//------------------------------// // Past Reflections // Story: Son of Chaos // by twow443 //------------------------------// Chapter 3-Past Reflections I sat in the classroom with Cheerilee. Apple Bloom had already had a talk with the teacher, and she only needed to talk with her sister. Which at that point, was me. Wonderful. “I'm sorry that I had to bother you, Applejack. This has been going on for some time now.” Cheerilee said. I nodded. “Ah'm sorry. When we get home Ah'll be sure to have a good talk with her. Could you explain to me what was happening?” I mentally kicked myself. AJ never really had the time to hang out with me, except if we were working on something. As such, I had virtually no idea how to talk like the workhorse. I sure hoped that Cheerilee wouldn't catch on. The teacher didn't seem to notice my issues with speaking. “You are friends with Shade, are you not?” I nodded. At least, I considered AJ my friend. I didn't know how long that would last considering that I was pretending to be her. Cheerilee continued. “This all started to occur after Shade started to spend more time with Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. I'm not sure what Diamond Tiara's father has been saying, but I do know that he and his daughter do not like him.” Wonderful. What did I do that made one of the richest ponies living here not like me? I never had any conversations with Filthy Rich, just nodded to him a few times when I walked by him. Heck, I was Celestia's son! You'd think that would make want to get CLOSER to me. Then it hit me like a bolt from the sky. “He doesn't accept me as Celestia's son.” Now I was worried. Obviously attacking royalty would be out of the question. But if somepony didn't accept me as Celestia's son then if she didn't know I could easily be attacked. Cheerilee sighed. I asked her, “Why did you not tell me before?” “I was hoping that I could get them to stop fighting.” Cheerilee said. “Between you and me Applejack, I think that Shade might be in danger every time he leaves Canterlot.” Wait a second. I had only ever been between Canterlot and Ponyville my whole life. Celestia hadn't wanted me to leave beyond these two towns after what had happened three months ago. So that means, somepony here in Ponyville might have it out for me. I knew this much, I needed to leave the school. Speaking like AJ was using my energy. Now I have more energy then the average pony, but because I was nervous, I was burning it to stay in AJ's form. I jerked as I felt my tail shift back to my changeling form. I slightly frowned and changed it back. Time to leave. Cheerilee looked at me with a concerned expression. “Are you alright, Applejack?” I nodded. “Never better. Don't you worry.” I said, standing. Cheerilee stood up also. “Ah'll have a good talk with mah sis, try to see if I can't stop all this fightin'. Cheerilee and I shook hooves and as she turned to walk up to her desk, I almost ran out of the school. . . . Pinkie Pie, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were waiting for me outside. I dashed out of the school and skidded to a stop in front of them. Panting, I shifted fully back into my changeling form. The three fillies and Pinkie were rolling around laughing. I glared at them. “What's..so funny? “Ah can't believe you just fooled Miss Cheerilee!” Apple Bloom got out between laughs. I allowed myself a quick smile. Just when I started thinking about absorbing their joy, they stopped laughing. Annoyed, I sat down and held my head in my hooves. “Are you okay, Shade?” Sweetie asked. I nodded. Pinkie sat by me and looked at me. “Silly, are you going to walk around like a changeling?” Noticing, I looked at myself. Something told me that would not be a good idea. “Hey guys? What if you had a cutie mark in tickling?” The three fillies looked at me strange, but then I pointed at Pinkie. The fillies gave each other a devious smile. Just as Pinkie figured out what I was doing, she was jumped by all three of them. They tickled her and she....well, she laughed. A lot. I could tell that she didn't mind by the joy that was radiating off of her. I quickly absorbed it and put some in my necklace. “Okay girls, enough. We need to go.” I called. “Thanks for that Shade.” Apple Bloom said. “Mah big sis would have mah tail if she knew that I was fighting again.” “This is the third time you got into a fight with Diamond Tiara this month, at least that I know of. What's going on with you and her?” I asked. “We just don't see both ways.” She told me. “But Ah was tired of her talking about you like you were nothing more then a bug!” I was confused at why Diamond was trying to create a negative reputation about me. “When did this all start?” I asked. “About three weeks ago.” Scoot said, angrily. “If I had the chance...” “Guys? I really should be at Applejack's now!” Pinkie said. I had forgotten that she was even there. I nodded at Pinkie. “Do you want to take them, Pinkie? I might go visit Fluttershy.” “Actually Shade, would you mind coming with me back to the shop?” Sweetie asked. “I'm staying with her for the weekend, but she said to see if somepony could stay with me for a little bit after school.” “I don't mind, but why?” I questioned. “She said that she was showing some of her dresses off.” Sweetie said. “She should be back in about an hour and a half.” “Alright then.” I looked back at Pinkie and the fillies. “See you guys later then?” Pinkie gave me an energetic wave and left with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. Sweetie and I made our way to the boutique. . . . Now you might be wondering why I hung out with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Well, it was after I had recovered from almost dying, about two months ago. I had been in Ponyville with Pinkie. I had just been following Pinkie as she wanted company when she was doing some errands for the Cakes. We were by the park and Pinkie saw Rainbow across the park. As she dashed over to talk to her, I had stayed where I was, still rather nervous about being out in public in my unicorn form. Back then, I was still learning how to control my emotions and powers. Because of the fact that I was still adjusting to my abilities, my nervousness had overridden my pony form and caused me to shift back into my changeling form. