Hey everyone, once again sorry if the last chapter seemed kinda crappy, I was stressing out over it so I rushed a little bit. I hope to make this and all continuing chapters smoother reading. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!
Soon after Shadow entered the forest, a familiar feeling washed over him. He was being watched, he could feel it. Shadow only came into the forest because he figured no pony else would come in here from all the dangerous things in here, and he needed a place to sleep. Shadow kept walking though, letting his observer believe he was oblivious to them. He kept walking till he found a cave, leading into the rock face of one of the steep drop-offs. Giving one last look around to tempt his stalker to keep following, Shadow quickly made his way deep into the cave. Ducking behind a piece of rock that jutted out from the wall, he waited in silence for his stalker.
Soon afterwards he heard soft wing beats, sounding loud in the deafening silence. He decided to keep his pony disguise on, not wanting to let his follower to know where he was from his glow. Soon, the outline of a pegasus passed in front of him, barely above the ground. He jumped at it, tackling the pegasus and holding them against the ground with his front hooves on their wings, but he didn't the pegasus to buck him in the stomach, even if it didn't hurt much, it was enough to put him off balance and let the pegasus escape outside. Shadow chased after them into the night, but all he saw was a rainbow streak flying away in the sky. "Well, it's going to be an interesting day tomorrow." he said.
Shadow woke early in the morning, probably an hour before dawn based on the position of the moon in the sky. He made his way out of the cave that he spent the night in, breathing a big sigh when he emerged. "Time to get to work." he said to himself, stretching his legs he noticed they had lost the fur he had yesterday "Definitely glad I got that pegasus to go away before I fell asleep." He made the fur re-appear, along with his mane, tail, and cutie mark, and set off for the farm.
On his way out of the forest, Shadow finally got a good view of the place that would be his home. It really was as strange as Twilight had described. The trees were different in the forest than in other areas he had seen outside of Ponyville, they were gnarled, twisted, and seemed like they were trying to reach out and grab him. And they somehow managed to absorb nearly all light that tried to penetrate into the forest. "This place is just weird, but it makes since in a way." Shadow said to himself, continuing his walk out of the woods.
It was almost dawn by the time Shadow emerged out of the woods. He quickly made his way over to the apple orchard and started his new job at bucking apples. But Shadow noticed something new that he didn't yesterday, all the trees seemed really close together, close enough that somepony could turn around and immediately kick the one opposite. An idea popped into his head, one he couldn't help but try.
Starting a little back, Shadow made a full gallop between the trees. But before he got onto the path, he jumped and twisted his body ninety-degrees. As soon as his hooves made contact with the first tree on the left he pushed off and landed on the second tree on the right, then the third on the left and so on. He couldn't believe it, he was jumping between the trees by pushing off the trunks and rebounding off of them. And each time he jumped onto and off of a tree all the apples fell off as well, making his job a bit easier.
The light of dawn crept its way into Applejack's room, matching the timing of her alarm clock. "Aaahhhh" she yawned, getting up and turning off her alarm clock, "Time to start workin." Putting on her hat, Applejack walked outside and up to her big brother Big Macintosh. "Mornin' Mac, you're up pretty early." But Big Macintosh only said "Yeup." and then asked a question of his own "Ya must be pretty tired AJ, why don't ya take a break today." "What 'yre talkin' 'bout?" Apple jack asked. "Them apples didn't buck 'emselves." he replied, nodding to the trees. Applejack's draw dropped almost to the ground, acres of apple trees had been bucked, the baskets missing along with the apples. "Ah didn't buck 'em." she replied "C'mon, let's go check the barn" she said as she made her way over to the old barn.
Applejack burst the door open, only for her jaw to drop even further than earlier at what she saw. For in the barn were hundreds of freshly picked apples, neatly stacked in their baskets, filling nearly every available inch of space. "What the hay is going on here!" she demanded. "Well, ah reckon that if you didn't do it, and I didn't do it, then there's only one pony that could do it." said her big brother, coming up from behind at his average slow canter. "Ya mean to tell me that ya think Shadow did all this?" she asked mulling over the possibility "Yeup" was all she got in reply.
