When I say, "Shadow," what do you think of? Maybe your shadow, blackness, nighttime? Do you think of other shadows? Of ponies and things? What if I told you that a mere shadow could change the world, if you gave it a chance?
I'm not talking about that moving black thing on the ground next to you, or that of a bird flying over your head. My shadow could fly, run, walk, and breathe. It was alive. That is because my shadow isn't merely a reflection. It was an entity. It was a beast. A beast that could summon an inferno from its jaws, a beast that could take to the skies like a bird of prey.
He was a dragon.
I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Let me tell you my story, the story of Faith Shine the earth pony, born and raised in a sleepy religious town...
"Faith, no! That isn't a weed, it's a squash plant!" my mother criticized, grabbing my hoof to protect the vegetable.
"Why are we growin' it anyway?" I mumbled. I hated squash.
My mother let go of my hoof and smiled. "Well, your daddy likes it, and so do I. Now do what I do, alright? You have to take it by the roots, so it doesn't grow back, then before you cut it, you should make sure that..." she talked like that for hours it seemed. I lazily began pulling whatever looked like a weed, mumbling a song to keep myself occupied. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something out of place.
"Did you hear something?" my father grunted, looking up and around. My mother shook her head.
"No, darling. Only the wind. We got a weather report for lots of it, you know." I looked in the direction of the shape I had seen thoughtfully. That wasn't the wind, I thought.
"Ma, I'm going for a walk," I announced, standing.
"Take your sisters with you."
I whined, then hatched a plan quickly. "Okay, but I'm going to the library afterwards..." Soon, I heard moans of discontent.
"Moooom, we don't wanna go read books!" Harmony and Melody pleaded in unison. I chuckled a bit.
"Fine. Be back before dinner, dearest." I smiled, and with a quick nod, scurried away. I hate gardening, I thought with a grin, It's adventure time.
It was a beautiful warm June night, the birds were singing, the bees were buzzing. So I was expecting what I saw to be a bird. As I followed the shadows path, it led me to a clear, beautiful stream. I couldn’t get a clear look at it. The trees around me rustled when it landed, making me shiver. Whatever I was following let out a roar.
Now, I’m not stupid, I know birds don’t roar. So that got rid of my suspicion that it was a bird. Could it be a lion? No! We aren’t in a savannah and they don’t fly. But the only other thing is… no those don't live around here... Could it have been two animals? No, there was only one shadow. At least that’s what I hoped. As I peeked around the tree I was hiding behind I hoped, no, I think prayed would be a better word, I prayed that my fear wouldn’t be confirmed. Unfortunately, I was wrong, again! I hate being wrong. When I peeked my head out from around the trunk of the tree I saw eye to eye with a shadow colored dragon and I knew right then and there that I was a goner. As soon, if not sooner than I put my head around the tree, the dragon got up off the rock it was on and lept closer to where I was, seeming almost curious of what my being was. I stood as still as I could and tried to control my breathing, because frankly the dragon looked pissed. The key words in those sentences were could and tried, but failed. And slowly ever so slowly I could see the dragon inch forward letting its curiosity get the better of it.
It slowly inched forward and I stayed absolutely still. It took a minute or two but the dragon ended up a foreleg's length away. I decided to talk to it like I do my dog softly and calmly. Unfortunately, I couldn’t control myself enough to be calm because I was scared. “It’s okay...” I spoke, slowly reaching an outstretched hoof toward its muzzle. It flinched away in fear. But came back unexpectedly, then the dragon slowly but surely put its muzzle into my outstretched hoof, like it wanted me to pet it. I came closer to it. I looked over its very muscular, reptilian-like skin. I soon realized that it was a boy. He had emerald green eyes and like I mentioned earlier he looked almost like a silver shadow. He had four legs, like I would have expected. A tail and a set of delicately and intricately etched wings were also features of this mighty beast. A very cold blustery wind came by and reminded me that it wasn’t summer. No, not quite yet.
He kept rubbing his head against my hoof and leg cat-like as if trying to warm my hoof. I started talking to him again, “What's your name, huh? Do you know where your home is?” I waited for a reply but realized this was incredibly stupid. “Well, it doesn’t matter, you’re with me now. And I won’t let anyone or anything hurt you. But what should I name you?” I looked at the forest floor hoping a piece of paper would somehow land in front of me with a word on it but I knew that wouldn’t happen. I scanned the woods surrounding the two of us and then looked at the dragon again then at the floor underneath him. Then I had a flash, well maybe it wasn’t a flash maybe more of a blonde moment. “Shadow…” I whispered “Shadow!” I said. Louder than I needed to but the dragon didn’t jump, already used to my spurts of awesomeness. He wagged his tail instead. I started to feel Shadows’ delicately etched wings.
I just kept stroking Shadows wings until he grabbed me by my mane and placed me on his back and took off so suddenly I almost fell off. That all happened in mere seconds. I quickly got a better grip around his neck and soon we were high above my little town named Hilly Hooves. I can imagine my mom now, seeing me in this position, she would be yelling her head off. Screaming something like, “Faith, you get away for that beast.” She would pause, “I told you to do something. Faith you listen to me this instant.” Followed by some more nagging. Now if Grace saw me like this she would be freaking out and crying, scared. Not for herself but for me, like a best friend would be and should be, but Trinity would be jealous. Just like the daredevil pegasus she is. Yes, I was going to keep Shadow a secret.
The sky was clear blue with not a cloud in sight. The forest was a dark green color, darker than Shadows’ eyes. I kept looking around. Our small religious town was beautiful from this height. I look toward my house. I looked past our backyard and about a mile away wall a huge waterfall! Hmm, I’ll have to use that for swim practice. Then I wondered where we were going. “Shadow, are you taking me anywhere important?” I asked and waited for a reply. It looked like he hesitated before replying. I finally got one in the form of a head shake. He shook his head side to side. Guess that’s universal. “Did you see that waterfall back there?” I waited and Shadow nodded. It felt a little strange talking to a dragon but it was pretty sweet because he was replying. I had gotten used to the steady beat of his wings against air. I had myself balanced after almost falling off. “Hey Shadow, can we check it out?” No sooner than I got those words out of my mouth we were turning. No, I take that back, a nice smooth turn was somehow too much to ask for. Yep, we had to make a complete loop-de-loop. Boy, I was NOT ready for that. I fell as soon as we reached the top of the loop. Of course we had to be upside down. I screamed as I pummeled to the ground.