Shimmy Shake's POV
"Just ask him," Lighthoof said as we walked down the hallway.
"I-I can't," I said nervously.
"Come on Shimmy. This has been going on for weeks. Stop waiting and just ask him out already," she said.
"But I just...can't. I-I mean, w-what if he says no?" I asked.
"You'll never know unless you try. Look, here he comes now," she said pointing down the hall.
I looked to where Lighthoof was pointing and my cheeks started to heat up when I saw...him~. Legion~. His spiky looking mane and fur blowing a bit in the breeze, a small smile adorning his face as he walked with Sandbar and Ocellus, and cyan eyes filled with kindness. I'll never forget first the time I stared into those eyes for the first time. Even though his choice in clothing was a bit...strange...I gotta admit, he was pretty...cute.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Lighthoof asked.
"I-I..." I stuttered.
"Oh for Celestia's sake. Hey Legion!" she called out, making Legion, Sandbar, and Ocellus turn towards us.
"Oh, hey guys. What's up?" he asked.
"Shimmy Shake's got something to ask you," she said, making me give her a small glare as she was no longer my best friend, but now my mortal enemy, before she nudged me a bit closer, "Go on Shimmy. This is your chance."
"U-um...I was wondering if...i-if...," I stuttered as my heart rate began to quicken.
"Yes?" Legion asked.
If you want to go on a date with me!
"If I could watch you practice with your sword after school!" I said rather quickly.
Celestia damnit!
Lighthoof facehoofed and Legion's eyes widened a bit at my outburst. Oh, was he taken aback at this? He wasn't taken aback, was he?!
"Sure. I don't mind," he responded, "Meet me in the clearing between Ponyville and the Everfree Forest after school."
"O-okay," I said as Legion and his friends walked off. I was...excited. Was it still considered a date even though I didn't actually ask him?
"Shimmy," Lighthoof said with a bit of disappointment.
"I can't help it! He's just so...dreamy," I cooed, "Bu-but, at least I'll still spend time with him!"
"I guess you're right," Lighthoof sighed, "Come on. Let's head to class."
Later that day
The final class of the day was coming to an end, and my knees were shaking and I was sweating, and it was not because I had a test that day. Can you really blame me?! I wasn't lying when I said he was dreamy. His goofy sense of humor, his drive to get things done, his kindness towards others, and his bravery when tough times occur. Sure, he was quiet and a bit of a shy pony, but I think that just added to his cuteness. On top of all that, he was as skilled in acrobatics as me, probably more skilled actually. Just the thought of him makes my heart flutter.
After class ended and Headmare Twilight dismissed us, I quickly ran to my dorm and started to panic.
"Okay. Okay. Don't panic Shimmy Shake. It's just a casual hang out. Yeah, that's it. You're just casually hanging out with a colt. Only he's the sweetest and cutest colt you've ever met! Oh Celestia, I can't do this!" I panicked aloud while staring at my mirror, "No! You can't talk talk that way! You just...gotta impress him. Let's see. What do colts like? Should I style my mane? Get him a gift? No! That'll be trying too hard! Oh! Maybe I should wear my cheerleader outfit. He thought I looked nice in it. Maybe I could even-NO! It's not a date!"
The knock to my door came before it opened, revealing Lighthoof. "Shimmy Shake, are you okay?" she asked.
"I can't do this Lighthoof! What if I mess up?! What if he ends up not liking me anymore?! I'll be spending the rest of my life alone!" I panicked before Lighthoof slapped me with her hoof, making me wince in pain.
"Ow. What was that for?" I asked.
"To get you to calm down. There's no need to panic Shimmy. You just gotta be yourself. And besides, you know Legion. He wouldn't care whether or not you impress him, cause he likes you for you. Just you being there to hang out will make him happy enough," Lighthoof said, "Now just take deep breathes."
I breathed in. I breathed out. Breath in. Breath out. And it calmed me down.
"Feeling better?" Lighthoof asked.
"Sigh. Yeah. You're right. I just gotta be myself. I can do this. Thanks for the words of encouragement Lighthoof. I needed to hear it," I said as I hugged her.
"Anything for my best friend. Now, I think somepony is waiting for you, so you should get going," she said as we separated before I nodded and turned to leave, "Make sure to tell me how it goes!"
"I will!" I said.
I walked through town with a determined expression. I can do this. As long as Legion was happy with my presence, then I was happy. Although...even though I was no longer afraid to hang out with him alone, I still had to get over being nervous whenever I was around him in general.
I eventually reached the clearer and saw Legion sitting down, polishing his sword. My breathing started to get quicker, before I took a deep breathe and approached him. I saw that many different sized logs and some hay bales were set up around him.
"H-hey Legion," I called to which he turned.
"Hey Shimmy. Are you ready to witness my awesome skills at the art...of...sword fighting?" he asked to which I nodded, "Well then, prepare to be amazed!"
