Determination of the Strong

Chapter 3: A Shadow in Time

Shadow stretched, yawned and woke up the next morning to notice that some territory next to him

was surrounded by small, thin holes that went only about a foot deep. He then examined the

distance between one hole and the other.

This confirmed it.

"So, someone's been camping next to me, huh?"Shadow thought internally,

"Well, I can't assume it's one of those Mane Fakes. It could be that

someone else was camping over here. But next to me? I don't think it's a coincidence that

it was one of them.

I did warn Rainbow that I wasn't planning to fight her. But who else could it be? Twilight?

No, unless she wanted to think about how unfairly she treated me and wanted to apologize.

Fluttershy and Rarity wouldn't even think about setting tread where I would. Pinkie Pie could camp

just about anywhere, so that could be a wild guess."


While he was thinking these things, Shadow

surveyed the woods for any other slick clue of who could possibly be camping next to him.

After a while of finding no real clues, with the exception of some straw and orange tent covering that

collected up from some branches in such a way; that it lead Shadow to guess that the pony he was

thinking of was wearing a big straw hat, ducked under the branch, roughly tried to pull it out by

going backwards and having it successfully pulled out (minus the few strands of straw), and walked

on their merry way before having to pull in out again.

Now Shadow had a better idea of who it could be.

The orange tent, the straw hat, the way she was acting so strange in front of him yesterday. He

decided to shrug it off.

"Oh well. Even if Applejack was my mystery camping mate, what would it matter to me? My main

priority now is to think about whether or not I should have a sidekick for my adventure."


After Shadow finished thinking that, he thought he heard something like hooves clamping down

towards him. He turned his head towards the sound. He heard the pounding of feet on the ground,

as if an army was coming after him. He waited patiently for the animals to reveal themselves.

Sure enough, he saw hundreds, maybe thousands of them. The creatures' fur, evidently grey, shone a

lot like the sun in an old black-and-white tv show. The eyes of the creatures had yellow irises and

their pupils were as black as the previous night's sky. Their mouths seemed to be almost completely

immersed in their own saliva, and the scents on their breaths told Shadow that they had just gotten

back from finishing a previous meal before obviously taking a drink from a nearby stream (because

there was no blood on their mouths). Their teeth and claws were like tips of razor-sharp spears,

and...

Shadow: Ugh, everyone knows what a timber-wolf is, you fool! Now let's fast-forward to the action.


I'm just gonna pretend that breach in my walls didn't happen.

The wolves encircled Shadow in a stalking fashion, then quickly pounced on him. They all bit, fought,

scratched, killed, anything to be the first wolf to have red-and-black hedgehog meat for their dinner.

The numbers of the pack in the frenzy were whittled down from about 10,000 to 1,000 until about 100

timberwolves were still digging their claws into the fray for imaginary meat. Shadow, who teleported

out of the ring of wolves right at the split-second when they were all an inch away from supposedly

'tearing' into him, stood there grinning, without even the smallest of a scratch.

"Hmmm..." he said, crossing his arms and thinking out loud to himself. "I wonder if I should let these guys kill

themselves so I can ponder 'recruiting' or if I should..."

Shadow stopped his thought process immediately. "Eh, I've got time." he

said, smiling, and threw a small rock at just one of the wolves, which was enough to get the rest of the pack's attention.

The wolves

turned around at him and snarled; obviously bitter and angry that they didn't get their true meal and

wasted their time killing off members of their pack. "Awe, aren't these the cutest little puppies."

he said, in a cold, dark, sarcastic, edgy and taunting manner that prompted them to spring forth.

Spin-dashing right through hides, jumping

off of trees to either leap over pouncing wolves or propel him to give a powerful punch or kick right

in its vital organs. Whichever tactic he used, in no time at all, he managed to kill off all 100

timberwolves (although technically he killed all 1,000. It was just that he used tactics and strategy

rather than brute force to do it.)


About a couple hours later...

After Shadow chopped down a tree with an axe he made out of some rings he had (which he forged

from fire he maintained and in a pot which he "borrowed" from Twilight's spell room, along with the

natural elements to make aluminum and steel, then returned them

all cleaned up afterwards with a "surprise" next to it.), split the wood he chopped into beams and

other needed pieces, used a razor-sharp rock and his axe's head to get several long sticks covered

in sap to stick

them together to make racks, and forging hinges from more rings; he was able to make an

extra-large rudimentary dehydrator. He just needed to stop by Equestria for one last thing.

A few seconds later...

