he took towards her made her move farther away. She kept fading, until she completely disappeared from Shadow's sight. "Mom," he whispered, tears flowing from his eyes. He felt alone. His mother was gone. The tears kept flowing from his eyes as he thought of how terrible his mother had looked. He had abandoned her. He felt like it was his fault she was dead. He never felt more horrible in his life. All he could do was sit in the field, alone, with nopony there around him. He closed his eyes, trying the fight back the tears that were flowing freely from his eyes. But nothing could stop the tears from flowing. Nothing could get rid if the guilt he was feeling. But, he suddenly felt somepony kiss him on the forehead.

"It'll all be okay. Everything will all be okay," a soft voice whispered. He recognized the soft voice. It was from the shy, yellow Pegasus he had met earlier that day. Shadow opened his eyes and turned his head towards the voice. He saw Fluttershy sitting next to him. He could feel her hoof brushing his mane slowly. Shadow no longer felt alone. Somepony was there who cared for him. He no longer felt sad. Fluttershy was so kind, so loving. She reminded him of his mother. He reached his hooves around her and embraced her in a hug.

"Thank you," he whispered, hugging the yellow Pegasus tightly. He could feel her hooves wrap around his back. He slowly let her go. She looked straight at him and smiled, then she turned around and slowly walked away from him. Shadow turned his head and looked over the landscape in front of him. He spread his wings and slowly flew into the air.

Shadow slowly pushed the blanket off of himself and rolled over to the side of the couch-bed. He placed his front left hoof down, followed by his right front hoof. After that he placed both of his back hooves onto the floor below him. He stood up straight and looked around.

"Where's Fluttershy?" Shadow thought to himself. The house was very quiet. He walked over to a coat hanger and grabbed his cloak off of it. He slipped it on and started walking around the house. He found a flight of stairs near the couch-bed he had been sleeping on. He stopped at the base of the stairs and looked up it. He slowly started ascending the stairs. Once he reached the top, he could see the doorway of a room at the top. He presumed that it was the doorway leading into Fluttershy's room. He walked up to the open doorway. He could hear a light breathing sound coming inside. He took a step through the doorway and looked into the room. He could see Fluttershy sleeping peacefully, her blanket rising and falling in a rhythmic motion. "It must be really early in the morning," Shadow thought to himself. Fluttershy stirred a little bit in her sleep.

"Please. Please don't leave us, Shadow," she whispered in her sleep. Shadow just stared at Fluttershy, thinking about what she had just mumbled in her sleep. He turned around and descended down the stairs quietly so he wouldn't disturb her peaceful slumber. Sneaking around was easy for Shadow. He had a lot of time to practice it while he was on the run in other cities. Once he passed the couch-bed at the bottom of the stairs, he stopped walking quietly. He  walked over to the front door of the cozy cottage. He opened the door slightly and slipped through the tiny opening. He made sure the door closed behind him.

     The air outside was cold and damp, but it didn't affect Shadow much since he had his cloak on. He walked at a very slow pace. Shadow wasn't paying much attention to where he was walking towards. He was too lost in his thoughts. He didn't realize it, but he was walking towards the dangerous Everfree Forest. Shadow was unaware of how dangerous the forest was. He just kept walking forward, not realizing that the vegetation around him was quickly growing denser and denser with each step. Shadow was too distracted to notice anything around him. He was lost in his thoughts.

"Why would Fluttershy say that? What was she dreaming about?" he thought to himself. He kept replaying the memory of her talking in her sleep over and over. She was telling him not to leave. It almost sounded like she was pleading, or begging. Did she really care about him that much? Did all of them care for him at all? He felt like he was growing fond of these ponies. He knew these ponies were different from others he had met in the past.

"You are growing fond of those six ponies," a familiar voice hissed in Shadow's head.

"They care for me. Why would I not be fond of them?" Shadow asked the voice.

"The darkness doesn't agree with your feelings," the voice warned.

"What are you talking about?"

"I already told you that those six ponies purged the darkness from the original wielder."

"So what?"

"The darkness grows restless around those ponies. The more you are exposed to them, the more the darkness messes with your head."

"What do you mean 'mess with my head'? What will it do?"

There was a long pause before the voice spoke again. "It will tell you to do dark things."

"Dark? Dark how?"

"There are many things that can be considered dark."

"Well, tell me how dark things can get."

"You said it yourself, remember? The darkness will be the end of somepony."

"You mean... I could kill somepony?"

"The darkness will tell you to do such things."

Shadow stopped walking forward and sat under a nearby tree. There was a long pause before he spoke again. "How can I prevent myself from hurting somepony?"

"Control the darkness. Don't let it take control of you. Control it, or be controlled."

"Control it. Okay then."

"Don't let it take advantage of you. It will tell you things, make you doubt yourself and the ponies around you."

