//------------------------------// // Not so Bad // Story: The Thousand Year Change // by Darthvalgaav //------------------------------// “Ok, Equestria loses another point,” said Twilight. Shadow looked up from his menu to give her a curious expression. After leaving the hotel the two were beginning to get hungry and decided that they needed a proper meal. They managed to find a nice place and got a table outside. As soon as they sat down Twilight began to read the newspaper. “Bad article?” he asked. Twilight just handed him the paper before picking up her own menu, grumbling all the way. Curious, Shadow began to scan the paper very quickly. Most of it seemed harmless. There was a weather report, something about a group call the Wonderbolts, and a couple of adds. But when he got closer to the bottom of the page he found what he was looking for. The article talked about a scientist named Professor Kettle who had just revealed his greatest invention: a steam engine. “You have got to be bucking kidding me.” “See the problem,” said Twilight as she looked up from her menu. “The Republic has anti-gravity lift technology while Equestria is only now considering using steam power! I mean, I made a steam engine in magical pre-school!” “The technology level difference is just too much,” said Shadow with a nod. “It will take them a decade or two just to begin to understand our tech, let alone use it. One wrong move and ponies could die. We should tell the princess about this in case Canterlot decides to not share this information.” Twilight opened her mouth to say something when their waiter walked up to them. The waiter was about to say something until he noticed Shadow, and his eyes narrowed a bit. “Can I help you two?” he asked in a slightly cold tone. “Ah yes,” said Twilight as she picked up her menu again. “I’ll try the spaghetti and hay bales.” “And I’ll just have a fruit salad,” said Shadow as he put down the newspaper. Fruit salad was his normal order whenever the two ate out. It was just what bat ponies normally ate. He didn’t mind hay for flowers that much, but nothing satisfied him like nice, juicy fruit. “What kind?” asked the waiter. Shadow blinked in confusion. “There’s more than one?” “We have garden fruit salad, tropical fruit salad, passion fruit salad, apple lover’s fruit salad, and Pinkie Pie fruit salad,” said the waiter. “I guess I’ll try the tropical one,” answered Shadow. “I will need to see that you can both pay,” the waiter said as he glared at Shadow. Twilight sighed as she pulled out their bag of bits. “Would you like us to pay now so that we don’t eat and run?” asked Twilight with some venom in her voice. The waiter actually nodded and Twilight paid him. As he walked away, Twilight knew that he wasn’t going to get a tip! A few moments later their food arrived. As soon as they took their first bite. Both their eyes lit up. “I have never tasted anything like this before!” exclaimed Shadow. “This is simply amazing.” “We never had food like this back home,” agreed Twilight as she took another bite out of her meal. “Maybe they just prefer to perfect their culinary skills.” Shadow nodded eagerly as he swallowed. “Man, if mom were here she’d give…” The excitement in Shadow’s voice faded as he realized what he was saying. Even after all these years, talking about his parents was still hard. He then felt a hoof touch his own and he looked up into Twilight’s caring eyes. “I know how you feel,” she said with a slight half smile. “I miss them too.” She then paused for a moment, unsure what to say next. She then looked down at her food, used her magic to swirl some noodles onto her fork, and then hovered it in front of Shadow. “Here, try this.” Shadow smiled as he opened his mouth and took a bite. For the next half an hour the two shared their meals with each other. It was a bit harder for Shadow to do it due to hooves, but he did his best. After all, if his marefriend was going to feed him he should at least try to do the same. “I have got to get some more kiwi before we leave,” said Shadow. The kiwi had been the best part of his fruit salad. At least in his mind. Twilight had found it to be a bit on the tart side. “So, what’s the plan for the rest of the day?” “Well I was thinking of talking to more ponies,” she said as she pulled out a scroll. “But I think it’ll just be more of the same. We have met some nice ponies, but they seem to all react badly towards you. So I’m a bit on the fence on were to put that point. Right now I have one for Equestria, one against, and one undecided.” Shadow opened his mouth to speak, but whatever he said was drowned out by another pony’s loud voice. “What do you mean there is no room in this hotel for the Great and Powerful Trixie?” The two turned to see a light blue unicorn with a pointy hat and cape standing before a tanned earth pony. “I-I’m truly sorry,” said the tanned pony looking rather timid and