Twilight had woken up and had showed the test results to Pinkie. She had taken it suprisingly well, at least Twilight thought so. All Pinkie had done was mutter something about making Shadow Cupcakes and then she had walked off to Sugarcube Corner. Twilight had been reading about cutie marks with negative attributes for the rest of the day.
She heard a loud knock on the door and checked the time.
"22:46 already? Time sure flies." Twilight made her way to the door and opened, only to find Pinkie dressed up in a dark camouflague jumpsuit, she was carrying a black cannon on her back.
"Come on Twilight! I need your help!" Twilight looked at Pinkie and decided that it was better not to ask what the crazy party pony was up to, as this wasn't exactly out of her character, as the black cannon on Pinkie’s back obviously was a party cannon of some sort. Twilight took the black jumpsuit that Pinkie had given her from nowhere and put it on.
"What are we doing Pinkie? Shouldn't we wake the other girls?" Twilight was just confused. By now, she was standing just outside the library, in the middle of the night, wearing a black jumpsuit, standing next to another mare wearing an identical jumpsuit as well as a cannon on her back.
"NO! We can't wake the other girls. It is harder to do ninja-ish stuff if we are more than two. Our target is currently sleeping in this house in Cloudsdale." Pinkie was pointing at a map of Cloudsdale.
"I suppose I will prepare the balloon then." Twilight decided to play along with Pinkie’s little shenanigan. Hopefully, nopony would get hurt. Unlike that time when... Twilight shuddered to even think about it, for she was still having nightmares of that cat. Twilight teleported herself and Pinkie to the launch pad for the balloon. It was already filling up with hot air.
"I am coming for you, you better run Shadow." Pinkie was staring at Cloudsdale with a small grin and determation in her eyes.
Pinkie and Twilight got in the basket and began their ascent. Twilight wished that Pinkie wouldn’t do anything stupid while they were out "ninjaing" in Cloudsdale.
"By the way Pinkie, what type of Party Cannon are you carrying? I haven't seen that model before." Twilight was eyeing the black cannon: it had some sort of drum shaped magazine, and the barrel was much thinner than the regular type.
"Oh Twilight you silly! Can't you see that it is a Party Flak? I have these stashed around Ponyville in case I need to throw airborne parties!" Twilight shrugged and started to look for a nice landing spot, she didn't like Pinkie bringing a Flak Cannon into Cloudsdale. But, what could be the worst thing to happen? Everypony was asleep, anyways.
As soon as they touched the clouds on one of the public landing platforms, Pinkie lept out and rolled into the shadow of a nearby building. Twilight got out of the balloon and walked over to Pinkie.
"Stay down Twilight. We need to be stealthy! Omigosh, it feels like I'm playing "Hitmare", but with me instead of Agent 42!" Pinkie did her best to keep quiet, but Twilight saw how hard it was.
"Why were we here again? I think you never told me, Pinkie." Twilight would at least want to know why she was standing in Cloudsdale in the middle of the night.
"Oh Twilight, didn't I tell you? Commence operation "Inverted Shadow", our target: this house here, in Western Cloudsdale. The meanie, or at least the meanie's dumb henchpony, should live there."
"Operation "Inverted Shadow?" Why did you choose that name?" Twilight was confused but Pinkie only gave her a "may i borrow one of your hoofs so that i can do a triple facehoof" glare.
"Well duh, it was either that or "Operation Downright Orange". Which one would you pick?" Pinkie glared at Twilight as if the question actually had an incorrect answer.
"Nevermind, let's be on our way then." Twilight was just tagging along; she had to make sure nopony would get hurt by Pinkie. Pinkie snuck through the shadows, a thing that wasn't very difficult since Cloudsdale had large buildings grouped up tight which meant that every street was completely shrouded in darkness.
After sneaking around for a good 20 minutes, the duo finally reached the house Pinkie had been searching for. It was nothing special, just a plain little house with only one floor.
Pinkie snuck up to a window and peeked in. Twilight, albeit not too happy about doing it, peeked as well. Inside was the bedroom of the house, in the bed a black pegasus with a red mane was snoring loudly. The only thing in the room that was even remotely unusual was a dark red hat sitting on the bedside table.
"AHA! I knew he was a baddie! All baddies have dastardly moustaches!" Twilight rolled her eyes. When was Pinkie planning on acting mature?
"Pinkie, that pegasus doesn’t have a moustache... Why don't you just tell me why you chose to troll this particular pegasus and we'll be on our way home." Twilight was already fantasising about crawling in under her bedsheets and reading "Fifty Sheds of Gray".
*Click*
"H-Hey, what are you doing outside my window? Why are you wearing black jumpsuits? And why are you carrying a Flak Cannon in the middle of Cloudsdale? That’s like begging for somepony to beat you up." While Twilight and Pinkie had been talking, the pegasus had woken up and noticed them standing outside the window. He was now leaning out of the open window, eyeing them suspiciously.
"His hat makes him look stylish." Twilight thought, stylish enough to make her blush slightly.
"W-Well... Uh, we were just ummm..." Twilight didn't get longer on her excuse before Pinkie bolted through the open window and pinned the pegasus to the floor. Twilight climbed after to stop Pinkie, as this was getting out of hoof.
"Pinkie stop! What are you doing? You don't even know him!" Twilight tried to pull Pinkie away from the poor pegasus but she wouldn’t budge.
