CHAPTER 39
"Uh... Rarity?"
She raised a hoof, still staring at her desk. "Hush, Darling. I need to get this just right..."
I facehoofed. "Rarity, please, do you really need to do all of this work? Can't you just re-make the tux you made for me?"
She turned around, and stared at me as if I were a nutjob. "I can't do that, it just wouldn't feel right! Besides, I never get the chance to have a stallion as a model. I could make a new line of stallion nightlife fashion..."
I sighed, and shook my head. "Rarity... Why am I not surprised...? She reminds me of Mrs. Cake, never wanting to re-use the same designs... Where was she yesterday anyways? I went to the bar, talked to Carrot, and when I went back to Sugarcube Corner... She was gone. Pinks had no idea where she went either... She must've went shopping or went to the spa, or something. She was looking pretty stressed. Best not to worry about it..."
"Oh, Shadow... I've been meaning to talk to you about something..."
I cocked my eyebrow, even though Rarity wasn't looking at me. "What is it?"
She let out a long sigh, and sat down all the things she had been holding with her magic, and turned to look at me. "We've known each other for almost two months now, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah..."
She closed her eyes, and thought for a moment. "Well... I don't really know all that much about you. None of us really do. You always try to dodge the subject when anything about your past comes up. I know you did a lot of bad things Darling, but there has to be some good memory locked away in that head of yours."
I looked away from her, and tried to dig up something happy. "Well... I don't know. Unless you count my past as when I first came here and met all of you, I can't think of anything."
She looked surprised, as if everypony was supposed to have fond memories. "Well, what about your parents?"
I grimaced at the thought of them. "I... Don't wanna talk about them."
She smiled warmly, and put a hoof on my shoulder. "Surely your parents made you happy. They love you!"
I shook my head, and my frown deepened. "No. They used me as a drug mule. They'd give me money, and send me out to find dealers, and I'd buy them drugs, and I usually got jumped by homeless ponies who needed their fix. And when I got back, if I had the drugs, they just took them and locked me in my room, and they got high together. When I got jumped and barely made it home... They'd beat me for losing their money." I lifted my left foreleg, and showed Rarity one of the many scars that I had. "You see this scar? That came from when my mom got so mad at me, she threw a kitchen knife at me. I fell over something, and it got me, and it cut me really deeply..."
Rarity's expression was a mixture of shock, pity, and disgust. "But... How could they do such a thing to their own child?! That's terrible!"
I nodded in agreement. "I know... That's why when I was fifteen, I ran from home. When my parents gave me some money for drugs, I just skipped town, and headed off to Fillydelphia. I looked for work, and a stallion in a suit offered me a job. He asked me to get some of the workers at the docks to pay some money for something, I never found out what. I had to rough some of the workers up a little, but it otherwise went well. Then the stallion ended up offering me more work, and eventually, took me to his "boss." And before I knew it, I was working for a bunch of criminals. And that's when the whole cycle started. You see, one of the higher-ups in their "organization" tried to get me killed, and I beat the heck out of the hitmen. I had to skip town, and I headed off to Fauston. It just kept happening, for years and years..." I closed my eyes, and a tear ran down my face, and I felt Rarity wrap her hooves around me.
"I'm sorry, Shadow. I didn't mean to make you dig all of this up."
I hugged her back, and shook my head. "Nah, I'm fine. It feels good to get to talk about it to a friend... Thanks for listening."
She let go of me, and shook her head. "Think nothing of it." She looked back to her desk. "You know... I think we're done here. You can go, if you want."
I stretched my legs out a bit, and headed towards the door, waving goodbye. Right outside of the Boutique, however...
"LOOK OUT!" I didn't even get a chance to turn to see who it was, until something crashed into me, and I ended up on the ground, and orange filly with a purplish-pinkish mane was laying on top of me.
"Uh... Scootaloo, get off please." She did so rather quickly, and smiled sheepishly when I glared at her. "You've really gotta be more careful. You're gonna hurt somepony one of these days."
She nodded, and grabbed her scooter, leaning it against the Boutique. "Sorry Shadow, I didn't mean to. I was just in a rush to pick up Sweetie Belle. We're going Crusading again."
I facehoofed, and shook my head. "When are you girls going to realize that you can't rush getting your Cutie Marks?"
Scootaloo cocked her eyebrow, and stared at me. "But you don't have yours! And you're all grown up! Hey, wait a second..." She smiled like a maniac, and I was terrified.
"Oh no. She's a Cutie Mark Crusader. I don't have a Cutie Mark. She has a plan. Please don't be what I think it is..."
She clapped her hooves together. "Why don't you come Crusading with us?!"
"And it is what I think it is. CRUD." I looked around, hoping to find something to use as an excuse to escape. Sadly, I couldn't find anything. I had to make something up, FAST. "Um- Well you see- I'm, uh..."
And, as fate would have it, Sweetie Belle comes on out. "He's gonna go Crusading with us? Really?"
They both gave me those big, puppy-dog eyes... I just had to go with them. I let out a sigh, and furrowed my brow. "Alright... I'll come along."
They both jumped up and yelled "yay" and then dragged me off to Sweet Apple Acres to get Apple Bloom.
"What have I gotten myself into...?"