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of a park where young ones were playing. Considering that most ponies were still frightened of me, that didn't end well. I left that area very quickly because the sight of me freaked out several of the foals playing. I used a random quick teleport spell so I don't think that Pinkie or Rainbow even knew that I had left. I had accidentally teleported into the Crusader's clubhouse. Emotionally distraught, I had remained in there for a while, crying. See, I normally was a strong pony, or changeling, but even I could get run down. That month had been the worst. Celestia had explained to all of Equestria that I was her son, and it didn't help that I was a changeling. I would constantly get dirty looks and be pushed around. I actually was kicked out of a clothing shop in Canterlot because of what I was. I didn't tell my mother because she was occupied all the time because of her royal duties. I suspected that she also had to explain about me too. Anyway I was sitting in the clubhouse, crying like a filly when I heard a voice. “Are you alright?” I raised my head to see a white unicorn, a orange pegasus and a yellow earth pony. Instead of leaving in fear of me, they came inside and sat around me. “I'm...Shade.” I had told them. In turn, the fillies had introduced themselves. I saw that they paid no attention to me being a changeling. I felt, at peace when we were hanging out. I had managed to shift back to my unicorn form and Sweetie noticed that I didn't have a cutie mark. She had asked me if I wanted to be an official member of the Crusaders. I accepted with no hesitation. We did have fun. Whenever I wasn't with any of my six older friends, usually one of the Crusaders would ask if I wanted to hang with them and more often then not, I would join them. Contrary to belief, they did do more then just try to achieve their cutie marks, although we got into some almost really nasty scrapes. In fact, there was this one time that Scootaloo tried hang-gliding. It got to the point where I had to shift into Rainbow and catch her because she FELL of the glider. It was actually really funny once we were safely on the ground. Sweetie and I became really close friends. She actually found it amusing that I had used her form before I had been captured. Whenever the two of us were bored, we would chill out together in the clubhouse or at Rarity's boutique. Our favorite place was at Sugercube Corner. Sweetie and I together never really did any crusading, we would just walk around Ponyville and talk. I told her everything about my changeling powers, that I knew of. She understood about how conflicted I was feeling. For a little filly, she was very smart. When Sweetie and I reached the boutique, we arrived the same time as Rarity did. “Oh, hello Shade!” she said. “Hello, Sweetie!” “Hey Rarity.” I said as Sweetie walked up to her sister. “I was going to stay with her, but now that you're here...” “Oh it's perfectly alright. You can stay for a while.” Rarity said. I smiled, “Thanks, but I'll come by tomorrow. I'm going to try to visit Fluttershy. See you guys.” They waved to me as I walked off. It was starting to become evening. As I was walking, I was looking at the ground. I saw that my shadow was...getting larger? Uh-oh. I looked up and lunged forward. My friend Derpy slammed down right where I was standing. “Derpy! Are you okay?” My cross-eyed friend looked at me. “Uh, sorry about that. I wasn't trying to hit you.” Now, Derpy was one of the few friends that I had before I went to Canterlot for the first time. She would come and deliver letters to the princesses and members of the Royal Guard. We got to talking and we became good friends. Her preferred name was Ditzy, but her friends were allowed to call her Derpy. I was happy to be considered her friend. Meanwhile, back in the present Derpy had her mail bag on her. Reaching into it, she handed me a letter. “Here ya go! Just for you!” “I have a letter?” I asked, confused. “Who sent me it?” Derpy shook her head. “Don't know.” She flapped her wings and rose in the air. “Oh Shade, are we still going to hang out tomorrow?” I nodded. “Yeah, we'll go to that new muffin place.” She smiled. “Just for you! Bye!” She flew off. I looked down at the letter. It was in a plain white envelope. I opened it with magic and levitated it in front of me. The outside was green bordered with gold and had a draconequus on the outside. I opened the card to read. “If you are reading this, then you have 30 minutes to meet me at the field where you learned out to shift. If you are not there, then you will find the kind streak in your life to become very cruel.” I stopped for a second to think about who would send me this. Suddenly I noticed something at the bottom. “P.S. I owe you quite a few birthday presents, don't I?” With a horrible feeling, I looked at the front of the card again. As I watched, the draconequus on the front winked at me.