//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Light's Shadow // by Jorofrarie //------------------------------// Chapter 2 Living Shadow Fluttershy's Cottage 10 minutes prior "Come out everypony, time for breakfast." Fluttershy wandered out of her cottage with large bags of feed balanced precariously on her wings, making her way to the back side of her garden. The garden immediately became alive with animal life, all surging towards Fluttershy, only to stop just short of her. "Here you go Weasels. And you Turtles. And yes, you too Eagles. Oh, and I could never forget you too Angel bunny." Fluttershy paused, and hesitantly looked around. "Angel? Where are you?" A worried look passed over Fluttershy's face as she searched around the garden for Angel, who by this time would usually be banging her leg, impatient for his food. She tried to stay calm, but this kind of behaviour was completely out of place for Angel. The yellow pegasus abandoned all of the food for her animals and started rushing around the garden. Panic quickly set in as she realised that she still couldn't find her precious bunny. "Angel! Angel where are you?" The other animals noticed their carer panicking and started to slowly back away. Fluttershy continued to rush around the garden and, on not seeing Angel anywhere, took off flying around the house. By this time all of the other animals had taken off to their respective abodes. Fluttershy became a whirlwind of panicked yellow pegasus in her search for Angel. The search so far had been in vain, so she started to search further and further from her little home, and closer to the Everfree. She barely even noticed it until she accidentally bumped into one of the trees. The shy pony looked around, suddenly aware of her surroundings, and prepared to set off again when she noticed something else, something out of place among the undergrowth. A little statue of a small Bunny. Her Angel. Fluttershy jumped away from the statue in shock and backed up against one of the trees, trying to get as far away as she could from the horrible stone. Fluttershy became a quivering ball of fur and feathers that became as small as it could against the backdrop of woodland. But this was quickly replaced by a steely determination, completely out of place with the pony in question. Nopony, and that meant nopony, ever hurt her Angel bunny. Not even the scary Everfree could keep him away from her. Fluttershy mentally prepared herself. She knew what to do. After all, she had done this once before. She had to face the creature that had turned Angel into this... thing. A Cockatrice. And a very naughty one at that. This particular Cockatrice was the only one anywhere near Ponyville, and had already been dealt with by Fluttershy barely a few months ago, and had been told never to approach Ponyville, or attack any of the inhabitants, ever again. She knew that she had to confront the thing, and force it to turn Angle back into his living form. She already knew where the things lair was, just off the main path to Zecora's place. She set off quickly to find the Cockatrice. The path was not hard to find, and even easier to run along. Fluttershy saw a clearing full of small blue flowers, and leapt over them, continuing on her way. Zecora's place was close. She came to a small clearing with a bend on the other side. The furious pegasus knew that the Cockatrice's nest was just around the bend in the path, and so slowed a little so as to not give away her position to the naughty creature that dwelt within the undergrowth. She lowered herself a little closer to the ground and snuck to the side of the path, sticking her head through the bushes to see the Cockatrice's dwelling place. It was lying curled up in the middle of it's den. She was about to walk out to confront it when a noise came from the path. The Cockatrice stirred and started to slither to the path, ready to attack another creature. Fluttershy followed it, sticking to the bushes. Some curious sounds came from outside, followed by the usual routine the Cockatrice used to attack. First it would pop it's head out to get a look, clucking like a chicken to disarm the potentially wary prey. Then it would slither out, turning to face the helpless creature that happened to be unlucky enough to face its stare. Fluttershy poked her head through the screen of shrubs to get a look, and hopefully intervene. But she didn't stop the Cockatrice. Something was different. Standing on the path was a strange animal the Fluttershy had never seen before. It only stood on two legs and it's mane stopped at what she thought was its head. The whole thing was completely white, even wearing a white coat reaching all the way down to it's hooves. The mane was the deepest black. The whole creature shimmered, as