"So you met Shadow in Kindergarten," Jay said tiredly, wringing out the ruined shirt as Twilight attempted to heal Discord. Twilight had been trying to cast a healing spell on the spirit. Though whatever Jay had done to him seemed to resist all attempts. Twilight looked up from her work, sweating heavily. She'd been trying to concentrate on both healing Discord and telling Jay the story of her and Shadow. "I understand that but..." Jay frowned, glaring angrily at the shirt as a rip, several inches long appeared as the human attempted another violent wringing of it. "How come you two ended up dating?" Twilight sighed angrily as another of her healing spells seemed to fail. Moving over to Jay, the tired Unicorn sat beside the human, giving a small groan of disgust as her tail landed in a congealed pool of blood. Twilight placed her hoof on Jay's arm. She looked up at him, a look of intense Sadness etched on her face. She attempted to move slightly closer to the human, possibly for warmth as the light outside the open windows was rapidly fading. Wind was whistling through the gigantic open windows, the cold wind slicing through the pair. However, Jay shuffled himself away from the Unicorn, so that the hoof on his arm fell to the floor. Twilight looked hurt. Jay shook his head angrily. "No soft stuff Twilight. It's to late for that. Just tell me. Please." He added, noting the hurt look on the Unicorn's face. Twilight gave a sigh, opened her mouth and continued to explain....
Several years ago
Shadow smiled happily as he pushed open the door to his bedroom. The black-furred young Unicorn felt strangely happy. Since he had come home, he'd thought of nothing else apart from the purple Unicorn he'd met. Since moving to majestic city of Canterlot, he had been, forcibly in his opinion, assigned to the magic Kindergarten. Like most young ponies his age, Shadow had at first refused to obey his parents, disliking the idea immediately. Though the originally, almost absurd idea of Magic Kindergarten had been horrible to Shadow, since meeting that...that purple-pink Unicorn filly, he'd thought that it wasn't so bad. He smiled as he dumped his saddle-bags on the floor and jumped onto the black covered bed. Smiling slight into his thick pillow, the young Unicorn smiled. Shadow held his eyes shut, attempting to fix the image of the filly in his mind. It'd been a week since meeting Twilight and Shadow still felt giddy at the thought of her. With a small smile, Shadow turned his head to look at his saddle bags. The small flower petals, arranged magically by Twilight into a small chain, had been tied around one of the straps. He smiled. Twilight had approached him in one of their classes and handed the small flower chain to him. Blushing brightly, she'd said it was a gift. He remembered the small smile she'd given him. A gift to welcome him? Yeah right. Twilight liked him. Shadow's ego was sure that was the main reason she'd given him that flower chain. That's why he'd
"Shadow! Time for dinner, son!" The sound of his father calling him from the bottom of the stairs, roused Shadow from his revere. Getting up, Shadow smiled wider as the smell of hay fries wafted from the downstairs kitchen. The Unicorn smiled widely as he walked out of his room and down the stairs. His Father was standing by the stairs, smiling up him. Like Shadow, Dark-light had sleek black fur, and a deep crimson mane. Though unlike Shadow, his Father didn't have the mysterious red eyes. Instead, his eyes were light blue. "Had a good day son?" Dark-light asked, chuckling as Shadow joined him. "Looks like you've already made friends, OR..." Dark-light smiled as though holding a very amusing secret. "A Mare-friend?" Shadow gave his father a playful shove, just as they entered the brightly lit kitchen. Shadow's mother was standing beside the stove, watching the vegetable soup boiling in a small pot. Next to it was a large rectangular shallow pan, was a large collection of thin yellowish sticks. Hay fries. His Mother's bright cream colored fur and sunflower yellow mane gleamed in the light of the kitchen, reflected back a dozen times by the kitchen appliances. Like her husband, the Sunlight was also a unicorn. The mare turned her head, flashing brilliantly yellow eyes as her husband and son sat at the table. Smiling slyly at Dark-light, the mare sifted the fries onto plates with her hooves, whilst pouring soup into four large bowls. "Sunlight, darling?" Asked Dark-light, looking curiously at the fourth dinner. Sun-light chuckled slightly and nodded at her son, who smiled widely. "Oooh. So my little Shadow..." There was a knock at the door. Sunlight smiled and stood up. There door opened just as Sunlight reached it. Magically the mare opened the door. There, in the doorway, stood Twilight Sparkle, looking slightly shifty.
"You must be Twilight Sparkle." Sunlight said with a smile, stepping to one side to allow the Unicorn filly to walk nervously into the house. "It's nice to finally meet you. Shadow does nothing but talk about you, you know?" Twilight blushed heavily and Shadow hid his face behind his hooves. Twilight, still blushing heavily, moved over to the table and sat down beside Shadow. Taking his head out from behind his hooves, Shadow smiled at the filly, taking her hoof under the table. "Oh lighten up Shadow!" Sunlight said coolly. "We're just having a bit of fun you know that. What's the worst that could happen?
