Shadow And The Heart

by DR-Fluffy

Prologue: How the Shadow met the Heart

Although I don’t recall my age, I do remember when we first met in the streets of the Crystal Empire. Me, the street rat, whose daily concern was deciding if I was going to spend my time looking for food or a new place to sleep. And her, the pampered princess, who was born with a silver gem encrusted spoon in her mouth. In a normal world it would be unlikely that two ponies from such opposite worlds would ever meet, let alone become friends. However, our lives had never been normal from the start, but I suppose I’m getting ahead of myself.

I dusted the snow from my gray coat and black mane as I entered the Empire for the first time. I sat on the ground as a wave of heat washed over me, sending my head spinning. Ponies milled about in the far distance, yet none of them had taken notice of me. I was at the edge of some sort of market, with stands setup in a large circle. Merchants cried out their low prices to passersby, and customers haggled over goods. For a time all I could do was sit there and watch them. They were fascinating, so like me yet so different.

My curiosity burned away the nerves that bound me to that spot. I rose back to my hooves and galloped to the closest crystalline blue building. I wanted to get a closer look at them. I glanced around the corner and watched two mares talking about the prices of imported apples being too high. One mare held a shiny red apple in a hoof as she talked. I felt a strange feeling in my stomach, like it was growling at me. The stand next to the mares was nearly overflowing with apples. They wouldn’t miss a few apples, I reasoned.

It was a good twenty feet from where I was hiding to the market stall I eyed, with nothing but colorful ponies in-between. Just as I pondered how to get over there a feeling overcame me. It was a strangely familiar feeling that wrapped my whole body like a blanket. The edges of my hooves were beginning to wisp away into black smoke. The smoke traveled up my hooves until it consumed all of my body. Strangely, I wasn’t afraid when this happened. It felt like this was simply a part of me I had forgotten, much like trying to walk on a hoof after it had fallen asleep.

I spent a few moments adjusting to the new form, before the wind blew my way and brought with it the smell of apples. I sunk into the ground and traveled through the very shadows themselves. Hitchhiking onto passersby, I rode them until I was close enough to my target and detached myself from them. I hid underneath the tablecloth of the apple stall, and focused on turning back into a pony. I pictured in my mind what it was like to be a pony, to have ground under my hooves, and found my body whole once more.

I could see the blue hooves of the apple seller from where I hid. Now how I was supposed to grab an apple from the top of the table without being seen, I had yet to work out. I considered trying with my smoke form, but I wasn’t sure if I could grab it like that or not. I thought on the matter just as I felt a strange breeze next to me. Slowly, I looked to my side and stared into the wide eyes and smiling face of a pale pony.

I screamed.

I jolted up fast and hard enough to send the stall sprawling on its side. Apples were send rolling everywhere, and the apple seller was already yelling as I ran past. I didn’t focus on any of that, just the filly with the smile that never faded. The moment I took off running she spread her wings and leaped into the air. Ponies shouted as I raced past them. I jumped over and under the other market stalls in hopes of losing the pony who I knew was still following me; I could feel her smile bore into my back.

My hoof caught on an uneven piece of stone and sent me rolling. That was likely the only thing that saved me as my pursuer landed just where I would have been moments before. The menacing smirk of the pony looked out of place with a mane of purple and blue curls. I quickly got to my hooves and ran off in another direction.

I left the market stalls behind and turned right into the first alleyway I came across, but at the sight of a dead end I knew I had made a wrong move. I tried to turn my body to smoke, but the winged death was already on me. We rolled on the ground until she was on top of me. I covered my face expecting the worst. I felt a firm, yet gentle, bop on my nose. “You’re it,” She declared in a fit of giggles.

At the confused look upon my face, she got off of me and allowed me to move into a sitting position. Now that I got the chance to look at the pony without running for my life, I noticed something strange about her. In addition to the wings on her side, was a horn on her head. Was she a winged unicorn or a horned pegasus?

“I’m Flurry Heart,” she said.