if it was underwater, and seemed to shift in and out of view. The clothes stirred around it's body as if there was a small breeze when there was none, rather like Celestia's mane and tail. This thing didn't seem natural. The Cockatrice obviously didn't notice any of this. It continued with its usual routine, popping its head out of the forest, making small clucking noise. The Thing in White heard this and turned to face the source, surprise crossing it's face, which quickly changed to happiness. It apparently had never seen a Cockatrice before. The Cockatrice turned to face its prey. The moment it slithered out of the bush, the Thing in White instantly backing away as it realised that something was ahoof. It tried to turn away from the Cockatrice, but was transfixed but its stare. Fluttershy shuddered as she realised what was happening. She knew what the creature was going through, but in this case the Thing in White didn't have Fluttershy's unnatural stare for protection. The bottom of the Thing started to turn into stone. But the stone didn't look normal. No, the stone looked like the Thing. It was pure white and shimmered ever so slightly. The Thing started to panic as it realised what was happening. Then it Changed. It started to become more transparent and lost its form, turning into something that shouldn't exist. The skin turned into a completely reflective white, while the mane somehow became even darker until it absorbed all light. Then both came together and the creature became Light. The stone immediately fell off, and the Thing flitted around to the back of the Cockatrice faster than the eye could follow. A section of the Thing formed back into it's original form as it reached out for the Cockatrice. it didn't even touch the beast, and yet the Cockatrice fell over bleeding from a million cuts caused by the dark shards that had ripped into its flesh. As the Cockatrice righted itself, the Thing reached out again and sent the Cockatrice flying into a tree on the side of the path, knocking it unconscious in a pool of blood. The Thing reached over to finish the job that the Cockatrice had started. Fluttershy shivered as she suddenly realised what the Thing was about to do. "Eep." The Thing span around. The blur of light and shadow that was It slowly condensed and turned back into a physical form. It cautiously started to approach the point where the noise had come from. Fluttershy became angry. Angry that this thing tried to kill this Cockatrice, no matter how naughty it had been, it didn't even matter that it had turned Angel to stone. She didn't like the death of any creature, and the thing in front of her had been very, very naughty. Light I span around, instantly alert once more for any danger. I slowly walked towards the point where the sound had come from, phasing back into my human form. I crossed the path and stopped in front of the bush that the noise had come from. It was quite apparent that the bush wasn't the thing that caused the noise, so I peered into the mass of tangled twigs and leaves. There was a small yellow form in the bush. The yellow Thing jumped out of the bush with tremendous speed and forced me to jump out of the way. I turned to face the thing. Big mistake. The moment my eyes met those of the things, my mind went blank in terror. The eyes were the cause of all of it. They were filled with a rage. There was so much rage that it seemed impossible that it could all be housed within this tiny animal. I collapsed from the sheer force of it all, they were everything angry and commanding that had ever existed in the world, and I was subjected to it the whole time. The ground seemed very enthusiastic about everything and rushed to give me a hug, but I was happy to oblige. Fluttershy The moment the Thing fell to the ground, Fluttershy ran to its side to aid it. It seemed to be repeating the same phrase over and over again. She leant in closer to hear what it was uttering, and quickly jumped back as if she had been shocked when she realised that it was speaking in perfect Equestrian. Once more she leant down, although this time a bit slower, and listened. She could barely make out what it said. "The eyes, the eyes, everywhere the eyes... The shade follows the light... They hurt you..." The phrase repeated over and over again, as if the Thing was speaking a mantra. It was obvious the thing was hurt, and in more ways than just one, so she did the only thing that she could think to do. She brought it to her house to recover. Picking up a leg, Fluttershy started to shift the Thing in White along the path, only pausing to glare at the unconscious form of the Cockatrice. "I'll be talking with you later." Deep within it's subconscious, the Cockatrice shivered in fear, nightmares filled with angry pegasi