//------------------------------// // Teeny little rodent // Story: My last shadow // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// "Wh-what"? the little filly stuttered. "Like you, we have been affected by the shadows that roam this city." "Although ah ain't done seen no filly wif da straight right appearance o' the Dark One, eh?" a small colt said from atop a sewer evacuation pipe. "She's prolly really him come to corrupt our minds!" a filly yelled in anger. "Yeah! It's her fault that our parents don't love us no more. I says we string up into the moldy spit water!" an angry colt yelled. "Silence!" the stallion boomed. His voice was so powerful that he nearly deafened poor Stellar. The other foals backed away, their ears lowering into their mane. "I can't believe you all. We have had others come with this same predicament and you never reacted in such a manner. You always took them in. Why, tulip up there took in that little foal who's barely a few months old and he has both the mane and horn of Sombra. I'm very disappointed." "That may be, but ya gots ta agree that thems were different than nows!" the first angry colt stepped up. "How so? I see naught but see a traumatized filly rejected by society as do I see when surrounded by you all." "That may be, but dis 'ere is different in dat 'er features ain't got no fadin'." the colt rubbed his runny muzzle and sniffed loudly. "Dat foal got no much features o' the Dark One 'n some crazy mare who dun' put paint in 'er mane, innit?" The other colts and fillies started nodding, looking at each other consecutively, and openly agreeing with the colt's proclamation. "He's right. No pony has ever looked as in tune with those shadows as she does. Get her out of here! She's certain to corrupt us and turn us into her 'crystal slaves' or something," a colt shouted. The others started to shout "Get out!" and "Go away!", scaring the filly. "Prolly just some construct 'o his that done wants ta capture us all, yeah? She ain't need ta stay 'ere while us 'corrupt' still 'ave dis curse in our bodies. Make us look worse!" The stallion shook his head in disappointment. "And I thought you all considered each other to be of equal sound and mind down here. We have all been affected by these shadows, but we have become stronger for it! We may have yet the chance to speak to the rulers about our plight, for they remain blind and naive to it, but we will manage such a chance together! Is it not just that this one, who has suffered the most, to be taken in our care? Even the rats do not fear her, and we have learned that they smell evil and danger and flee from it." The stallion stepped away and presented stellar with his hoof. She was currently backing away from what appeared to be a group of playful rats. They were squeaking with excitement and joy, eager to get a tittle of laughter from the traumatized filly. The angry colt took a look at the filly getting swarmed by the rats and screaming in fear. She was on her back and thrashing her tiny legs as much as she could, but the rats were too much for her. The colt huffed and looked to the side, sat on his rump, crossed his forelegs, and pouted at the same time. "Fine, but ah ain't gonna let 'er be offin' wif' me friends, aye? Ah ain't changin' mah thoughts 'bout 'er." "Help!" Stellar cried out. The stallion turned around and waved his hoof a bit to shoo the little rodents away. "Go on. Get off of her. You can play later." One of the rats hissed angrily at the stallion and ran off into the sewers with its kind. The little filly sat up, her mane and face a complete mess. Seeing this, the stallion laughed and received the ire of the filly. "Stop laughing at me!" "It's just very funny to me the way you look," he said with a smile. The filly frowned at him, then tears began to form at the bottom of her eyes and her lips began to tremble. Little by little her face of anger turned into that of desperation and anguish. "What's wrong?" the stallion asked. Stellar exploded into tears and sniffling. "My daddy tried to hurt me! He said that I was the reason why mommy isn't here anymore!" "Wh...What'd he chase you with?" "A knife." The stallion's left eye immediately widened as he lift an eyebrow in shock. "I see. Well, here, no pony will be able to hurt you. Plus, we even fixed your leg up as best we could," the stallion said with a forced smile. The filly started hiccupping and looked down at her leg. It was true that they tried their best to fix it, but it still hurt. A lot. "How? He's my daddy. He'll find me..." The angry colt rolled his eyes and bared his teeth. He had a set of canine teeth, which was unusual for a species of herbivores. This, along with his darker, yellow coat made him seem like a predator. "Oh please. Ya think we ain't gts brains 'nough ta plan ahead? We's gots plenty-a traps, tricks, 'n runaway spots if'n some bloke comes by, tries ta whisk off into the evah dark. The only fing yer gonna have ta worry 'bout are me eyes on ya at all times. Tese 'ere colts 'n fillies be my family, 'n I don't want ta see no stair freak tryin ta off 'em, savvy?" Stellar looked at him with complete confusion. Every time he spoke it sounded like garbling. The stallion huffed and said: "He's saying that we