After using some spare aluminum he had (Shadow always made it a habit, in survival situations, to

make way more than what he needed in case he ever needed it again) to make a makeshift campfire

grill and made a fire by rubbing two sticks together, he made some lip-smacking teriyaki glazed

meat out of 1/3 of the timberwolves he killed. The other 2/3 he put in the extra-large solar-

powered dehydrator.

He was just about to enjoy his dinner, when he heard something running towards him again.

The volume of the steps were too small to be a single timber-wolf (much less a whole pack, or a

whole group of anything for that matter).

He kept a close ear out for it. The sound he heard was more of a high-pitched yapping sound rather

than blood-thirsty growls. Shadow shrugged and decided that it must have been a squirrel that

frequently visited. When his meat was done, he tore of a piece of leg and crunched it as if it were

Thanksgiving turkey. Just then, the source of the noise came over to Shadow; which happened to be

a brown and white collie dog. Shadow knew that sometimes pets got lost, but he saw that the dog

had no collar on, so he assumed the dog must have been a stray. He knew that the dog must have

smelled the meat and wanted to come over for a bite or two. Shadow could tell that pets don't just

up and leave for no good reason in Equestria; so he eventually decided to keep the dog with him

until the owner came to find them. He wasn't going to be teleporting back to Canterlot or anywhere

else today. "Here, take some." Shadow said, tearing off some meat from his teriyaki timber-wolf leg

and giving it to the dog; who happily scarfed it down in return. The dog barked happily in return, as if

to say, "Oh thank you thank you thank you for sharing with me. :-D" Shadow grinned. "Well dog,

looks like you're going to be staying here for a bit until I can find your owner. Or until they find you."

The dog happily yipped and barked, clearly joyful about its new companion. For the next half-hour,

Shadow ate (and shared) meat with the dog, played fetch with some of the bones and carved a bowl

and used a water-permiable leaf as a filter to get water for the dog. It was still around a little bit late

in the morning, but to Shadow, the day was eventful enough. "You know something dog?" Shadow

asked his new furry companion, "I think you've been a very good camping companion." The dog, in

return, looked at Shadow with happy eyes, open-mouth smile and wagged its tail accordingly.

"Probably better than Applejack, I'll say that." Shadow whispered in the dog's ear; which rewarded

him with a confused look from the animal. "The reason I said that is that you at least came and

asked for a place to stay; whereas Applejack or whoever set their tent next to me just decided to

barge in. They could've either been an ally or a spy; and in that case, I don't like surprises." The dog

barked in agreement, understanding how tricky it could be to decipher friend from foe without prior

knowledge. "Well," Shadow said, "at least you're someone who has actually stuck by me so far. Let's

hope nothing bad happens to you." the dog happily barked, chased it's tail, then went over to lick

Shadow's legs. Shadow then stared out into space and whispered, "Nothing"...


Flashback...3 Weeks before the Mobians arrive in Equestria...Shadow's Fatal Mission.

Shadow already had the perfect plan up his sleeve that he had developed for a while. Since he knew

a lot about computers and technology himself, he sent out an offline, morse-code message through

the G.U.N. agents' communicators and warned them to get off of every single Eggman base across

the globe.

He figured that since Eggman constantly had weapons and robots all over the world; he

could just hack into them, and cause every single lair to self-destruct; henceforth possibly forever

ending any and all of the doctor's schemes. Without hesitation, knowing that the agents would be

evacuating to turn on whatever robots would be outside of the bases, he finished the hacking codes

and immediately teleported to a popular G.U.N. rendezvous point in Milan.

Since Eggman was so isolated that he built all his bases in far away areas people wouldn't

think of searching; Shadow also carefully planned for agents to evacuate and protect any and all

possible casualties. After landing near a small cafe near the city square, he radioed Captain Oliver (a

Siberian Husky field agent who frequently joined Shadow on missions). "Shadow?" Oliver asked

him, in a rough, Siberian accent.

Shadow, who was sitting at a table, underneath a parasol and eating coffee beans, answered. "Any

reports on all agents shipped towards all the Eggman bases?" he asked. "All agents have been

evacuated." Shadow smiled at Oliver's favorable report. "Except two, sir." But his countenance

immediately became less optimistic when he heard that news over the communicator. Nevertheless,

he remained cool and businesslike through it all. "How are the other two agents?" he asked Oliver.

