Chapter 22
It had been about a week since the Gala. Nopony knew about the incident with the griffins besides those who were there, and we had covered it up as best we could. The princesses are still trying to convince me to be the ambassador, and I still am telling them no, of course. So far I haven’t had the darkness try to take control. Which is surprising because I really expected it to try and take control at the Gala, it seems that something bad always seems to happen at it. I shook my head and returned back to the moment and looked into the mirror in front of me. I levitated the hair brush and straightened my mane. After looking in the mirror I groaned and used my hoof to rub my mane back to its original position. I tried parting it down the side with the same result. I was going out with Rainbow tonight to have a picnic on the outside of town. We were going to have a nice night out under the sky. I smiled as I thought about it. I looked back in the mirror and tried ever different type of style I knew but it always came out wrong. I heard a laugh behind me and I turned around and saw Skies standing in the doorway.
“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up.” I said turning back to the mirror.
“Alright I’m going to make one offer and you batter take it” she said.
“What?” I asked.
“I’ll style your mane for you just this one time.” She said.
“Really?”
“Yes now give me that brush and sit down.”
I levitated the brush over to Skies and she took it. I then sat down and closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths.
“I’m done.” Skies said.
I opened my eyes and looked at the mirror to see what Skies had done. “It looks the exact same.” I said looking at Skies.
“Exactly. I’m sure Rainbow likes you for who you are. Not because of what your mane looks like.” Skies said.
I let what she just said sink in. “You're right.” I looked at her and for once I didn’t see just a little sister. I saw a young mare starting to do things for herself. She was growing up much faster than I thought. She was always more mature then most of the kids these days, but now she was even more than that. “You’re growing up to be a very smart mare.” I said giving her a hug which she returned happily. “Well I’d better get going. I’ll see you later.” I said as I walked out of the room, took the basket that was on the counter, and walked to the front door. Rainbow and I had agreed to meet each other at the edge of town and fly out to a clearing next to a lake that we had found while flying one day. As I approached the edge of town I looked down the road that not too long ago I had walked into this town on. I smiled not just because of this memory but also because of the mare that was on this path.
“Bout, time you got here.” Rainbow said sarcastically.
“I know now are you ready to go?” I asked.
“Yeah, let’s go.” She said as she took off from the ground. I quickly joined her in the air and we flew off in the direction of the clearing. As we were flying Rainbow turned her head around and looked at me. “Hey, can I ask you a question?” she asked.
“Sure, ask away.”
“You’ve traveled around a lot. How many places have you been to?”
I started to think back trying to remember all the different places I had gone to and been run out of. “I actually don’t know. I’ve been to so many it’s hard to keep track. Before I gave up counting I think I was around sixty.”
“Wow, how long ago did you stop counting?”
“I stopped counting the day I met Skies, so around five years ago.” I said.
“You sure have gotten around a lot.” She said and seemed like she wanted to say more but hesitated.
“Oh, look there's the clearing.” I said and pointed towards the open area. We landed and I set the basket on the ground. I levitated the blanket out and spread it out on the grass. After the blanket was set I took out all the food that I had packed the night before. We ate the food and talked to each other for a good amount of time. After we had finished eating we laid down on the blanket and sat in silence for a while. Eventually I sat up and looked at Rainbow.
“Hey Rainbow, before we landed you seemed like there was something more you wanted to ask me. What was it?” I asked.
“It was nothing. It’s not important.” She said.
“Well now I want to know. It’s going to bother me until you tell me, so please can you just tell me?” I said almost begging.
She stayed quiet for a second then she spoke. “Alright, but it’s going to seem really childish.”
“I won’t judge. I guarantee that I won’t laugh.”
“Fine, you traveled around a lot. Have you ever had any marefriend besides me?” she asked. I tried and tried as hard as I could, but I wasn’t able to keep my promise. I burst out laughing on the spot. “Hey!”
I covered my mouth until I had stopped laughing. “I’m sorry it’s just funny.” I took a deep breath and stopped laughing before continuing. “But to answer your question. No, I’ve never had another marefriend. Nopony has ever stayed around me long enough to even try.” I stood up and walked to the edge of the lake. “They’ve always been so afraid of me.” I looked into the lake and saw my reflection, but it started to change and distort until I was staring at a possessed me. I hit the water with my hoof causing the reflection to be obscured. Rainbow came up beside me and put her hoof around my neck and pulled me into an embrace. I closed my eyes and enjoyed her presence. I opened my eyes and looked at her and saw the mischievous grin on her face and I realized what was about to happen. She quickly used her leg that she had put around my neck and pushed me into the lake. I broke the surface of the water and said. “So that’s how you want to play it?” and I reached out of the lake and grabbed one of her legs. I pulled her into the water after me getting a shout of surprise from her. She came out of the water and a used my hoof to send a splash of water towards her. In retaliation she used her wings to splash me back. I dove under the water to avoid the splash. I swam under the water and looked around to see what I could do. I saw that I was directly underneath Rainbow. I smiled and made sure to sink down to the bottom of the lake. I then pushed off of the bottom and used my wings to propel me to the surface even faster. As I neared the surface I made sure to propel myself towards Rainbow and as I broke the surface I felt her body connect with my back. I proceeded to continue flying into the sky. I turned my head around and met eyes with Rainbow. Both of us laughed as I flew through the air with her on my back. I turned my head back around and flew around in the sky. I felt Rainbow lay her head down on my back. I smiled and started my decent back towards the lake. I landed and let Rainbow get off of my back. I used my magic to gather the basket and the other things we brought with us. Once I had everything put away I put the basket away and we took off back towards Ponyville. We flew together side by side in silence simply enjoying the flight back. As we neared the edge of town we descended towards the ground. We landed and continued walking towards the town. As we reached the entrance we turned to each other.
“That was a fun night Shadow.” Rainbow said
“Yeah I had a fun time.” I said. “We need to do more thing like this.”
She smiled and I raised my hoof and brought her into an embrace. We backed out of the embrace but came back together again, but this time not in an embrace but in a deep kiss. We stayed like that for a while but finally broke apart. Rainbow gave me a smile before flying back through the town towards her house. I turned to walk into the town, but stopped as I saw a small white filly walking through the town. I hid behind a wall and watched as my little sister walked through town trying to remain unnoticed, so I decided to do the one thing a big brother could. I was going to follow her and find out where she was going.