Ponyville Hospital
Shadow slumped across the hospital bed, looking at the unconscious form of Rainbow Dash who lay upon it. Tears dripped down his face as he stared at the mare he had gone out with on a date, only days ago. He'd been crying by the bedside, ever since both AppleJack and Pinkie-Pie had brought him hear. Though neither of them were actually there. Both had given the pair a bit of privacy. According to Rainbow Dash, who had managed to moan out that it wasn't him when she'd seen him, some black furred unicorn had managed to break into the jail, release Trixie and used some sort of weird spell on her. She'd passed out after that and hadn't woken up for days. It'd been four days since that and five days since Jay and Twilight had disappeared. A few get well cards were stacked on the bedside table. Shadow lowered his head and continued to sob into the blanket, covering the Pegasus's prone body. The doctors had told AppleJack, who had told Shadow, that there hadn't been a mark on the mare's body though according to the healers, her body's inner workings had been somehow disturbed. This was the reason that Rainbow had not woken up. Shadow just couldn't understand why some-pony would do this to Rainbow Dash. She was just so...likable. Maybe a bit arrogant, but still great to hang about with. But then this had happened and after all so many other bad things had happened. Jay and Twilight were both still missing, (The search parties hadn't found anything), Trixie was loose, they couldn't even send fast post to the Princess. A letter had arrived claiming that it was from the Princess. According to the letter, the Princesses had been unable to contact them through magical means, as though something had blocked them. Indeed, the letter had arrived, looking slightly singed, rather as though it had been burnt by something. Not one single Pony in Ponyville could explain. The rather limited contact had hinted at something worse.
"The statue is gone." That had been scribbled right at the bottom, as though some-pony had scribbled it in at the last minute. The rest of Twilight's friends had no clue what that was supposed to mean. They'd dismissed it and gone straight back to the issue of their friends. Though Shadow had guessed at what that could mean. Discords imprisoning statue had gone. He hadn't mentioned this thought to the others though, being right in thinking that anything else going wrong would drive the already panicked Ponies over the edge. He sighed to himself, looking around at the slightly bare, completely empty hospital room. Despite the doctors insistence that they should leave and that Rainbow Dash need to be left alone to recover from whatever her assailant had done to her, a very, harsh, very rude shout of anger from Shadow had convinced the doctors to back off. As fast as they possibly could. The others had left earlier. As the light faded Shadow put his head back onto the bed, feeling his aching eyes beginning to close. It felt like he hadn't slept for days. He was extremely worried about Twilight and Jay, he had still been unable to locate either Jay's driver or Lockseed. He hoped that they weren't hurt. Discord couldn't exactly be called a danger but the spirit of chaos had been noted to go slightly to far during his "Playtime." Shadow closed his eyes, to avoid the pain that his over-taxed eyes. Bloodshot eyes, he decided were not great for oneself.
"Hello Shadow." The voice made him jump. Shadow toppled backwards off his chair and hit the floor with a crash. He'd been so tired, he hadn't noticed the large winged Unicorn sitting on the floor beside him. There was barely any light now. The sun had apparently gone down as the room was almost in pitch-blackness. A small lantern had been lit beside the chair. Scrabbling to his hooves, Shadow managed to see the other pony more clearly. Judging by the lack of eyelashes, the Alicorn was male. He had the same sleek black fur and crimson mane as Shadow. His eyes however, were of a deeper red than Shadow, so deep that it was almost Black. The horn on the Alicorns head was longer than Shadow's and tapered to a sharp point. A smile was splashed across the male Alicorns muzzle, the teeth so white that they glowed in the almost total blackness. "Surprised to see me?" Chuckled the Alicorn moving over to Shadow and sitting back down beside the surprised Unicorn. "Long time." The Alicorn said quietly, looking at the unconscious form of Rainbow Dash. "Quite a lot has changed, well since the last time we spoke. You never visit me anymore." There was a glimmer of hurt on the Alicorn's face. Shadow stammered, unsure of what to say. But then he noticed that the Alicorn had shaken his head and was chuckling heartily at the stunned look on Shadow's face. Shadow blinked, then looked hard at the Alicorn. He knew that he'd seen the Alicorn somewhere before. Then it clicked. Very slowly, a small smile began to form on his face. "Now your getting it!" The Alicorn said with a mock salute. Shadow's smile grew wider and wider. He knew now who this mysterious Alicorn was.
"Hello Obsidian." Shadow said, holding out his hoof. The pair shook. "I thought that imaginary friends weren't s'posed to hang around once you grew up." Obsidian chuckled again, patted Shadow on the back. "I really don't think this is a good time for me...to be..." Shadow looked round. "I'm not dreaming am I?" He asked. Obsidian shook his head with a wide smile. The Alicorn stood up and walked over to the window, with a toss of his horn, the large window opened. Obsidian clambered out onto the sill. The Alicorn turned back to the confused Unicorn who had followed him. "Where are you going?" Demanded Shadow. The Alicorn smiled slightly, looking as though he could've burst out laughing at any minute.
"See ya soon my Shadow!" Obsidian jumped out of the window. With a great flap of his black wings, the Alicorn flew upwards. Obsidian's body was silhouetted by the moon for a second....and then he was gone. Shadow closed the window with a sigh. He turned back to the bed, where the mare he loved lay, completely unconscious. He settled back on the chair, determined to stay awake and to watch her through the rest of the night.