Legion quickly towards one of the smaller logs and kicked it up into the air, before flying up to it and perfectly slicing it in half. He then dive bombed towards a larger log and impaled it. He back flipped off it it, landing on the ground then quickly spun, slicing another log behind him in half. Finally, he leapt towards the final log before spinning vertically, cutting it in half. Amazing. That all happened in the span of under 15 seconds. Needless to say, I'm quite impressed with how agile he is.
"Wow," I said, my eyes sparkling.
"Wow is right. Even I'm impressed with how fast I did all that," Legion said surprised, "It's amazing how far I've come with my swordsmanship. Anyway, I also work on my acrobatic skills during these sessions. You're welcome to join me if you like."
"S-sure," I said to which we walked over to the hay bales.
"What I usually do is set up these hay bales to practice my hopping and vaulting. I also like to stack these on top of each other and then back flip or front flip on and off them," he said as he stacked up three hale bales on top of each other, "It's all about the technique."
He turned away from the hale bales and took two steps, before lower the front half of his body to the ground and took a deep breathe. He then leapt up into the air, performing a back flip, and landed on top of the stack in his hind hooves, perfectly balanced. After a few seconds, he front flipped off the stack and landed on all fours.
"Just like that. Wanna try?" he asked to which I nodded.
I approached the stack of hay bales and turned around. I lowered to the ground and back flipped into the air and landed on top on my hind hooves. Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with landing on my hind hooves, so I almost immediately lost my footing and fell backwards.
"GAH!" I screamed.
"Gotcha!" Legion said as I landed not on the grass, but in his hooves, which made me blush madly, "You alright?"
I slowly nodded as I stared into his eyes. About 10 seconds passed by and he's still holding me. I noticed that his smile faded and he began to blush as we continued staring into each other's eyes.
"U-um Legion? You can...put me down now," I said nervously which made him realize what he was doing.
"O-oh! U-um, I'm so sorry," he said as he put me down, his blush more apparent.
After about half an hour of watching Legion practice his swordmanship and acrobatics, as well as me practicing my acrobatics, we were finally tired and laid down on the grass.
"Hey Legion?" I called.
"Hmm?" he asked.
"Where did you learn to do all this? The sword and the acrobatics, I mean," I asked.
"I read and taught myself how to defend myself with a sword. As a way to prepare myself for my travels. As for my acrobatic skills...well...it's kind of hard to explain. Growing up, I've always admired cheerleaders...in a non-creepy sort of way, if that's what you're thinking. Their cheers, choreography, and their moves...I don't know. It just gave me this sort of feeling. So whenever the cheerleaders were practicing, I practiced along with them," he explained, "What about you? What got you into cheerleading?"
"I guess it's the same reason as you. It gave me this feeling. It allowed me to freely express myself," I answered to which he nodded, "It's been like that ever since I was a little filly."
"You must be a pretty good cheerleader then, if your cutie mark is any indication," Legion said as he glanced at my flank, making me blush a bit. He got up and held a hoof out to me, to which I grabbed and got up myself, "Whelp, that was good workout. Ah dang, Celestia really made it hot today. I'm think I'm gonna head to the lake to quickly cool off."
"I-I think I'll join you!" I said eagerly.
"Alright," he said before picking up his sword and sheathing it.
Once we reached the lake, Legion put his sword down and starting taking off his clothes. He first removed his scarf and folded it up neatly, before setting it down. He then took off his coat and-
Sweet Celestia!
I started to blush again as I stared at his body. I've never seen Legion without his coat before, but...wow. Despite him having a slender frame, he still had a bit of muscles in him. Although, that might have due to the fact that he was a pegasus, but still!
"Uh, Shimmy? You alright?" he asked, snapping me out of my thoughts and making me blush some more.
"U-uh, yeah. I was just...observing your...cutie mark," I lied as I glanced at his flank, which showed a mark of a...smile with swords crossed behind it? Legion looked back and chuckled and blushed a bit, most likely from me looking at his flank.
"Oh yeah. Quite unique, right? Apparently I'm destined to be somepony that helps others, despite the risks and challenges. As for the smile on it...well...I guess it has something to do with this," he said before pulling out a black mask that had the same smile as his cutie mark, "I don't know what it is exactly, but this mask just feels like it's a part of me. Does that make sense?"
I nodded.
"Anywho...I'm just gonna..." he said walking into the water, still facing me, "...yeah."
I snapped out of my thoughts and took off my hair band, letting my mane fall down and flow in the breeze. I walked up to the water and swam up Legion, who was currently floating while staring at the sky. I dipped my head into the water to get all the sweat off my body. When I came back up, some of my mane got into my face. I then heard Legion swim up to me and felt his hoof moving my wet mane out of my face. We looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds before looking away, our faces blushing again.