I continued to look at her strangely, she was so familiar. I knew I’d seen something like her before, but I couldn’t remember. A hoof waved in front of my eyes as the pony called out to me, “Can you hear me? I didn’t hit you that hard did I?”

“Yes, I can hear you,” I said with a grunt. I sat up straighter and puffed out my chest. I wasn’t going to let this Flurry look at me like I’m some weakling. She didn’t even hit me—fly into me, sure—but not hit, because bopping does not count as hitting. “Why were you chasing me?”

“Oh, I saw you do that cool trick of turning all smoky, so I wanted to asked how you did it. I can fly, teleport, fly, go invisible, and… fly, but I can’t do something like that. I’ve been trying to get Sunburst to teach me how to shoot lasers from my eyes, but my mom won’t let him.” she gave a huff and ruffled her wings. “She never lets me do anything fun,”

“Yes… I see.” I had no idea what to say to her, and really didn’t want to stay to listen. While I found her form curious, that quickly waned once she started talking. She kept talking about herself, apparently she was something called an ‘alicorn’ and a princess to boot. However, she seemed far more focused on what she was saying then what I was doing. I slowly moved myself into an isolated darkened corner and changed myself into my smoke form.

Just as I moved to merge myself with the shadows a golden dome wrapped itself around me. “Shields!” Flurry Heart stopped in her monologue to add. “I can also make shields. My dad showed me how. They’re really easy to do once you figure them out. Are you any good with shields?” She asked me as she drug the dome to her face. I threw my smoke form against the shield wall recklessly, but after just a few attempts it was clear that she wasn’t growing a bit tired. Me, on the other hoof, was finding out that staying in that form was rather exhausting. I had also figured out that I could still, in fact, feel my stomach rumbling.

With little choice I returned to a pony, more tired than when I started. I glowered at her from my shield prison, determined at the very least not to answer any of her questions, and then she asked her next question. “So… what’s your name?”

I blinked. Then blinked again. My name, that was in interesting question. One that I wasn’t too sure on the answer. Of course I wasn’t going to tell her that. I had my pride. “I’m not telling,” I informed her with an upturned nose.

“Oh come on! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!” She jumped up and down as she begged, but I remained steadfast. She tapped her hoof on the ground and for a moment, and I couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking. When her face lit up and her smirk returned I suddenly had a bad feeling. “Well I have to call you something, so I’ll just give you a name!”

I shook my head frantically. This sounded like an awful idea. She nodded quickly, clearly she disagreed.

She looked around the alley as if looking for inspiration, and found it in a trashcan. “How about Trash Heart!”

“No!”

“Ok, than Trash Sparkles, or Trash Fire. ”

“The word ‘trash’ is not in my name!” I loudly declared.

With an expression of almost complete victory, she stepped closer. “Then tell me your name so I can stop guessing.” I crossed my hooves and looked away from her and muttered something out too low to hear. She raised a hoof to her ear. “What was that?”

“I don’t know!” I admitted at last. I was surprised to see a look of confusion on the fillies face. “I can’t remember my name,”

Her look of confusion slowly turned into a deadpan, which far more quickly changed into something trying to hold back a tidal wave. A tidal wave that broke through, like the resistance was made out of sand, and Flurry Heart broke down laughing. Now the laughing didn’t overly bother me, not even the hoof pointing, but I thought the rolling around and banging her hoof into the ground was a bit much.

The shield holding me popped a moment later. It didn’t seem like she was very good at controlling her magic. “It’s not that funny,” I tried to keep my face neutral, having her see how much it was bothering me would somehow feel like a loss.

She picked herself off the ground and wiped the tears from her eyes, and managed to asked through a gasp of breath, “How can you not remember?”

I just shrugged my shoulders. It wasn’t like I tried to forget. I was pretty sure it started with an S… wait, what comes before S? Was it a T or W. No matter, “It makes no difference what my name is.”

Flurry Heart was going to say something, but at the sound of hooves approaching we both stopped to listen. “They found me already,” Flurry muttered. I slipped back to the shadows just as two crystal guards rounded the corner.