"Not very good Shadow." There was a brief pause in the conversation. It was obvious to Shadow

what this meant. "Who are the two agents, Captain Oliver?" Shadow asked, using his ally's rank to

remind him of his superiority over him. More silence. And then... "It's Rouge, Shadow. She's

dying." Shadow's countenance dropped to an all time low. "Omega suffered some damage, but we

can easily reactivate him." Shadow flat-out ignored that part of Oliver's report and just broke down

crying. There were very few people that made a lasting impact on Shadow's life. The first, was Maria

Robotnik; who really first gave Shadow a bright light in a dark and dull world when he was used to

study immortality. Until that light, that friendship, that magic, whatever you want to call it; was

snuffed out. By a G.U.N. shot. Now, Shadow and G.U.N. were on the same side. But another bright

light, another true and trusted best friend, was snuffed out. Not just by a G.U.N.; but by his own

negligence. And now, she was about to die too.


Back to the Present Day...

"Wynonna?" Shadow heard a smaller, country-ish voice break his thoughts. He turned to see the dog

happily run towards a small, bright yellow pony and coming to lick her. Shadow looked down to the

ground and sighed, "I guess I can't make any 'friendship' last, can I?" "Huh?" the girl pony asked in

confusion. Shadow immediately recovered from that. "Nothing. Is this your dog?" he asked. The girl

nodded and she hugged Wynonna some more. "Thank you so much for watching him, Mr.?" she

asked, wanting to know what his name was. "I'm Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog. And you are?" The

yellow pony then introduced herself, "My name's Apple Bloom. Thank you so much for taking care of

the dog for me." Shadow then turned back to sit down by the fire. "Hey," Apple Bloom called out to

him. "Is this where you've been livin' all this time?" Shadow turned to her and simply nodded. She

smiled. "Cool. I never thought I'd see someone other than Fluttershy pull something like that off."

Shadow then stood to look at his reflection in the river, still meditative about what happened to

Rouge. "Not now Shadow," he spoke internally, "Now's not the time for letting anything get to you.

Just take the little girl and her dog home back to the farm, get your gear packed for Mobius, then get

teleporting." Shadow then went to get the pot to fill it with water to put out the fire. "Why don't you

come stay with us? I'll bet we'll have some spare room for you and..." Shadow ignored her ramblings

on how much her family would love to have him and how great things would be on the farm and how

he'd be an "Apple to the Core" and a whole lot of other random nonsense as he put out the fire. He

knew that it would be better to walk her home rather than letting her do it because these woods,

weren't safe for anyone. Anyone, that wasn't Shadow the Hedgehog, that is. (And Applejack, for

some reason.) "I'm taking you home Apple Bloom. That I can guarantee." Shadow said, packing

along some more timber-wolf meat for himself and Wyonna. Apple Bloom jumped in happy

excitement as the two walked home.


Timeskip...early in the evening

It was evening when the trio got back to Sweet Apple Acres. Shadow knew that teleportation might

have been quicker; but Apple Bloom and Wynonna were not used to the effects of

teleportation, so he decided it would be better for him to just walk them back.

All along the way, Apple Bloom struck some bit of

conversation with the black-and-red hedgehog. Some questions he answered honestly, others he

provided a more manilla answer to, while others he told her he would just rather not talk about. "So,

you're going back on a trip to your home planet for a bit?" Apple Bloom asked him as he fed the dog

another piece of wolf meat. Shadow nodded in confirmation. "Well, I know it's probably not my

business, but I think you, maybe should take Applejack with you." Shadow heard her say that in a

way that made him wonder if she was recommending a travel partner or playing matchmaker.

"I'm honestly debating about whether to even bring a partner at all. Plus, the mission I'm going on is

an extremely dangerous one; it's no playing 'patty-cake' with Discord, this would potentially be a life-

and-death situation; and I don't want anyone to get hurt. Which is why I must go at it alone."

Surprisingly enough, Apple Bloom responded to Shadow's serious comment with a slight smile.

"Alright, have it your way." she said happily, as the two were coming closer to Sweet Apple Acres.


I know, I know what you're all gonna ask. Am I ACTUALLY going to open that mysterious (and hopefully not dangerous)

envelope from Pinkie Pie? I will. But first, I wanna send a special thank you and a shoutout to Moonlight Arc and wednesdayponythomasfan for

the much needed help on this chapter. This was originally going to be longer, but I realized that cutting the original chapter short was the best

way for me to express both Shadow and Applejack's POV's on the situation.

Now, I heard from wednesdayponythomasfan that the MLP's version of "timberwolves" were actually made of wood and had to be defeated in

a weird way; so I decided to make my timberwoves ACTUAL wolves. Flesh, bones and all.

