//------------------------------// // Return // Story: Story of the Shadowmane // by Navras97 //------------------------------// “What was that all about?” Asked Rainbow Dash, “the way Shadowmane said goodbye, it sounded like a last goodbye.” “I thought he wanted to build his house near me.” Fluttershy started to look sad. “Maybe he just went off to get supplies and that portal trick of his pretty darn handy” says Applejack, fixing her hat. “Maybe he traveled to some freaky dimension where time goes by much faster.” suggested Pinkie Pie. “What makes you say that Pinkie?” I ask her, “Just a hunch,” Pinkie gives me a big grin. “Pinkie that is so… moderately absurd” says Rarity. To be honest some part of me believes what Pinkie Pie just said. The look in Shadowmane’s eye when he got approval from Fluttershy was yelling out happiness. Shadowmane seems like that kind of pony capable of things like bending time. “Maybe we should wait a day or two guys, and maybe he’ll show up again.” I tell everyone. We all decide to sleep over at Fluttershy’s house to see if Shadowmane will return with building material or something. We all catch some shuteye that night. I look through the window that looks over the cleared plot of land. I stop thinking about it and get some sleep. This has sure been some day I’ve never had before. I don’t need to send a letter about this to Princess Celestia, after all I'm her equal now and what does this have to do about friendship, this is just crazy… I drift into sleep faster than… I think… *8 hours later* BOOM! I wake up to the feeling of the ground beneath me rumbling outrageously! Fluttershy’s animals are going crazy and Fluttershy is up in an instant to calm them down. Everyone’s awake on the sound of the crash. It’s already morning; I can see the sunbeams pour into the house through the windows. I can smell the morning air once the dust settled. “What just happened?!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “IT’S THE END TIMES; CELESTIA’S HAIR IS FALLING OUT!” Pinkie Pie seems normal at least, you can tell not even she expected this with her Pinkie sense. “Relax girls”, I tell them, “it was probably a mild earthquake”. Applejack motions me to the window she’s looking out of, “Honey…” she paused for a moment wide-eyed, “that ain’t no earthquake.” We all join her to see through the window, joining her with the eye widening. In the distance, I can see… I think it’s a manor. The manor is spectacular! Its only one floor high, about 15 meters tall, the polished and glossed granite walls added with stain glass windows shows pure royalty. The windows are detailed with patterned flowers, star constellations, and alicorn ponies. On the roof I can see an Italian Renaissance styled dome with… I think a giant telescope jutting out of a gap in the dome. Amazing… is this manor’s who I think it is? I hear a knock at the door… is that who I think it is…? Fluttershy and everyone else seem too dumbstruck to answer the door so I go to answer it. It’s Shadowmane, in his cloak. “It’s so good to see you again Twilight, it’s been too long. I mean, for me anyways, I can sense everyone else is with you too.” Everyone else comes to the door to see Shadowmane. “May I come in?” Shadowmane asks. “Come in…” said Fluttershy. “Thank you” Shadowmane enters and takes off his headwear. His mane is all ragged and dirty, and I can smell him a mile away. “It’s so good to see everyone else here. I’m very sorry if the impact of my manor startled you. If you can all follow me I can tell you everything.” Shadowmane puts his headwear back on and gestures for us to follow him. We oblige, following him to the giant house that appeared before our eyes. The mahogany doors automatically open as we enter the manor. What we see in the inside is much greater than what was outside. There are white marble diamond encrusted Corinthian pillars lined up from the entrance to welcome us with their large presence. The windows I saw were actually one-way windows; it’s just a big mirror on the interior. It’s like the Crystal castle and Canterlot Castle combined into one and compressed into a smaller surface area. The floors are made of white marble as well until we enter through the arched double doors to a smooth polished wooden floor. It was so gorgeous back in the foyer, now it’s just pleasantly comfortable. I see red silk couches and sofas on my right and an average sized kitchen with a glass dining table supported by golden legs on my left. Shadowmane is being silent until he spoke up, holding an inviting hand to the dining table, “please sit down, I’ll serve you breakfast, I know you ladies are starving.” He read us like a book, we are starving. We all take our spots in the dining table while Shadowmane goes into what I think is a pantry. He comes back holding 6 covered dishes, putting them in front of us. When he lifts the covers, our mouths start drooling. It’s our favorite breakfast foods. I have classic pancakes stacked with thick syrup and orange juice. I look around and see what everyone else got. Fluttershy has a fresh Caesar salad and sparkling lemonade. Rainbow dash got a 2 zap apple sandwiches with a protein shake. Applejack has apple fritters and a tall glass of apple cider. Rarity has low-fat waffles cooked to a golden crisp with a precise zigzag syrup pattern with tea. Pinkie has a razzleberry pie with a strawberry milkshake. “I’ll let you girls eat up while I go and get a shower, I’ll be back to tell you what happened.” Shadowmane leaves with a gentle smile. We all enjoy our meal while talking about the manor and what Shadowmane possibly did to finish a whole manor overnight. Shadowmane comes back, fresh as a daisy and without his day cloak. “I see you guys are done already, alright you can take a seat at the couches, I’ll tell you everything.” We all sit down on the soft and slippery couches, except for Pinkie, who crashed her rump on the oak coffee table. “I know you all have a lot of questions. Such as how did I know your favorite foods, how did an entire manor appear in an instant and maybe a lot more? Well it’s because I didn’t built this manor here, I built it somewhere else.” We all look at each other, puzzled. Shadowmane continues, “I call it the timeless dimension. I can complete a year’s worth of work in 1 day.” Timeless dimension, that sounds very