That's when the siblings heard whistling and turned to see none other than Shadow pulling a cart of 10 baskets of apples hitched to his bone harness, completely filled. When he entered through the doors Shadow stopped whistling and said "Good morning Ms. Applejack, Mr. Macintosh." "Shadow, two things, one, ya gotta stop calling me Miss, and secondly, did ya do all of this?" she said, gesturing to the apple filled barn. "Umm… yes?" he said, nervous about his work now. "Did I do something wrong?" "Sugarcube, how long you been workin' out here?" Applejack asked. "Maybe about two hours, why?" he answered, content with not having to bend the truth for once. "No reason.. why don't ya take the rest of the day off sugar, we'll be good for a while now."
"Oh…okay then." he said, 'Great Shadow, way to freak out the mare that was kind enough to let you work here.' berating himself, Shadow put the cart in the barn and left, heading towards town. Shadow kept thinking to himself, wondering what to do for the rest of the day, when he saw something frighteningly familiar, a rainbow streak zooming towards town. "The pegasus.." he said, freezing a moment before galloping full speed towards the town.
Shadow galloped into town, his bone harness rattling as he stopped suddenly, twisting his head around frantically searching for to Pegasus that had stalked him into that cave the night before. He was about to keep searching until a bright pink mare popped in front of him. "Hiya!Myname'sPinkiePie,youmustbenewherebecauseIknow everyponyinPonyvillebutIdon' 'syourname,mine'sPinkiePie,owaitIalreadytoldyouthathehe he." Shadow barely understood her, and didn't understand how she had managed to say all of that in one breath while jumping up and down constantly. "Uhh..My name is Shadow Skull, pleased to meet you." he said hastily, still searching for the elusive pegasus. "Whatchya' lookin for?" asked Pinkie Pie, who somehow managed to get on his back and look through a spyglass. "No one" Shadow sighed after not being able to find anything for a hint. "Okie dokie." Pinkie said, before bouncing away with a smile plastered on her face.
Shadow just walked forward, not looking where he was going as his head was drooped a little. He kept walking, oblivious to anything and anypony else, that is till he bumped into one. "By Celestia! Watch where you're…going." yelled a white unicorn mare, at least until Shadow looked up. The mare looked into his eyes as she was raving, but she seemed to melt when he looked at her with his strange blue eyes. "My word." was all she managed, trying to make her legs not shake. "I'm sorry, I'll just be going." Shadow said, feeling even worse now. "No, no, its fine, I should have been looking where I was going, my name's Rarity." Said the mare, curtsying to the best she could. "My name is Shadow, it's a pleasure." he said, bowing in return,. "I must say, that is an absolutely dazzling gem you have there." continued the unicorn called Rarity. "I have to say I've never seen anything quite like it before in all my years of designing." "You make clothing?" asked Shadow, recalling all the dresses and suits from the City.
"That I do, though I have never seen anything like yours before." She replied motioning to Shadow's bone harness, truth be told he had forgotten he was wearing it. "But even if it isn't something I'd create, I have to say it matches your style brilliantly, accenting the darkness of your fur and body shape…" she continued on like this for several minutes before realizing what she was doing. "Oh, sorry darling, I forgot myself. I must be going now, it has been a pleasure meeting you." "The pleasure's mine, miss Rarity." said Shadow, bowing once more before Rarity continued on her way.
The whole meeting had lifted Shadow's spirits, if only a little. Talking with her brought back some happier memories from the City, this in turn got him thinking about his own appearance, bones, soul and all. Shadow figured Twilight might have something that could help him, even if it may just be fictional accounts, it couldn't hurt. As Shadow walked he noticed that the ponies seemed to be giving him an even wider berth than before, if that was possible. 'Something's wrong here, really wrong...' he thought to himself. Deciding it would be better to not be out in the open for very long Shadow hurried to the library.