"I don't like the way the darkness works."

"There's no changing what has happened."

"So, I need to control it? I'll do my best to keep it under control. I guess I could practice right now," Shadow said, letting out a soft sigh. He looked to his left. Celestia's sun was slowly rising in the horizon. The small amount of light was making it much easier to see than before. Shadow spotted a few rocks about the size of his head on the ground about 10 feet away from him. He got up from where he was sitting and walked over to the three rocks.

"Control the darkness," the voice echoed in his head. Shadow closed his eyes and started to concentrate. He opened his eyes back up, which were now glowing a light grey color. One of the rocks in front of him was surrounded by a light grey aura, similiar to the color his eyes were glowing. The rock slowly started to levitate in front of him. It only lifted a few inches off the ground. He started to concentrate harder, and the rock slowly started lifting higher off the ground. By now, the rock was about a foot off the ground.

"Come on," Shadow thought to himself. "Just a little higher." He started to concentrate harder than ever before. The rock slowly lifted a little higher. He started concentrating harder than he already was. The aura around the rock darkened. The rock slowly lifted higher and higher, until it was a little below eye level. The rock started to shake in mid-air. Shadow was still concentrating on bringing it higher. The frequency with which the rock shook started becoming quicker and quicker, until there was a huge explosion.

"Ahhh!" Shadow screamed, getting thrown back from the shockwave. He fell to the ground. Deadly pieces from the rock flew in all directions, the speed of the shrapnel was quick enough to get lodged into the nearby trees by a few inches. A few pieces had shot straight at Shadow and had skinned him on his left cheek, just a little bit under his eye. He slowly got up and put a hoof to his wound. He could feel the blood slowly running down his cheek. He placed his hoof back down on the ground. "You wanna play like that?" he shouted. "I will control you, whether you want me to or not!"

"I would like to see you try," growled a deep voice in his head.

"So you're the darkness huh? Looks like you finally came out to play," Shadow taunted.

"You are so foolish. So corruptible. You will never prevail," the deep voice growled, taunting him back.

"I don't care what you say! I won't let you take control of me!" Shadow shouted at the darkness in him.

"I've controlled the younger alicorn sister that rules the night sky," the deep voice bragged. "You are nothing!"

"I will control you. I won't let you hurt anypony!" Shadow shouted. With that, he faced a second rock, which was thrown a few feet away from him by the explosion. Shadow closed his eyes and started to concentrate. He opened his eyes back up, which were glowing a light grey color.

Fluttershy opened her eyes as the warm sun shined through the window. She let out a soft yawn as she stretched herself out. She pushed her blankets off and stepped down onto the cold floor. She fixed the blankets on her bed before doing anything else. Once she finished fixing her bed, she walked out the doorway of her room and descended the stairs. She was going to walk into the kitchen, but she noticed Shadow's bed was empty. The blanket was rolled off to the side, and his cloak was missing from the coat hanger.

"Shadow?" Fluttershy called out. "Shadow?" She walked into the kitchen, hoping he was in there eating some of her food. She looked around, but didn't see any sign of him. Everything was the way she had left it the previous night. She grabbed some food from inside a cabinet and quickly gobbled it down in less than a minute. She then turned around and galloped towards the door. "Shadow!" she called out once again as she had made it outside. She looked around for any sign of him. She noticed hoof prints that led from the door of her cottage to the dreaded Everfree Forest. Just thinking of the forest sent shivers down her spine. "Oh no..." she thought to herself. She started galloping towards Ponyville as fast as she could.

Rainbow Dash was napping peacefully on a cloud above Ponyville. She wasn't expecting to wake up anytime soon. Well, she wasn't, until she heard the frantic flutter of wings growing louder and louder. She slowly opened her eyes and turned her head to look at whoever was disturbing her nap. She could faintly make out a yellow Pegasus frantically beating her wings, trying to get to her in a hurry.

"What do you want Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash asked in an annoyed voice. Fluttershy almost crash landed on top of Rainbow Dash, but luckily landed about a foot away from her.

"It-it's Sh-Shadow," she stuttered, trying to recover from her crash.

Rainbow Dash noticed how much Fluttershy was shaking. Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy with a confused expression. "What happened? What he do?" she asked the shaking pony.

"He went into the Everfree Forest!" Fluttershy yelled at the rainbow maned pony.

Rainbow Dash's eyes grew larger when she realized what her Pegasus friend had just told her. "He did what?!" she yelled back at the Fluttershy with concern in her voice. "How long ago did he go in?"

"I don't know," Fluttershy replied, trying to calm down. She was trying to slow her breathing rate down. "I woke up and I couldn't find him. I went outside, and I found hoof prints leading from my house to the Everfree Forest."

"So you have no idea when he left your cottage?"

