Chapter 6

Reawakening

Shadow awoke with a start. He looked around and saw a clearing in front of him, 'Where am I?' Shadow asked himself, 'and how long have I been asleep?'

Shadow knew it had to be the first day of the month since he was in his unicorn form. He looked inside his satchel and saw his armor in it as well as his sword. Shadow had put a spell on the satchel which made it possible to store so much stuff in such a small space. He then saw the end of the forest and ran toward it. The light blinded him for a second then when his eyes adjusted he saw an apple orchard.

"Excuse me, who are you?" a voice asked.

Shadow looked to his left and saw an orange pony with yellow hair and a brown cowboy hat on. Her cutie mark was 3 red apples.

"My name is Black Shadow, though my friends call me Shadow." Shadow replied.

"Shadow? That's a pretty good name. It suits you too. My name is Apple Jack, my friends call me AJ." Apple Jack replied.

"Nice name, it fits your job description well, can you tell me where the nearest town is?" Shadow asked, "I'm searching for Celestia's castle. I really need to know Apple Jack."

Apple Jack smiled, "Well sure, your actually close to it, the nearest town would be Ponyville. My friend Twilight lives there and she is an apprentice to Celestia."

"Thanks, and, uh, can you please tell me the date?" Shadow asked.

"Why sure, it's May 1st 1735." AJ answered with a smile.

Shadow almost doubled over, '1735? I must've been asleep for at least 50 years.' Shadow thought to himself.

He thanked Apple Jack and then headed down the road. He kept on thinking how he managed to sleep for so long and yet be undisturbed. He was so deep in thought he didn't realize he was in Ponyville until he came across a house near the outskirts that has a for sale sign next to it. The stallion who was putting the sign in the ground asked Shadow if he wanted to buy the house and he said yes. So Shadow bought the house with some of the money he had with him. Shadow then took out the sign and went inside.

"Wow, very spacious." Shadow said to himself.

'Yes it is. Very spacious. Enough room in here to do lots of training. You must train so you can become more powerful.' voices around him whispered.

"Yeah, train. I can do that in the morning when I'm at my full strength." Shadow told the shadows around him.

Just then a cannon went off and Shadow jumped in the air turning himself into a shadow and hid.

"Heeheehee. I just love new visitors!" the pink mare said excitedly. She bounced over to where Shadow was hiding, "you can come out now, my Pinkie senses tell me you're hiding there!"

Shadow revealed himself, "How can you sense me?" He asked.

"Well, I have this great sense of everything. In other words I can tell if something might happen and if there is anypony nearby." The pink mare said very quickly.

"Wow," Shadow said amazed, "My name is Black Shadow, though my friends call me Shadow"

"Ooh, my name is Pinkie Pie, Ponyville's number 1 party queen. By the way, do your friends talk to anypony else?

Shadow drew back a bit, "Wait, you mean the shadows around us?"

Pinkie Pie nodded, "Yep. Are they friendly? Can they do anything cool?"

Shadow sighed, "Yes they're friendly, and they help me when I need help. And no, they can't talk to anypony else."

"Oh that's too bad." Pinkie Pie said with a slight frown on her face. She then looked at her hoof and exclaimed. "Would you look at the time, I have to leave now, I have to help Mrs. Cake fill out an order. Bye everypony and shadow!"

Pinkie Pie left taking her cannon with her. Shadow looked at the floor and saw a pile of confetti.

"That's enough confetti for this whole house, but how does she store it all in that cannon?" Shadow asked himself. He looked around and decided he needed to go and buy some food. He then locked the door and went off toward town wondering how he should contact Celestia.

(5 minutes later…)

Shadow entered Ponyville and tried looking for Twilight when he realized that he didn't know what she looked like. He went into a fashion store and started to look around when a white unicorn with purple hair came up to him

"Find anything you like?" She asked.

"Not really, can you make me an orange outfit with black lining going by this diagram?" He asked giving her a piece of paper.

"That's not a really good color combination with clothing, but I guess I could make it, um…? She asked.

"Shadow, Black Shadow." Shadow said with a smile.

"I'm Rarity, I'm the one who runs this great fashion store, and I'm also the keeper of the Element of Harmony generosity. Along with Apple Jack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle." she finished out with a smile.

"You know Twilight? Can you please tell me where I can find her?" Shadow asked with excitement in his voice.

"Why do you want to know?" Rarity asked

"Because a long time ago Celestia gave me a job offer and I took it, and I heard from your friend Apple Jack that Twilight is Celestials student. So I'm trying to find her so I could ask her if she could get a message for to Celestia for me." Shadow said a bit quicker than normal.

"Well, she lives in the library with her friend Spike. It's about 3 blocks from here. Just exit the store go straight, take the first right, then go for 2 blocks and the library should be there. The library looks like a giant tree on the outside, but the inside looks gorgeous." She said with a dreamy look on her face.

Shadow left toward the library after thanking Rarity. She also said that his outfit would be ready by tomorrow. She gave him papers so he could have proof that the outfit was his. He kept pondering why he was put to sleep, or who that mysterious voice belonged to.