“Princess!” they called. “Where have you been. You know you’re not to leave your escort.” the guards continued fussing over their runaway princess, spouting words of worry for running off like that. Neither guard seemed to notice me, so focused on their princess they were. With my darken coat I blended into the background seamlessly, but kept my body still and my breathing quiet to not drew their ire.

Flurry gave out an audible growl. “Ok, I’m coming!” The guards turned to escort her out of the alley, but before she turned to follow them she looked to where I was hiding. She watch the way the shadows played off my face and smirked once more. “I’ll see you around, Shadow.”

Shadow. Well, it was better than Trash Fire.

***

It had been a week since I arrived at the Crystal Empire, and it had been far less eventful than my first day. I kept out of sight of other ponies as best I could. Call it paranoia, but I never felt safe around others. Flurry Heart didn’t really seem to care. She had a strange knack for finding me no matter where I was, and that night was no different.

I set up a temporary home out of some boxes at the back of a fancy restaurant. Sitting on my makeshift table was a tomato I fished out of a trashcan. It wasn’t that bad looking, apart from a small rotten spot. I was trying to angle my knife to cut off only the bad spot when a gasp at my front door gave me pause. Well, the hole I cut in the side of the box, but door sounds better.

Flurry Heart’s head was poking inside and staring at my soon to be dinner. “Tell me you are not about to eat that?” She entered my house and took a seat at the other side of my table.

I looked from my meal to Flurry. “Why, do you want some?”

She jerked back with a look of disgust. “Eww, that’s gross, Shadow. How could you eat that?”

“It’s not that bad looking?”

“It. Smells!”

I leaned forward and gave the tomato a quick sniff. It wasn’t quite pleasant, but compared to some of the things I passed on in the dumpster, it wasn’t too bad. “So I guess that smell wasn’t me.”

Flurry facepalmed. She grabbed a hold of my hoof and pulled me along with her. “You’re coming with me,” She declared. She pulled me out of my box home and wrapped a wing around me. “Hold still,” As her horn began to collect magic, I realized she was preparing for a teleport.

“Hey what about my home. This isn’t the safest neighborhood, you know.”

With her eyes closed and focused on her magic she answered, “Your box will be fine.”

“You say that now, but box theft is on the rise. I should know, it’s how I got all of mine.”

One bright flash later and we stood at the base of the crystal palace. It stretched up into the sky, far higher than I could see. Flurry led us to one of the side entrances to the palace, and by how effortlessly she avoided the guards I got the feeling her sneaking out was a normal thing for her.

We went up a few floors until we emerged into a large open spaced kitchen. A refrigerator and stoves lined one wall while spice racks lined the other, with long table separating the two sides. “Have a seat,” said Flurry, until she noticed that there were no chairs in the room. “Or just stand, I’ll have dinner ready in a moment.”

“You’re cooking?” If the disbelief wasn’t clear in my voice it was all over my face. Flurry, however, didn’t seem to notice or just didn’t care. She open the cupboard one by one until she found what she was looking for: bread, peanut butter, and some red jam.

“I don’t actually know how to cook, so this will have to do.” She spread the peanut butter and jam on to some bread before pressing them together. She placed one of the sandwiches on a plate and passed it to me. I stared at it for a long moment. “Just eat it, it’ll taste better than that tomato you were trying to eat.”

I had my doubts, but I was hungry. Hesitantly, I lifted the sandwich to my mouth and took a bite. The explosion of flavor that hit my taste buds was a mixture of creamy goodness and sweet delight that I thought impossible. I didn’t so much as eat the rest of the sandwich as I inhaled it, crumbs and all.

Flurry smirked. “So, do you want another one?” I frantically nodded my head. She pulled back my plate and set out two more pieces of bread. “Shadow, you know how you said you can’t remember your name. Well, do you remember anything else, like where you came from?”

I gave her a shrug in answer. I had tried to remember but could never get past the sound of roaring wind and the blinding snow. “Before coming here, all I remember is walking through the snow,”

Flurry paused in her sandwich making to stared at me. “By snow, do you mean the Eternal Blizzard?”