"OH YES, I KNOW HIM! HE IS THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO FLUTTERSHY! Isn't that right, Inverted Shadow?" Pinkie was pushing a hoof against his throat, he was visibly struggling to breath. The pegasus's pupils shrunk when he heard the name Inverted Shadow, he started sweating and desperatly tried to push Pinkie away from him.
"I-Inverted S-Sha-Shadow? W-What a-are you t-talking about? M-My n-name is *GULP* Sh-Shadow Rush..." Shadow Rush/Inverted Shadow (Twilight wasn't sure on which was the real name) trembled as Pinkie forced him still on the ground. It was a very suggestive pose, so Twilight closed the windows and pulled the curtains over. She looked back at the interrogation and gasped as Pinkie pulled out a scalpel from nowhere and leaned in very close to Shadow.
"Let's see here, would black cupcakes with red frosting look good? I might even make custom muffin cups with your cutie mark on them, if you want, of course. Maybe I should begin with the ears this time, it would be nice with some variation from the standard procedure." Pinkie’s left eye was twitching slighlty and she had a manic grin on her face.
Then, in pure adrenalin powered panic, Shadow managed to force Pinkie off of him and darted out of the window, it was closed but a thin glass pane wasn't enough to stop him.
Pinkie leaped after with a fierce cry and gave chase. Twilight snuck out through the door and looked at the crazy display.
Shadow was flying above the roofs while Pinkie was parkouring on the rooftops. A confetti explosion appeared next to Shadow, forcing him to change course. The Party Flak sure had a high rate of fire, Twilight could barely see Shadow behind all the exploding confetti. Suddenly, Pinkie scored a direct hit and Shadow lost his balance. He crashed to the ground, Pinkie was on him instantly.
"TELL US WHAT HAPPENED TO FLUTTERSHY!" Pinkie yelled with all her lung capacity in Shadow's face. Shadow yelped and tried to crawl away but he just crawled into Twilight, he looked at her with pleading eyes.
"G-Get this c-crazy mare away f-from me! I will tell you everything, just don't let her turn me into cupcakes!"
Twilight moved up next to Pinkie and patted her on the shoulder.
"I don't think anypony would want to eat black cupcakes with red frosting, Shadow Cupcakes isn't a that good idea Pinkie. Why don't you let me do the talking?" Pinkie looked at Twilight for a moment before backing off.
"Maybe you’re right... black cupcakes do sound a little gross. It seems like today is your lucky day, punk! Twilight is a lot nicer than me when it comes to meanies!" If looks could kill, Shadow would have been liquified by Pinkie’s stare. He crept away a little and hid his face under his hat.
Twilight took Shadow in her magical grasp and carried him to the balloon. They decended back into Ponyville and got inside the library. Twilight locked the door and sealed all the windows. They sat down by the table and Twilight prepared two cups of coffee.
"Now, I think you promised me a story in exchange for me saving your life. Don't worry, I won’t threaten you. But you are not getting out until you have told me everything you know about this." Twilight gave Shadow his cup and a picture of the pony that used to be Fluttershy. He looked at the picture for a second before pushing it back.
"N-No, i'm s-sorry, I h-have never seen h-her before." His eyes darted all over the room and he was sweating a little. Twilight looked at him suspiciously and took the picture back.
"Okay, it was worth a shot, now we might never be able to save Fluttershy." Twilight fought back tears as she said it and she slowly made her way towards the bedroom. Shadow couldn’t stand watching the devastated mare and leaped after her.
"Wait! I haven't been honest with you, I do know that mare. Come back to the table and I’ll tell you." Twilight instantly brightened up and she smiled at Shadow. They sat down again and Shadow started talking.
A long time ago, before Nightmare Moon returned. I lived in a different universe. It was called a modiverse, and I was one of many who posessed near godlike powers. I could create and manipulate matter and beings at will. I sometimes took things from other universes to experiment with. One night, I took a being from this universe, the one you call Fluttershy, and placed her in a graveyard for others like me. Little did I know that she would be possesed by one who had as a speciality to manipulate sound so that it could physically harm other beings. The result was the creature on the picture, we called it "Fluttershout"." Shadow was obviously feeling a little embarrased over what he had done.
"But, what happened? Why are you here? Why is that... creature here?" Twilight felt like she had more questions now than before.
"May I continue? Anyway, Princess Celestia did not look on this action as something small. She managed to save the soul of Fluttershy and constructed a new body for it to inhabit. She then decided to punish me, she took all my powers, turned me into a pony and forced me to live under a new name. In the modiverse many called me "The Inverted Shadow.” Celestia forced me to change name to Shadow Rush. I promised her and myself to put my old life behind me, but it seems like it finally caught up with me." He took a sip from the coffee and rose from the table.
"That is my story, as for Fluttershout, I think she will try to become a ruler of something. She always had a "führer's mentality"." He began to walk to the door.
"What does "führer" mean?" Twilight knew more languages than the average Ponyville citizen but she had never heard that word before.
"It means "leader" in German, or as you would call it, "Germane"." Shadow took of with a burst and flew back to Cloudsdale, the last thing Twilight saw or heard of him was a loud bang followed by a black and red shockwave.
"A Shadow Rainboom..." Twilight whispered to herself, her mouth slightly agape.