"No."

"Oh no. This is bad... Who knows how long he could have been in there so far?"

"What do you think we should do?"

"We should get probably get the rest of the group. We need all the help we can get. You get Twilight and Pinkie. I'll get Applejack and Rarity. We'll meet inside Sugercube Corner to discuss what the hay is going on," Rainbow Dash told Fluttershy. With that, she spread her wings and flew in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres.

"Why would he go into the Everfree Forest?" Twilight asked with panic in her voice. She looked at the other five ponies, hoping for some kind of answer.

"I don't know," answered Fluttershy, who started to shake again.

"Do ya think he went in outta curiosity?" suggested Applejack.

"Going into the forest isn't a good idea," Pinkie Pie said, pacing back and forth. "It's not a safe place."

"Guys!" Rainbow Dash shouted, gaining the attention of the other ponies. "We can sit here discussing why he went in, or we could actually go into the forest and look for him!"

"You are probably right," Rarity told Rainbow Dash. "Who knows what awful things could have happened to him."

"But he said it himself, he's been on the run for years. He should know how to survive, right?" Twilight suggested. She knew how dangerous the Everfree Forest was. She had experienced and unpleasant experience with a cockatrice one time. The memories of being turned to stone sent chills down her spine.

"So what if he can survive himself? We need to get him out of there," Rainbow Dash told the rest of the group. The rest of the ponies nodded their heads in agreement. All six of them galloped out the door of the bakery. Rainbow Dash spread her wings and flew into the air. All six of the ponies headed in the direction of the Everfree Forest.

All six of the ponies stopped in front of the opening of the Everfree Forest. They all looked at the dangerous forest, which all ponies feared.

"Shadow!" Rainbow Dash called out. "Shadow, are you there!" She started to hover towards the infamous forest. All five of the other ponies followed her with caution.

"Shadow!" Twilight called out next. Soon, all six of the ponies were shouting Shadow's name. As they walked forward, the vegetation around them started growing denser and denser. Soon, much of the path wasn't exposed in the sunlight. Little light could make it through the thick vegetation. The six ponies still kept calling Shadow's name it, hoping that he would hear their calls. The group eventually made it to a familiar opening. Twilight remembered it well. It was the exact same spot where she had been turned to stone by the cockatrice. It was also the place where the six of them had a less than satisfying experience with a manticore. This time though, none of them expected to see what they were seeing in front of them.

     Shadow was standing in the middle of the opening. His eyes were glowing a light grey color, and there was a rock floating about 10 feet in front of him. The rock was surrounded by a light grey aura, which shared a similar color to the color his eyes were glowing. The was also a bunch of rock fragments embedded in the ground surrounding him. The left side of Shadow's face, even though covered by his mane, was covered in blood. There were also some tears in his cloak. All six ponies looked at Shadow with different emotions expressed by their different expressions. But one thing was certain. They were all dumbfounded at what they were seeing. Twilight was the first to speak up.

"Shadow! What's going on?" she shouted.

Shadow turned his head towards the six ponies staring at him. His eyes still glowed the same light grey color, and the rock still levitated in front of him. "Stay back!" Shadow shouted towards the ponies. "It's too unpredictable!" Shadow was starting to lose his concentration, and the rock floating in front of him started to slowly shake at a low frequency. The six ponies just stood in the same spot, as if they had been glued to the ground. The rock started to shake even faster know. "Run! Take cover!" Shadow shouted at the ponies, who were still staring at him.

     They all finally got the message and started to back away. They took cover behind nearby trees, and watched Shadow from a distance. Shadow knew what would happen if the darkness got out of control. He knew it could hurt the ponies around him. He started to concentrate harder. He tried to keep the darkness from going out of control, but it was too late. The rock started shaking even faster the before. Shadow didn't realize that his efforts were futile, until it was too late. The rock exploded in front of him, the shockwave sent him back a few feet. He screamed in pain as he felt a few fragments from the rock skin the left side of his face and body. All six of the ponies turned their heads away when the rock first exploded. Rock fragments zipped past them, narrowly missing them by a a few feet. They turned their heads back and watched in horror as Shadow was sent flying backwards from the shockwave. He hit the ground hard, leaving an imprint in the dirt below him. Shadow slowly tried getting up. He stood on all fours for a few seconds, before collapsing to the ground. He watched the group of six ponies emerge from the thick vegetation and start to gallop towards him. He lifted his right hoof up and stretched it out towards them. He lost sight of the ponies in front of him as his vision slowly started to darken. His eyes closed as he heard hooves hitting the ground next to his head. A deep voice laughed inside of his head.

"Looks like you lose," the deep voice taunted. Shadow knew he had failed. He couldn't accept this fact, but he knew it was true. He slipped completely unconscious as the six ponies formed a circle around him.