//------------------------------// // Chapter 35: Final Decisions // Story: A Shadow Brought to Light // by k12314 //------------------------------// CHAPTER 35 "Oh... My legs..." Even with the sleep I managed to get on that park bench, my legs were still burning and bleeding. I only barely managed to stand up, and do a little hobble to move. "I have the worst luck ever... Celestia forbid anything ever be easy for me..." I was still in a fit of depression over the argument, which I blamed entirely on myself. In case you all haven't guessed by now, I've got a really bad case of clinical depression. Add that to the fact that I always blame everything on myself, and I'm a walking time bomb, just waiting to go off. "Why do I even bother with trying to do anything? No matter what I do, it always goes wrong in the end. I should go curl up and die somewhere..." My legs kept squirting out blood as I walked. It was unbearable, and it got me a lot of shocked gasps and stares from the occasional passerby. Some of them even whispered about me. "Is that Shadow Weaver?" "What happened to his leg?" "He looks awful..." "Should we tell him to go to the hospital?" I just rolled my eyes and kept walking. I was cutting through the center of town to the town gate, and then heading off to the next town. I didn't know where I was going to go, but I knew that I was drug back into the vicious cycle my life had been in until I'd arrived in Ponyville. I let out a long sigh, and slowly began to lose myself in my thoughts. "If only I wouldn't have fed the fire in that whole argument... It's my fault that argument happened in the first place. I let myself get caught, and then everypony had to come and rescue me, and now... This. Dang it, Shadow... Why'd you have to go and do that? You messed everything up... You lost your only friends..." Suddenly, thoughts and memories of Quick Fix flashed through my mind. When we first met, hanging out, and the stabbing... "Come on, get it together, Shadow... Just move on. It's easy, just shove all of those thoughts to the back of your head, and ignore them... You're not leaving much behind, anyways..." But I was. I was trying to deny it, but I was leaving behind one of the most precious things to me I've ever had. Pinks. She overtook my mind. No matter how far I run, no matter how well I hide, I'll never escape memories of her. She's the greatest thing that ever happened to me, and I was throwing it all away over an argument. I shook my head, and snapped out of my trance. When I looked up to see where I was, I was standing right in front of Sugarcube Corner. "I guess I can't even run. I'll just end up right where I started..." I looked in the window, since the door was obviously locked, judging from the big red "CLOSED" sign on it. I saw Mr. and Mrs. Cake sitting at the counter, talking about something. They looked very angry. Mr. Cake looked my way, and his look grew even angrier, and he marched to the door, and moments later, he was staring me down. "You... You... How DARE you! Pinkie's been worried sick all night! She told us everything! We thought you were different from all of the other stallions out there! We thought you cared! But no, instead, you yell at her friends, and then leave her sitting there!" Mrs. Cake shot me a dirty look, and put a hoof on Mr. Cake's shoulder. "Carrot, calm down..." She looked to me. "You get out of here. Don't come back. We trusted you... And you broke our Pinkie's heart." I felt my heart sink. I knew that I'd hurt Pinks, but the weight of the situation finally caught up to me. I'd destroyed the dreams of a wonderful mare. I had to at least apologize. I swallowed hard, and tried to muster up some words. "C-Can I at least... Say that I'm sorry to her?" Mr. Cake stepped back into the doorway, shaking his head. "No. Even if she were here, we wouldn't let you near her. Now go away!" He slammed the door shut. I hung my head in a mixture of shame, and guilt. "Well that tears it, I'm leaving. I can't fix this... I don't have anywhere to stay... I'm assuming I just got fired... I've got nothing left here." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (Third Person) "Pinkie, Darling... Are you sure this will work?" Everypony was waiting by the town gate, ready to apologize to Shadow for arguing with him. "I know it will. If anypony is understanding, it's Shadow. He'll listen to us." Pinks was staring intently at the gate, ready to jump at the opportunity to fix this mess as soon as it arises. Twilight looked very troubled, and was apparently in deep thought. "What's puzzling to me is the fact that he's even going to leave." Pinks shook her head. "It's obvious. When he feels guilty, he gets really depressed, and blames everything on himself. He'll end up thinking he's got nothing left, and he'll head off to another town or city to live. It's some horrible circle his life is stuck in." Fluttershy blinked, shocked at the thought of somepony living that way. "That's... Horrible! And he's lived like that all of his life?" Pinks simply nodded, not wanting to talk about the subject. "What's got me all confused is why he'd blame himself in th' first place." AJ took off her hat, and scratched her head. "It don't make a lick o' sense. We're th' ones who started the whole darn thing." Pinks shrugged, avoiding the question entirely. Twilight cocked her eyebrow. "Pinkie, you're being awfully evasive about all of this. Do you just not want to talk about this whole issue?" Pinks snorted, and furrowed her brow. "As a matter of fact, Twilight, I don't. I'm upset by this whole thing, and I just want to put it behind us. I want this issue to just be over, and I want everything to go back to normal, OK?!" Twilight took a step back. "Alright... I'm sorry. It's just-" Pinks stomped on the ground, and glared daggers at Twilight. "It's just what? Please, Twilight, just... Stop talking." Twilight hung her head, and feebly nodded. Even though she was just trying to help, she felt bad for making Pinks feel any more stressed than she already was. Awkard silence overtook everypony, and the atmosphere slowly thickened. Everypony was clearly stressed, and they now had to worry about Shadow as well. AJ and Rarity felt especially bad, as they both thought this was sort of their faults. "I do hope he can forgive us... Especially me. I slapped him, for heaven's sakes..." Rarity hung her head, but she didn't have time to feel bad. AJ's eyes widened as she saw Shadow heading for them. "Quick, everypony, get ready! He's comin'!"