absurd, but so interesting. Pinkie Pie was right all along, “So to me it has over a year since I saw all of you.” “Why didn’t you want to build it here where we can help you?” asked Rainbow Dash, “The reason is because my manor is a complicated house with a lot of things that will take a very long time“ said Shadowmane. For the next 3 hours Shadowmane was showing us the rooms in the manor. No pony had the words to form what just happened in the past hour and a half. The place is amazing; he has an alchemy lab, a study hall, and the observatory! There are much more rooms like the acoustic room and blacksmith room. He has dimension portals set up like doors to dimensions for training and practicing. Shadowmane asked me if he can bridge a portal to the library back here and I complied. He gave me a blue glowing stone, he called it a portal beacon, and it sets up portals from one point to Shadowmane. After the tour we all leave to give Shadowmane some privacy. I need to go back to the library and finish up some new princess-related things, but I want to stay and explore this new wonderful font of knowledge just waiting to be revealed. But I have to be courteous; the black stallion really looked exhausted. Fluttershy wants to have a lunch picnic with Shadowmane tomorrow, everyone else is going to be busy tonight, but I can guess what is on their minds. So it’s just going to be him and her and her animal friends. Right when I get home Spike comes up to me with his eyes wide open, “Who was the pony? What was his name? Where is he right now? Is he dangerous or not? ...What is that thing you’re holding?” He looks at the stone I’m levitating. “I’ll answer all those questions in a minute Spike” I tell him, putting a hoof in his shoulder, “but that last one I’ll answer right now.” I place the beacon on the ground next to a blank spot on the wall. Shadowmane told me to send a small spark of magic through it and it will activate. I do so and the beacon glows brightly. Above the glowing blue stone the portal opens! It opens to reveal Shadowmane in some torch lit room near with what looked like a blacksmith forge. He's hammering a piece of metal and dropping it in a bucket of water, he soon turns around and sees me and Spike through the portal. “Oh good Twilight, you got it working” says Shadowmane, putting down the hammer. I can feel the warmth of the metal and the forge pouring through the portal. This new door in my house is crystal clear, like I can hold my hoof out and poke myself on Shadowmane’s tall horn. “Who’s the baby dragon, your pet?” asked the black stallion, looking at Spike. “PET!?” said Spike, getting first poor impression, “listen bud, we just saved your flanks from staying in that frozen prison any longer so you should show a little respect, plus Twilight’s like a sister to me and-“ I magically cover Spike’s mouth and sheepishly laugh. “Sorry about that, this is Spike and he still has that dragon flare, even when still a baby. Don’t worry he’s a good guy, he didn’t mean it.” I let go of Spike’s mouth letting him gasp for air. “No I should be the one who’s sorry, I shouldn’t have called Spike your pet, and I hope you’ll forgive me.” Shadowmane says, he extends a hoof through the portal to Spike. Spike pauses a moment and firmly shakes hoofs and opens his mouth, “I’m sorry as well, you’re just so… new to me that’s all.” They release and bring their limbs back on their respective sides of the portal. “In time I hope to change that” says Shadowmane, a gentle smile on his face, he looks back at me. “Alright Twilight, this is how the portal works. It will not be open all the time 24/7, only when I want to check something out, retrieve information, or just want to hang out. Only you and I can open the portal since your magic is currently flowing through it. When I want to open the portal, the stone will make this sound.” He strikes the stone with his a spark of his red colored magic and the stone makes a soft, high-pitched, and wispy sound. The stone glows brightly so we could see it. “The portal will only open if you respond to it with your touch or magic so I can respect your privacy. Same goes for me, I’ll get a sense in my head that you’re wanting to open the portal to me and I’ll be able to accept or decline. It’s simple as that.” The stone stops making sounds and calms down. “Thanks Shadowmane, this could really benefit the both of us in terms of gathering knowledge. I can’t wait to unravel this mystery I’ve discovered.” I give him a wink; he gives me a curt nod. He pauses and looks at Spike, and then at the stack of messenger scrolls used to be sent to the princess. “Hmm… since you’re an Alicorn not in Canterlot… and you have a dragon… I assume this dragon sends messages to the princess.” I raise an eyebrow, good guess. “Yeah, how did you know?” I ask him, a curious look in my eye again that he could read. “Messenger dragons were very common in royalty a long time ago…” he stopped there and smiled at me. I smiled back, feeling a bit uneasy. Shadowmane's horn glows very brightly for a moment and he quickly covers it up. “I-I’m sorry Twilight, but my magic is now starting to react differently to the new environment. I’m sorry Twilight I need to say goodbye now, perhaps I’ll see you tomorrow.” He waves us goodbye and closes the portal, leaving the wall blank again. “Do you want to send a letter to Princess Celestia about this discovery?” asked Spike, already having the parchment and quill ready. “Sure Spike, it would be a good idea to send it to her.” I recite the words I say to Spike so he can copy it down. When he finishes he scrolls up the letter and blows on it… only to find it burnt to ashes before his feet. “That’s weird…” said Spike, scratching his forehead. “Are you sure you used the right type of parchment? You know normal parchment doesn’t react to dragon fire like the ones we usually use.” I tell him, looking at the pile of ashes. “I did, maybe I lost my ability to send letters or something.” “It’s possible… you know what, let’s not send a letter to Celestia, Shadowmane looked like he needed his privacy anyways. He wouldn't want the Goddess of the Sun to visit him at such a weird time” I tell Spike. We both hit the hay for today and try to get some rest. For after what felt like a long time, I instantly fell asleep and pleasantly dreamed.