have ways to protect each other. Why do you think we're still so many down here?" The pony turned around and shouted: "Alright everypony. Time to get back to whatever it was you were doing. I'm going to tend to our new pony here and teach her what she needs." It starting slowly, but the dispersal of the crowd eventually led to everypony but the angry colt back into the sewers. "You too, Sour Blackberry." The colt growled and walked away reluctantly. The filly looked up at the stallion and sniffed again. "I just want daddy to be normal again. I don't have any other family than him." "But what about the others you met outside the house? Wouldn't they be willing to help you?" "He...He never let me out." "Wh...We all were allowed to get out. Why would..." the stallion looked at the filly more extensively. "I see. Fret not. We're here to help you out. I'm Crunchy Apple, by the way." "St-Stellar Shadowrette." "That's a...lovely name..." Crunchy nervously smiled. "I just...Why do the others look like me?" "They were affected by the shadows." Stellar simply hiccupped again. "You know what they are, right?" The filly shook her head. "Oh. Well, they affect us when we're born or something. I don't really know. I know that they modify our appearance when we come to be, but that's about it." "Well, I do have a friend who talks and plays with me, but he doesn't come out when it's dark. He likes to smile a lot." A sudden tension filled Crunchy. "I thought the others were just kidding with these 'living' shadows, but she KNOWS one in pony? Interesting. Could be helpful, but...maybe Blackberry is right. I should keep an eye on her." "How come you're down here? Where are the adults?" "There are no adults. I'm just the oldest one down here. I'm the first, actually." "Why? You don't look like me." "I'm iridescent." The filly turned her head in confusion. "Means I change colors in the light. At certain angles, I look like Sombra. It was pretty hard at first, but I eventually fled here when I was five to keep my parents from being further picked on by everypony else." "Who is Sombra?" Apple was baffled. How did such a filly know nothing about the outside world? He didn't have the education to make advanced guesses, but he assumed that her father didn't want to tell her anything. He'd seen quite a few ponies dumped into the sewers unbeknownst to the authorities, and she wasn't in a better state, so he couldn't deduce how she was treated at home. He didn't want to ask her how it was due to her current state and let his curiosity gnaw at his mind and spinal column. Still, she had contact with the shadows after her birth. That might mean something good or bad and he needed to find out what exactly her relationship to them was. "I'd prefer to keep it a secret from you for now, just to be safe." "Okay. Um, do your parents miss you? I know I already miss my daddy, and I never knew my mommy," the filly looked down in sadness. "Ah. Well, I don't know. I prefer not to think about it. Sometimes, when I go to the surface in search of food or others like us, I see them still looking for me. Funny. I left when I was five and now I'm twelve, yet they still search for me. I doubt they'll recognize me without my iridescent coat." The colt looked down and gave a chuckle, then he looked back up at Stellar and smiled. "But let's stop talking about the sad things. We're going to help you get on your hooves and teach you how to help scavenge for food and supplies. It'll be tough living from now on, but I'm certain you'll make a fine addition to our 'family'. Plus, the rats seem really interested in you," the stallion said as he pointed behind the filly. Stellar turned around to see a whole group of rats hiding behind the angles of the giant sewer tunnel opening. Several of them were sniffing in the filly's direction and others just scratched themselves behind the ears. One of them looked at Apple and hissed violently, causing the stallion to rear his head. "Oye. That's the one from earlier. Mean little guy. Hey. I just got an insidious idea." the Crunchy's face became painted with a devious smile and he leaned towards the filly. "I think that hissing one likes you the most." "Ngah! I don't like rats!" Shadowrette whimpered. "Well, they like you, and there are plenty of them down here. You'll have to learn to live with them one day, especially now seeing as you're going to be living here with us and staying out of harm's way for your leg to heal up. Don't worry. You'll be back to normal really quickly! We got some medication from above so you'll be taking those as well, and you will need to drink lots of milk." The filly whimpered again. What was going to happen to her? The grinning shadow was watching from the darkness of the sewers and grinned even wider than before. While it had no form in this darkness, it still had a 'will' of sorts. "I didn't realize all this lived within the underbelly of this city. It is much more foul than I thought, and I don't mean those rats. Interesting. We will have to watch 'Stellar' and keep her out of harm's way as best we can. Of course, she still needs a bit of roughing up so she grows tough and strong. Still need to convince that stupid pink pony that she needs to give in to fear."