scared. “B-But when Princess Celestia contacted me, she asked if you could stay in the library.” “Then you must have misheard,” said Trixie. “Do you honestly think that the faithful student of Princess Celestia would make the Great and Powerful Trixie sleep in a library of all places?! Trixie thinks not.” “But what can I do?” asked the mayor. “I-” The tanned pony paused as Twilight walked up to them. “Excuse me, but I couldn’t help but overhear the problem,” said the purple unicorn with a smile. “If you don’t mind I think I have a solution to our little problem.” “Then tell Trixie,” said Trixie with a hint of annoyance. “Well me and my coltfriend just got the last room at the hotel,” said Twilight. Trixie huffed and looked like she was about to shout at Twilight, but the student of Princess Luna continued. “But to be honest we would prefer something a bit…different. Seeing that you are unhappy with your arrangements, perhaps we could just swap rooms.” Trixie blinked when she heard this. For the first time in a long time, she was speechless. But it was for a short time. Soon the arrogant unicorn cleared her throat as she turned to look at the mayor once more. “It seems to Trixie that you, my dear mayor, are performing pitifully,” she said. “You are lucky that this stranger came along to save your flank.” She then turned to face Twilight and held out her hoof for the keys to the hotel room. A few moments later Trixie walked away without a single word of thanks. Not that Twilight really cared. “Y-You gave away our room?” asked a wide eyed Shadow. “Yep,” said Twilight with a happy nod. “Now we can look up a lot more information without looking too suspicious. I mean, how are we supposed to ask about holidays and other types of events without looking too weird? Looking up this information would be easier, but we are still supposed to get a feel for the ponies in Equestria. This way we get a place to stay, can continue to meet ponies all day, and when we are done we can go to the library and look through hundreds of books.” “Well, yeah, that does make sense,” admitted Shadow. “But what about-” Suddenly a cap fell on his head. “What the hay is this?” He then heard a noise above him. Looking up, Shadow saw an angry looking Pegasus mare with a rainbow mane flying down towards him. Once he saw the problem, Shadow simply side stepped causing the mare to crash into the ground. This resulted in the creation of a small crater next to the couple. “You jerk,” yelled the mare as she pulled herself out. “Give me back my hat!” With that she jumped into the air and landing in a battle position. Shadow did the same, ready to strike if she dared to attack him. The mare then lunged at Shadow with incredible. Shadow’s eyes widen as he quickly realized that she was much faster than Lightning Dust. In less than a second the Pegasus mare was an inch away from his face, ready to strike him with a right hook. Yet she found she couldn’t as a purple aura surrounded her. “Remind me again who is supposed to be protecting who,” said Twilight as she kept the angry Pegasus at bay who was struggling to reach Shadow. “Hey, I could have taken her,” said Shadow as he pointed at the mare. He then turned to face her. “If you had just waited a second I would have given you the damn thing back.” This caused the mare to stop all her movements. “Really?” she asked. Shadow nodded as Twilight let her go. A few seconds later the hat was on its owner's head. “Sorry about that. I guess the wind blew off my lucky hat and I panicked. The name’s Rainbow Dash by the way.” “I’m Shadow Blade and that’s Twilight Sparkle,” responded Shadow. He then looked a bit closer at the hat. “Who are the Wonderbolts?” Rainbow gave him a horrified expression. “You have never heard of the Wonderbolts?” she asked, no demanded. “They are only the greatest flyers in all of Equestria! The best of the best! They’re going to be performing tomorrow during the Summer Sun Celebration! Isn’t that AWESOME?!” She then held out her hoof to Shadow as well as giving him her best ‘I’m sorry’ face. “No hard feelings, right?” Shadow hesitated for a moment. He looked at Rainbow’s face and saw that her expression was genuine. Slowly he held out his hoof to shake hers. “No problem,” he said. “By the way everypony’s been acting, I guess it’s natural that you’d think I stole your cap.” Rainbow blinked. “What the hay are you talking about?” she asked. “The only reason I thought that was because I saw you wearing it.” “You mean it has nothing to do with him being a bat pony?” asked Twilight. To be honest, she believed that Rainbow was pretending to be ignorant or something. However Rainbow just shook her head. “Being a bat pony doesn’t make you bad,” she said. She paused for a moment and then looked very serious. “Look, I have a cousin named Color Scheme and she’s a bat pony too.” Both Shadow and Twilight’s eyes widened when they heard this. “When