"U-um..." Legion said, breaking the silence, "I think...I think my shift at Sugarcube Corner is coming up. We should uh...we should probably head back."
"O-okay," I simply said. We swam back to our belongings, before we both shook the water off our bodies.
"U-um, Legion?" I turned to him.
"Y-yes?" he asked.
"I was wondering if...if..." I stuttered.
"Yes?" he asked.
Come on. You can do this.
"...if you'd like to go-"
I was suddenly interrupted by the sound of wings flapping, coming rapidly towards us, followed by Legion being slammed by something.
"Legion!" I screamed as he slammed into a tree.
The sound of wings flapping made me look up, to see...another shadow creature?! This time, it had a dragon-like look to it. Slim, bony, frame, dragon head, dragon claws, dragon feet, dragon wings, and a dragon tail, but its end looked more sharper than normal. It was about as tall as Discord. Its white, glowing eyes stared at Legion getting up before it let out a loud roar and flew at him.
"Look out!" I screamed.
Legion dodged out of the way, making the dragon crash into the tree, and flew towards his sword.
"Shimmy, get out of here!" he said as he picked up his sword.
"What?! Are you crazy?! I'm not just gonna leave you!" I shouted as the dragon started to get up.
"I'll be fine Shimmy. I wouldn't forgive myself if you got hurt. Now go!" he said before flying at the dragon.
I ran and hid behind a nearby bush and observed the fight.
Before Legion could get a hit, the dragon flew up and dodged the strike. Legion flew up into the air as well, and then charged at it. The dragon then took a deep breathe, before letting out a torrent of purple flames at Legion. Surprised, he just barely managed to dodge out of the way. It continued to shoot flames, and he continued to dodge. As the seconds passed, Legion started to get more sloppy with his dodges, until finally...
"AH!"
...the dragon singed the tip of one of his wings, giving it an opportunity to strike at him. He shot back, clutching onto his chest area in pain. The dragon flew towards Legion again in an attempt to swipe at him with its claws. However, he managed to suck up the pain and dodge just in time, slashing at one of its legs, making it roar in pain. He flew towards the dragon and got two more hits, before it dodged and swiped at him. He dodged swipe after swipe, some of them actually grazing him, making him since in pain, before he suddenly he gave an upwards slash on one of the dragon's arms, again making it roar in pain.
The dragon suddenly spun around, swiping its tail and knocking Legion closer to the ground. It roared and charged at him. I could see he was in so much pain that he struggled a bit to fly away. The dragon grabbed onto Legion, making his torso hurt even more, and flew towards the lake. It then dunked Legion under the water, and kept him there, flying above the lake at high speeds. It was trying to make him drown.
"Legion!" I screamed.
The dragon then threw Legion out, before clutching onto its hand in pain. Multiple cut wounds were on it. Slashing at the hand as it held him? Clever. I saw Legion on the ground, coughing up water and barely managing to stay up. The dragon ignored its wounds once again and looked at Legion. It took a quick breathe before shooting at a fireball. Legion was struggling to stay up, and he didn't even notice the ball of fire heading straight for him.
"Look out!" I screamed.
Legion turned to the fireball and stumbled away from it. Luckily, he barely moved out of the way of the impact zone. The fireball impacted the ground, launching Legion away a few feet. He was breathing heavily and tried getting back up.
"No!" I screamed.
The dragon landed in front of Legion's downed body and slowly picked him up. It was at this point my face was just stained with tears. It brought Legion closer to him and slowly opened its mouth, revealing multiple razor sharp teeth. This was it. He was going to die. And I couldn't do anything about-
"Gotcha," I heard Legion say before he lifted up his sword and thrust it into the dragon's maw, impaling it through the other side.
As the dragon fizzled away like a mist, Legion was released from its grip, until finally...it was gone.
I couldn't believe it.
I slowly got out from my hiding spot as Legion began to get up. He noticed me approaching and started walking towards, albeit while struggling. He had bruises and small cuts all over his body, and the tip of his right wing was slightly burnt. He noticed my crying and proceeded to wipe away the tears running down my face.
"I told you I'll be fine Shimmy," he said with a smile.
I walked closer to him and wrapped my hooves around his neck, before sitting on my haunches and crying into his neck. He sat down on his haunches as well and wrapped his hooves around my neck, resting his chin on my mane and shushing me.
"Hey, hey. It's alright Shimmy Shake. You have nothing to worry about. It'll take a lot more than some bruises and paper cuts to put me down," he said, to which I removed my head from his neck and looked at his eyes. They were filled with comfort and reassurance.
"B-b-b-but..." I said before he placed his hoof on my mouth, silencing me.
He then surprised me by leaning down and nuzzling my neck with his. I smiled a bit and nuzzled him back. The feeling of his fur rubbing against mine was...amazing. Too bad it didn't last forever as he let go.