But Shadow wasn't prepared for what he saw after opening the door. For talking with Twilight was a sky blue pegasus mare with a rainbow mane and tail, "Rainbow" whispered Shadow. But that was all it took for the mares hear him, "Oh, hey there Shadow, this is Rainbow Dash-" but that was as far as she got before the pegasus jumped up and flew for the only available exit, the window.
Shadow, however, beat her to it and tackled her once again placing his front hooves on her wings. Shadow was overcome with malice, the fierce emotion seemed to seep out of him as his eyes started to glow. "Who are you?" he questioned "Why were you following me?!" "Shadow! What are you doing?" Twilight interrupted, causing Shadow to look up from the squirming pegasus, though she immediately wished he hadn't. His face was full of raw emotions, something along the lines of malice, fury, and a hunger for answers. But his eyes seemed far more terrifying, the large blue eye was glowing and shifting as if they were in a mist, they now had depth to them, far more than anypony's she had ever seen. Twilight was petrified, unable to even think.
Shadow turned back to the pegasus under his hooves and looked into her eyes with his own, the pupil mimicking the misty look of his as her muscles went slack. "Answer me." he whispered menacingly, "I was following you because Fluttershy had a nightmare about you, and I wanted to know if you were some sort of monster." she said. Upon hearing the name Fluttershy though, he stopped, his previous mix of emotions washed away by a feeling of disbelief. And this was all the pegasus named Rainbow Dash needed for the strange magic to fade, quickly shoving Shadow off her she zipped out the window. He was about to run after her, anger flaring in his eyes, before he was slammed into a wall by a cocoon of purple magic. "SHADOW! CALM DOWN!" the sound snapped him out of his haze, he turned to see Twilight staring at him with her horn aglow with magic.
Shadow looked bout the room for a second, not sure of what just happened, then realization dawned on him. "Did...did I really just do that?" he asked, "Yes, and you've got some explaining to do as well. Stay there, I need to get everyone else." Twilight replied, releasing the spell. Shadow dropped to the ground and sat there, nervous of what was to come, as Twilight teleported away only returning about an hour later with Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and a reluctant Rainbow Dash. He noticed none of them looked at his eyes.
"Well, what is it you want to know?" Shadow asked. "Fer' starters, tell us who ya are." Applejack said, starting the questioning. "I've told you that much, my name really is Shadow Skull believe it or not." he said, "What kind of magic was that, the thing with your eyes?" asked Twilight "I don't even know, it's just another thing to add to my list of things that make me a freak." "What's that supposed mean?" asked Rainbow Dash, putting on a show of bravado, "Well... Like I told Fluttershy, I'm not-" but Shadow was interrupted by a blood curdling scream from outside. All seven of them stopped what they were doing and rushed outside, none of them prepared for what they saw.
Pony skeletons were galloping and flying through Ponyville, wrecking everything in their path. Shadow stepped in front of the group of mares and said "You wanted to know why I'm a freak? I'll show you." His fur, mane, tail, and cutie mark vanished, replaced by a body of black bone and raging blue flames, his eyes stopped shinning and started glowing instead. Turning back to the group of gasping mares behind him he said "Like I told you, I'm not from around here." before jumping into the fray.
Well now, I bet they didn't expect that now did they. Read on to find out what happens to Shadow Skull and Ponyville next.
Hey everyone, I hope this meets your standards of reading and makes up for the last chapter. I may have a bit more time on my hands than I have so I hope to be able to make more chapters sooner. I also plan on starting a side story soon, one that won't have any relevance on this story series. I'd appreciate if you all to voted on it if you want, the first one is between a griffon who has genetic mutations or a Pegasus that can manipulate wind with his wings. PLease take your pick and either comment or send me a message. Thank you!