my aunt found out it was a big deal with the family. We all got together to tell her that we would stick by her no matter what happened. And Scheme turned out to be really nice and really cool. I remember back when I was in grade class she entered a painting in this contest and won first prize. But as soon as they found out she had bat wings they claimed she must of entered somepony else’s painting!” “That’s awful,” said Twilight. She could only imagine what it must have been like for the poor dear. To work hard on something, win first prize, and then have everything taken away by stupid distrust. “It was,” said Rainbow angrily. “It broke her heart for awhile. Heck, I was ready to go buck those judges in the eye!” Shadow smiled. “Nice to know that she has somepony like you standing up for her.” “Of course I’d stand up for her!” said Rainbow with a grin. “I’d never leave my family or friends hanging like that. Besides, she’s doing alright for herself. Ponies around here might not know it but she’s the one writing the X-Ponies comics! Color Scheme says that when she’s about to retire she’ll make her first and only appearance. There’ll be no way they can deny her skills then.” A few minutes later the two bid farewell to Rainbow. While Twilight didn’t say anything out loud, she was beginning to think she had misjudged most of the ponies in this town. Maybe the Republic should join up with Equestria so that they could help fix the ponies feelings towards bat ponies. It was definitely something worth pursuing. As they went to the market, Shadow and Twilight decided to split up for a while. While Twilight went to talk to some of the vendors Shadow went to see if he could find some kiwi seeds. If the talks broke down then he wanted to be prepared. As he walked down the street he heard a commotion coming down one of the alleyways. For a moment he hesitated. Whatever was going on most likely wasn’t his problem. But at the same time he was a member of the Royal Guard. Even if this wasn’t his homeland, he just could let something bad go down when he was right there. Slowly he walked down the alley. As he got closer he spotted the source. It was just three fillies. Two of them, both earth ponies, were apparently bullying an orange Pegasus. Near the orange filly was a broken scooter. “Ah look Silver Spoon,” said one of the earth pony fillies to the other. “She looks like she’s going to cry.” “I know Diamond Tiara,” said Silver Spoon. “That is, like, so uncool.” They both began to laugh as the orange Pegasus tried in vain to repair her wheels. However, from what Shadow could tell, it was a futile gesture. The base was completely broken and looked like she had originally gotten it from a dumpster. With a sigh, Shadow turned to leave. He had thought some pony was in trouble but it was just a couple of brats picking on a classmate. It was nothing for him to worry about. If he did get involved then the parents of all parties would get involved and they might ask some questions that could blow his cover. He felt bad for the poor girl but her situation wasn’t life threatening. In fact, solving it was simple. All the orange filly had to do was talk to her mother tonight about what happened. However, what he heard next caused him to stop dead in his tracks. “Look on the bright side,” said Diamond Tiara. “Now your mommy will buy you a new scooter. Oops, I forgot. You don’t have a mommy. You’re just some orphan that no pony wants. That makes you the lowest of the low. You’re just a blank flank gutter foal!” With that both earth ponies began to laugh cruelly at their victim. A half second later the two bullies found a large figure standing in the way of the orange mare. They both looked up to see a pair of golden slit eyes glaring at the two. The figure then lifted his two large bat wings into the air. He opened his mouth to say something, but Diamond Tiara pushed Silver Spoon to the ground and ran away without ever looking back at the friend she had sacrificed to save her own plot. As for Silver Spoon, she heard the bat pony say “Run” and did as he commanded. As the two left, Shadow turned to look at the poor filly who looked like she was about to use the remains of her scooter as a weapon. He gave a light hearted laugh and held out a hoof to show he meant no ill will. “Sorry about that,” he said. “I just meant to give those two a scare. Maybe I went a bit overboard.” He then looked at the pieces of the scooter. “You know, if you want my marefriend might be able to fix that if you want.” The filly’s eyes brightened instantly. “Really?” she asked. “That would be so cool.” She then smiled. “Sorry about being scared of you.” Shadow shrugged. “I was going for scary,” he said with a laugh. “My names Shadow Blade. What’s yours?” “Scootaloo,” she replied. Shadow grinned as he patted the filly on the head. As he did, however, he felt something that caused his eyes to widen.