plagued its head. Fluttershy continued to drag the limp Thing along the track back towards her cottage. On the way she started talking to herself. "Hmmm, this is strange, I've never seen it around Ponyville before..." She momentarily stopped and glanced at the Thing on her back. It was currently flickering as it's form shifted. "Nope, definitely haven't seen this before." She silently thanked Celestia for this Thing being so light (See what I did there...) as she wandered back home. 10 Minutes Later Fluttershy arrived at her cottage. She walked inside and placed him on her couch, rushing off to see what she could gather. She galloped back into the living room with a first-aid kit before realising that although it was unconscious and limp, it wasn't actually hurt in any tangible way, although it was still muttering under it's breath. Fluttershy sat down to study the thing, her shyness momentarily overcome by her curiosity as she wondered what the hay this Thing was. The whole body just seemed... otherworldly. It was shimmering slightly, even the clothes. She slowly walked over, stopping just short of the Thing. She reached out a hoof to touch the Thing, her hoof hovering just above its head. She hesitantly lowered the hoof and touched it. The skin gave a little under the pressure exerted by her hoof as she stroked its face. She moved down the form of the Thing and started to examine the clothes that it had on. There seemed to be a little theme with the whole ensemble. The white coat streaked with dirt and blood, the white shoes scuffed and worn. She slowly undid the buckles on the coat and lifted it away from his body. She froze. The moment the cloak lost it's connection to the Thing it turned into a deep brown and stopped shimmering. Fluttershy dropped the item of clothing the moment it changed as if it was electrified. Taking a deep breath and steeling her nerves, she turned back to continue his examination. Underneath the Thing was wearing completely white jeans and a matching shirt, both shimmering. Fluttershy reached to feel the fabric when she noticed the Thing's breathing pattern change. It was waking up. Light Eyes. The Eyes. Eyes, Eyes so full of fury and terror at the same time. They brought back all of the memories that I had worked so hard to keep submerged. Strange phrases, spoken by awfully familiar and yet unfamiliar figures were talking, mentioning shade, and talking to him occasionally, things that I'd never seen before flashing in front of me. But that wasn't the bad part. Because of the Eyes, I had to relive all of the terror, all of the anger, all of the hopelessness... Then I woke up. Snapping up into a sitting stance, I frantically scanned his surrounding trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I was somehow in a small house. It had a very cosy feel, with sunlight falling in through the windows sending light everywhere. I liked that for obvious reasons. Turning away from the window, I examined the rest of the house. I was only on the ground floor, as was made apparent by the staircase on the other side of the room. I continued, noticing a kitchen in the background and a small table in front of him. At least is was better than my place, but then again that wasn't a big achievement. I then noticed the small yellow thing in front of me. It looked to be some kind of... horse? No, that wasn't possible. Horses had gone extinct decades ago. And yet, here this thing was, and it was obviously a horse. And for some weird reason it had wings. "This just gets stranger and stranger," I mumbled, staring at the thing with wide eyes. The creature itself was trying to hide behind it's pink mane, as if this would shield it from any and all harm. It was staring resolutely at it's front... hooves? "Well now... what the hell are you?" I said quietly, not expecting an answer. A almost inaudible squeak emanated from it, and I thought I could hear words behind it, before the Creature trailed off, the sentence ending in a little squeak. I just sat there dumbstruck. "You can you talk...?" Wow, totally not predictable... "Yes. I mean, I didn't mean to startle you at all..." My head started to ache with the cuteness that this Thing seemed to exude from every orifice. I decided to play along with what was going on. "Soooooo... What are you exactly? Actually, where am I?" I asked. "I'm Flutter..." She trailed off again. I leaned closer to hear what this Creature had to say and promptly fell off the couch. The Thing hurried to my side, worried for my well being. It was a nice change up from everyone trying to kill me. "Oh my gosh, are you okay?" The thing asked. Then it realised that it was actually talking to me. Of course, that was obviously too much to ask for as it hid away under its long pink mane again. "Yeah, I