“Um… I guess so.”

“Why would you be walking through that? How did you not freeze to death?” She raised a hoof before I could give an answer. “Let me guess, you don’t remember,” I nodded. She sighed and slid the plate back in front of me with a new sandwich.

I bit into the sandwich, but this time savored the taste. “I’ve got a question,” I said between bites. “Why do you keep coming around me?”

Flurry licked the peanut butter from the butter knife with a look of thought on her face. “Because your weird.”

“Weird? How am I weird?”

“How are you not?” Flurry said in answer, a bemused look on her face. “You live in a box, eat trash, turn all smoky, and can’t remember anything past a week ago. That is so weird! But that’s ok, I’m weird too. I’m the only alicorn in my class, and crystal ponies can’t use magic like I can, so I’m used to being the weird one.”

I tossed the last bit of my sandwich into my mouth. That word, ‘alicorn’, why was it so familiar. And more importantly, how does any of that make me weird? “I believe you when you say you are weird, but I think your weirdness has clouded your mind. I am perfectly normal.”

Flurry gave a snort in protest. “Says the colt who has all of the weirdo magic.”

“Says the filly with weirdo wings!”

“Well your face is weird.”

“Your voice is weird.”

“Your—“ Flurry Heart stopped as her ears jumped up and pointed towards the door. “You need to hide, now!” She didn’t wait for my answer as she grabbed my plate and placed it in the sink.

I had no idea what had gotten into her, but I wasn’t going to just sit around. I ducked down at the corner of the table just as the doors opened. I couldn’t see who it was from my position, but I could hear them. Clopping hooves drew closer and Flurry spoke up quickly, “Mother, what are you doing up so late?”

“I should be asking you that,” her mother said with a sigh.

Curiosity beckoning me on, I peeked around the table to get a look at Flurry’s mother. When my eyes fell upon the pink alicorn with a curly mane, my blood froze. I could hardly breathe as a fear I’ve never known filled me. My hooves shook, and it was only the fact that I may be heard that kept me quiet.

“I’m just getting a late night snack,” Flurry explained.

“This is why I tell you to eat everything on your plate.” Flurry’s mother motioned toward the door. “Come on, back to bed with you.”

Flurry hesitated for a long moment, drawing a raised eyebrow from her mother. I could tell by the way she was looking everywhere but in my direction that she was worried about me, but I didn’t need her worry. What I did need was for her to get her mother away from me so my hooves would stop shaking.

“Is something wrong?”

With a quick shake of her head, Flurry trotted past her mother. “Nope, nothing wrong. Let’s go.” Flurry led the way out of the room and the door shut behind them.

I waited for a long moment as the voices of those two slowly disappeared down the hallway. When my breathing had slowed and my hooves calmed, I turned into my smoke form and fled the palace with all haste.

That night I had a nightmare, the first real dream I could remember. I was a stallion with a flowing red cape and crown adorning my head. I stared at the Crystal Empire as it was wrapped in a pinkish barrier. From the other side stood Flurry’s mother, Cadence the dream whispered her name to me, and she was smirking at me. The dream changed and I was in the Empire, riding a pillar of black crystal. I was about to win… something, I wasn’t sure, but the feeling of victory was all consuming. But then, in the blink of an eye, Cadence appeared and my body shattered into a thousand pieces. I awoke after that but I couldn’t fall back asleep.

***

Time past and before I knew it six months had gone by since my arrival in the Empire. My relationship had improved with Flurry Heart a bit. We weren’t ‘friends’ more like someone you tolerate because they keep showing up no matter how many times you move your house.

Flurry would often sneak food out to me in my, rather luxurious, box palace. She had once offered to talk to her parents to let me live in the palace with her, but I always turned her down. I wanted to keep as much distance between me and her mother as I could. The nightmares were simply too vivid.