Also, one of the things you might have noticed was that Shadow is rather primitive in this tale. I've done this for a few reasons. The first being

that Shadow has often been described as a "loner", which makes the darkest of woods a perfect place for him. As for all the survival stuff you

saw (him fighting the timberwolves, making stuff out of whatever resources he had, etc...) was to prove something to the general Sonic

fanbase. A lot of people say, "Oh yeah, Shadow's awesome. He's the edgyist, he can kick MAJOR butt without breaking a sweat!" And I agree,

that's why I knew a fight scene would be awesome for this chapter. But Shadow's not Knuckles the Echidna (who usually relies on strength).

To me, Shadow is the Ultimate Lifeform. Not just for his power, but also his mind. The experience he would have learned from all those years

at G.U.N., how he's the most developed character out of the whole Sonic crew, his intellectual prowess being displayed in a fight and a survival

situation would make Shadow even more cool-looking, wouldn't you agree? He has all these chaos abilities he could be using all throughout the

story, but he only uses them when he feels like he needs them. That was explained in the first chapter of this story. As the Ultimate Lifeform; he

shouldn't have to be overly dependent on Chaos abilities if he chose not to use them. (Him teleporting out of the wolfpack was an idea courtesy

of Moonlight Arc, so yeah, shoutout again fellow bronie). So the teleporting thing was the one exception because he needed a legitimate way

to escape the pack; him just watching the wolves be stupid enough to dwindle down their own numbers was my idea.

So next time, we're gonna get to where Shadow, Apple Bloom and Wynonna get back to Sweet Apple Acres and we also get to see whether or

not Applejack would get to join Shadow on his quest or not.

And now, before I close this out the normal way (and so all of you would get off my tail about it), we're now going to open this crazy letter.


A few seconds later...

Ok, so I got my gas-mask on, my poison detecting gloves, my radiation-proof suit, and I'm wearing high-tech armor underneath (courtesy of

my foxy fox friend Tails) in case of any worst case scenario. And now, here we go...

*drumroll effect*

Me: *opens the letter*

Me *reading the letter*: "I'm sorry."

Me: "I'm sorry?" *strips off all gear after realizing there was nothing dangerous about the letter*

Well, that was strange. Anyhow...

*knocking is heard at the door*

Huh. Might as well see who this is.

*opens door to see Pinkie with a plate of cookies and cupcakes*

Pinkie: Hey listen, I just want to let you know that I'm SO sorry...

Me (annoyed): *shuts the door in her face*

Sorry about that, anyhow...

*knocking is heard at the door, again. Revealed to be Pinkie. Again.*

Pinkie (in a deeper voice for some reason): *holding a bouquet of balloons* Too soon? Yeah, too soon.

Me: *shuts the door again*

Anyway...

*knocking is heard, AGAIN!*

Me: *opens the door*

*Pinkie is this time accompanied by four Mexican guitar players playing an R&B type of song (and btw, her voice is back to normal

after the balloons if that's what you're wondering)*

Me: *shuts the door again*

*Knocking at the door, AGAIN!*

What now Pinkie?!

Me: *opens the door*

Pinkie (hopeful): *holds out tickets*

Me: Tickets to the Wonderbolts?

Pinkie: I can't WAIT to see Rainbow Dash fly circles around the two of us.

Me: *grabs tickets...then slaps Pinkie in the face*

Pinkie (upset): What was that for?

Me (very ticked off): First off, Rainbow Dash already gave me a SEASON PASS for the Wonderbolts, so that's not gonna work. Second, you

know VERY WELL what you did that made me so ticked off at you (and for the rest of you who don't know, read the beginning of Chapter 2

of this story) and you don't even acknowledge that. You expect all things to be made well through bribery and shallow apologies that don't

mean anything?! Now take your crazy little parody of Deadpool 2 and leave before things get worse.

Pinkie (sad): *cries and gallops away*

Me: *calmly shuts the door*

Phew, I thought that she would NEVER stop bugging me.

Anyhow; as always...

Keep Loving, Keep Edifying, Keep LoveandEdifying. :-D

*another knock is heard at the door*

Oh come ON! I told you to leave Pinkie...

Me: *opens the door*

?: *kneels at my door with her front hooves over her head, as if to block out any loud noise*

Me (calmed down): Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know it was you. I thought it was Pinkie pie bugging me again.


I'll bet you could tell by "?'s" reaction (and mine) that you know who "?" is. Send a review if you can guess who "?" is.