"Now come on. I need a doctor cause I actually am in a bit of pain," he said. He put his clothes back on and picked up his sword, before we proceeded to head back to Ponyville.
DeffBwade's POV
Well what a day it has been. Just when everything seemed fine, another shadow monster had to ruin it all. This time, it looked like Ridley from Metroid, from the head, the claws, the wings, everything! It's skin was unfortunately a bit too hard to penetrate, most likely because it was basically a dragon, so it had scales. Thankfully, I managed to get close enough, even though it hurt like a bitch, and impaled it through the mouth.
After Shimmy and I returned to Ponyville, my first stop was the hospital. All I really needed were some band aids and an ice pack to help with the bruises. At least I got to see Nurse Redheart again. It's always nice to talk to her, even though she was disappointed again for getting injured for the third time in the last 2 months. But well, you know...shit happens.
After my visit to the hospital, we headed back to the school to report the incident to Headmare Twilight. We explained to her everything that happened. We both knew immediately who was responsible for it.
King Sombra.
But what had us baffled was one simple question: why me? Why did one of Sombra's creations attack me? Was it because I defeated his last two creations? Maybe. It's the only logical conclusion we could think of, and I kinda dread the thought of having to fight more.
"If this is what superheroes have to face on a daily basis, then holy shit. I do not want to be a superhero."
I can kinda see where you're going with this, but I always have to do what's right, no matter what.
"Yeah...you're right."
The Cakes excused me from work due to my injuries, and said that I could take as much time as I needed to recover. Bless the Cakes. Really sweet family.
Afterwards, Shimmy and I said our goodbyes and went back to our respective dorms.
Speaking of Shimmy, before the whole Ridley incident, today has been...I honestly don't know. Don't get me wrong though! I had fun, it's just...I've been having some...weird feelings. Ever since I met Shimmy, I've continued to grow more fond of her, to the point I considered my best friend. Her sweet demeanor, her sassy attitude, not being afraid to express herself, her Valley girl accent. I liked everything about her.
Today though...I've been feeling some emotions of happiness...and...attraction? Particularly towards Shimmy as the day progressed. Why was I feeling attracted towards Shimmy Shake? I don't think it was because of her nice mane style, or her Valley girl accent, or how her eyes glisten in the sun, or...the way her mane looks when it's let down and blows in the wind or when wet, or...the feeling of her soft and warm fur against...mine, or...pretty much...her...overall...
...beauty.
...
Is...is that it?
Is that why I've grown so fond of her personality and so attracted to her looks?
Is that why my cheeks start to heat up and my heart flutters at just the thought of her now?
Am I...
Am I in love with Shimmy Shake?
Third Person POV
"No.......no..........NO!" Sombra screamed before he started shooting lasers in random directions, causing the cave to shake violently.
Even though he was told not to, he still sent one of his creations to attack the grey colt. Everything was too perfect. The colt was alone besides an orange filly, and the colt told her to run. Most things were unable to actually hurt a dragon's scales. So combined with his dark magic, his creation couldn't have been defeated. At least...that's what he thought. Cause just when his creation was about to do the finishing blow, the colt impaled it through the mouth! Was...was his plan? Did he know he couldn't defeat it by attacking its scales and decided he needed to get close enough? Was that his plan all along?!
"Sombra!"
"WHAT?!" Sombra screamed at the figure.
"What?! What do you mean what?! I told you specifically not to attack the colt, and what do you do?! Oh right. You attack the colt because you're too brain dead to listen to me!" the figure shouted.
"That colt has proved time and time again that he's a nuisance to our plans! I sent one of my strongest creations, and he defeated it! If you had half a brain, you would know that it would be smart to get rid of him before we attack!" Sombra shouted, "In fact, maybe I'll go over there and finish him myself!"
"No Sombra! You are not going to do that! You will leave the colt alone! You will continue to make minions for our army! And then we will use our army of darkness to take down the princesses and the Elements of Harmony and take over Equestria! IS! THAT! CLEAR?!" the figure screamed.
"WHY ARE YOU SO ADAMANT ABOUT ALLOWING A COLT THAT HAS PROVED TO BE CAPABLE OF STOPPING OUR PLANS TO RULE EQUESTRIA TO LIVE?!" Sombra asked very angrily.
"BECAUSE THAT COLT IS MINE!" the figure shouted.
...
...
"What?" Sombra asked, not really angry now, but more confused.
"You heard me," the figure said sternly.
"What do you mean he's yours?" Sombra asked.
"It's exactly what it means! He's mine! He's my fight! He's my kill!" the figure said.
"But...why?" Sombra asked.
"Have you not heard of something called revenge?" the figure asked, confusing Sombra even more, "And besides, getting rid of the colt right now would be unnecessary, for I may have found something that could help us."