It was an average afternoon when I flew into her room through the open window. The moment I touched the ground I cast off my smoke form. Flurry had all but given up trying to get me to teach her how to do that. I had tried once, but I wasn’t sure how to explain it outside of ‘think you are smoke’, so we never got too far into it.

Flurry Heart was at her desk reading school books. She didn’t acknowledge my presence, but that was normal when she was focused on other things. I brought the flower from my back and slipped it under her face as she read.

Leaning back, she looked at the flower. “What is this?” she asked.

“A gift, I thought you may like it.”

Flurry Heart looked over the flower. Her eyes glowed and she looked at me with an excited expression. “It’s an Ice Lilly!” Flurry lifted the flower up to smell it.

“What’s so special about an Ice Lilly?”

“Mother says that they can only grow in spots where the cold and warm air mix. If you give them to someone they’re supposed to be your true love,”

“Really?” I asked, taking an uncomfortable step back.

“No, wait… I think that was roses. Then what where these again… I forgot.”

I let out a laugh under my breath, and got rewarded by a ball of paper to the face. She looked over the flower a few more times before she asked, “Ok, what do you want?”

“What makes you say that?” I asked in my most offended voice, though by Flurry’s raised eyebrow she wasn’t buying it. Rats, I was hoping to mesmerize her with a gift before I asked for a favor. Flurry remind quiet, giving me all the time in the world to answer her question. “Ok, Fine. I need you to show me how to teleport things. That restaurant I’ve been staying behind is threatening to have my home hauled off if I don’t move it,”

Flurry gave a sigh. “Shadow, why don’t you just stay here?”

“Rejected!” I quickly shot her down. I did not want to go down that road right now, not when that restaurant could come for my home at any time. Besides, Flurry wasn’t stupid. She knew that her mother unnerved me.

Flurry looked to the flower in her hooves as an unsettling smile crossed her face. “In that case, what will you do in exchange for my help?”

“What do you want?”

“You know I just remembered what this flower means: If you give it to someone that pony will promise to always be your friend.”

I didn’t like were this was going. “That’s fascinating. You learn something new every day,” I said with an uneasy chuckle.

“So if you want to save your precious boxes, you have to accept this flower from me and be my friend, forever, and ever, and ever.”

“Your evil,” I muttered as I stared at the flower twirling in her hooves. She just continued to smile her wicked smile. On one hoof there was my home to consider, I just had the bowling alley installed. On the other hoof, be buddy-buddy with her. She had me against the wall and she knew it. I hung my head in defeat and took the flower.

“Excellent, now since we’re friends let’s have a tea party!”

And so it began.

***

It was just a few days after Flurry’s birthday and a year since my arrival. Flurry had just returned from a trip to Canterlot, but I managed to convince her to come to the lake with me that night, she agreed when I told her about the meteor shower. She snuck out and met me at the market district, and together we headed for the lake.

When we arrived I escorted her to a small picnic spot I had set up in advance. It was nothing special just a blanket, so we didn’t have to sit on the ground, and a basket with food and drinks I had taken from the palace’s kitchen.

“It was nice of you to invite me out here… what did you do?” said Flurry, a skeptical look in her eyes.

I rolled my eyes. Of course she would think I did something. Granted, I normally would do something nice for her before I asked for a favor, or that time I broke one of the cups in her tea set. “You are the one always complaining that I never do anything nice without strings attached.

Our eyes were locked on the sky as the first meteors appeared, soon followed by dozens more.

“That is true,” she pushed me playfully. “Besides, it’s better to watch it with others then by yourself.” her eyes drifted over to me. “Thank you for dragging me out for this.”

“If you like me dragging you out then maybe I should do it more—“

Flurry Heart was fast when she wanted to be, and equally as clever. I never saw her lips coming. I wish that moment could have lasted forever.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

“Flurry Heart!” A voice that sent shivers down my body called out, Cadence stood behind us. Just like always, the mere sight of her sent my blood running cold.

We broke apart with a good foot between us. Cadence stared at me with a look of confusion that quickly turned into pure horror, “Sombra,” she whispered.