think so. What did you say your name was again?" I chose to ignore its shyness and talked normally. "Ummm, Fluttershy..." Strange name. "And what are you exactly?" "I'm... a pony..." This Thing, Fluttershy, seemed to be growing more and more confident. I heaved myself back onto the couch with a groan. The strange 'pony' cautiously rose to its, or was it her, hooves. She leaned over me and started examining me all over for injuries. I began to feel self conscious and backed up along the couch from the pony, I mean really, how often to you have a clingy pony-thing checking you out?. She stopped as she realised that I was feeling uncomfortable. Fluttershy began to blush slightly. She must have been surprised that she wasn't feeling nervous about me any more. I was only trying to act as non-threatening as possible. She retreated to her position next to the table and sat on her haunches. "So..." She began, "What are you?" I immediately moved to start speaking, but paused, not sure how much I should tell this 'Fluttershy'. For a moment I considered lying, but something about her made me trust her. I thought on the question a moment. I had never really bothered to think about what my real classification was, so I went with the first thing that came to mind. "I'm Light." Fluttershy seemed taken aback slightly by the abrupt answer. "What do you mean 'Light'?" "Well, I'm definitely not a human in the conventional sense of the word, so..." I trailed off as I saw the horrified look that Fluttershy was giving me. "What?" "Are you saying that you're a-a-a..." She paused and swallowed loudly. "Human?" "Not in the conventional sense, no. But I do look a bit like one. Why, what's so bad about humans?" Fluttershy looked at me with a frightened look on her face, "Humans only exist in stories and legends. They usually get used by parents telling their foals to behave or a human will come and eat them." She started to back away from me. "You won't eat me, will you?" I looked at her, shocked. I can honestly say that that was the first time someone had asked me that question, "Of course not. I'm not a normal human, not in the conventional sense of the word." I hesitated, and decided that a white lie couldn't hurt, "And no, I don't eat other animals..." "Apart from bacon..." "What was that?" "Nothing! Don't eat meat at all!" I tried not to look too nervous. Fluttershy seemed to relax a bit at this answer. "Se then, what exactly are you?" "Well." I paused, looking down at my body and noticed for the first time that my trench coat was missing. "I'm a man without his clothes at the moment..." Wow, that came out worse than I'd expected... The yellow pegasus took the hint and quickly trotted over and retrieved my coat from beside the couch. She offered it to me, curious. The moment it touched me it changed from it's brown colour back to it's original white, and even started to shimmer again. She ignored it. I have to say, she must have seen a lot of really strange nonsensical things for there to be no reaction... Is that a pink hair on the seat next to me? "Thanks Fluttershy, I never like to go anywhere without my coat." I paused again. "But to answer your question, I'm pretty much made of light," I gestured to his body as I spoke. And it was true, not even bragging or anything. She froze, and I think that what I told her broke her just a little... Then again, she wouldn't be the first to be a bit taken aback by what I say... I noticed the stunned expression and sighed. This wasn't the first time this had happened to this extent either. Reaching over, I tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, you alright there?" I asked. The winged pony then surprised me by suddenly fainting. I leaned back with a sigh. I tended to have this kind of reaction when I told others who, and what, I was. I stood up from the couch and walked over to a window, relishing the feeling of sunshine washing over him. I was about to step away from the window when something caught my attention. A group of five other ponies were walking up the main path towards the cottage, with a small reptile creature in tow. The one leading the pack was a bright purple specimen with some large thing poking out of it's forehead. This one knocked on the door. I looked over at the door. I wondered whether I should open it, but realised that they had just walked there with no signs of hostility and seemed to be in a hurry. I came to the conclusion that they knew Fluttershy in some way. Of course, the idea that they might not be so welcoming to me didn't cross my mind at the time. I walked over to the door, hand hovering above the handle, which caused a moment of confusion as to why ponies would have door handles in the first place. I made up his mind and opened the door. "Can I help you?"