That name was like a glass of water being thrown on my face. I pushed that thought out of my mind, that wasn’t important now. I needed to focus. I needed to… stop my hooves from trembling.

“Mother, I’m sorry I snuck out without telling you, but I wanted to see the meteor shower,” she glanced over to me as if realizing I was still there. I guess she thought I would have run off by now, but I wasn’t just going to leave her. “This… is my friend, Shadow, he’s not from around here—“

“Flurry Heart, come here, now!” Cadence said. Her eyes never left me. I don’t even think she listened to a word Flurry said.

Flurry didn’t move, just looking between me and her mother. As we stood there in a standoff, I could hear more hooves running our way. I steeled myself and through a hoof around Flurry. If nothing else I would get her out of here. “We’re leaving!”

For a moment I was worried Flurry wouldn’t want to go, but at her devilish grin and her words of, “DO IT!” we teleported away.

We reappeared at the other end of the Market District. We didn’t have much of a head start, but it would be enough if we hurried. We started galloping the moment our hooves were on ground again. We cut through rolls of market stalls, leaping over the unused tables just to save time.

“Where are we going?” Flurry asked. There wasn’t a hint of fear in her voice. If anything she sounded happy.

“I don’t know, maybe we can hide in one of the other districts,”

“Yes, and if we can get to the train station maybe we can stowaway to Equestria!”

It was a wonderful idea. In Equestria we would be just normal ponies, well not Flurry, but we could hide her wings with magic. We could be free. We could be together.

I never saw the blast of magic that knocked me away from Flurry and sent me rolling into the market stalls. It was an expert shot, of that I had no doubt. To not only have the confidence to avoid Flurry Heart and hit my right side, but to match our galloping speed while doing it. I didn’t need to look from the wreckage to know that it was Shining Armor who fired it.

I tried to get to my hooves but my body was in too much pain. Flurry tried to gallop to me but was caught in a bubble of magic. “That’s enough, Flurry Heart!” Cadence said, as she flew down from the air.

She was fast.

“Mother, stop it! He’s my friend!”

“Cadence, get her to the castle. We will deal with this here,” said Shining Armor. He ordered the dozen Crystal Guards to move in to surround me.

Flurry was screaming, begging them to leave me alone, but they weren’t listening. She was being dragged away and there was nothing neither she, nor I could do. Rage filled me. Rage at my helplessness, at the longing for power that wasn’t there, at wanting to protect her— that was all that mattered.

So I gave into the anger.

I rose back onto my hooves. The guards moved to restrain me, but they couldn’t stop me anymore. The whites of my eyes became green as the purple mist poured from them. I poured all my anger and hatred into one all-encompassing scream. If I could not have a happy ending then nothing could. I would break the world, I would make it bleed.

Black crystal spires burst from the ground around me. The Crystal Guards stopped in their tracks, and I could taste their fear. Shining Armor was yelling at them to attack, but they were paralyzed. Some were already falling back. The ground was ripping open, sending the market stands hurtling to their doom below.

The realization that grown stallions were about to wet themselves at the sight of a foal made me roar with a maddening laughter. More and more crystals were braking from the ground, knocking aside some guards and forcing the rest back. The ground itself was being corrupted by my anger. Good, let it burn in my rage. Let them all burn!

“Shadow!” An angelic voice called out to the darkness that ate away at my mind. “Shadow!”

No! I didn’t know what I was doing anymore. Most of the district seemed to have been consumed by the black crystals. The guards were forming a wall in front of Cadence, while trying to keep themselves from being impaled on the crystals pillars that ripped out of the ground at random. I cut my power to the magic and tried to stop it, but it was out of my hooves.

It was then I saw Flurry Heart. She was still inside her bubble, just outside of the affected area, her mother standing guard in front of her. Flurry was staring right at me. She had seen the whole thing.

It was an odd time for strange thoughts to run through my head: Images of us sneaking our way to Equestria, taking on some silly fake names, taking over some abandoned house and working together to restore it. So many little things were running through my head and I had no Idea why.

I changed myself into smoke and disappeared into the night.