Shadow And The Heart

by DR-Fluffy

Chapter 8: Reunion

It wasn’t a dream, Flurry Heart realized as she stared slack-jawed at the stallion in her room. He wasn’t a hallucination or trick of the light. “It’s really you, after so long.” She said. A part of her wanted to reach out and touch him, but a lingering fear that he would turn into mist if she tried held her back.

Shadow stepped to the bedside window and pulled the curtains to the side. The last rays of the evening sky shone through the window, bathing Shadow in its warmth. Her mouth was dry. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, yet they could not escape her mouth.

Shadow looked to her and held her mesmerized with his gaze. He raised one hoof out and asked, “Would you like to go on a walk with me?”

“Yes,” a part of Flurry’s mind spoke without hesitation, yet the more reasonable part of her mind had to ask, “How? I don’t know how you got in, but Twilight would have reinforced the wards by now. She’ll know the moment we try to leave.”

Shadow gave a cocky grin. “Twilight always lowers some of the wards when she leaves, otherwise she would set them off every time she comes home. As for getting out,” Shadow pointed down to the ground. Flurry looked down to the rug under her hooves. The ornate rug that had become such a common sight to her that she barely saw it, now had a magic circle drawn on it. Magic circles were an advanced form of magic that she had barely studied on, yet she knew of that one by the sheer fact that it was restricted to the highest class of mages. It was a long-range teleportation spell that had the unique property of bypassing wards.

“You ruined my rug.”

“I improved your rug.” Shadow stepped into the magic circle and once more held out a hoof for her, and this time she took it.

The smell of pinecones carried on the wind was the first clue as to where Flurry had arrived. All around her were pine trees with not a trace of Ponyville in sight. She stood on a stone surface within yet another magic circle, a receiver to the one in her room perhaps. She made a mental note to brush up on her study of Magic Circles.

With a slow breath to steady her beating heart, she looked to Shadow, whose gaze was held by the treetops. Far slower than she could stand, he turned to lock eyes with her and with a tone that spoke of confidence, he said, “Nice weather?”

Nice Weather. Nice weather! The words echoed in her mind, causing her eye to twitch. “Nice weather!” She repeated. Her right wing lashed out on its own and slapped against Shadow’s face, her left wing, however, was completely under her control when she slapped him. “You idiot! Idiot! Idiot!” With each word she cried, Flurry unleashed a torrent of blows with the soft tips of her feathers.

Shadow covered his face with a hoof as he back away. “Hey, calm down, what did I say wrong?”

Flurry let her blows relent. Her feathers were a ruffled mess and she was breathing heavily through her nose. “Six years, Shadow! Not a single word from you in six years, and now you show up out of nowhere to talk about the weather!” The anger she felt just a moment ago evaporated, leaving behind a pain that had festered for so long and echoed within her voice. “Shadow, where have you been?”

Shadow’s face fell. He took in a breath with a look of resignation. “I’m sorry. For weeks now, I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to approach you, but I’ve screwed up it seems.” He looked off deep into the forest. “Walk with me, there’s something I want to show you.”

Flurry was hesitant. She wanted answers now, yet when he moved away, she found herself keeping pace.

“What do you remember about the night I left?”

“I remember everything quite well.” Flurry Heart wasn’t sure how she could ever forget the night that changed her life. To her parent’s self- assurance that they were protecting her, to the black crystal that erupted from the ground at shadows cry of pain, oh yes she remembered.

Shadow nodded somberly. “For a very long time, I’ve been traveling, looking for answers and learning what I could. The Minotaur Legion taught me to fight without relying on my magic, the goats of Ramhalla showed me the true depths of dark magic, and that is only the tip of the things I’ve seen. I visited you when I could find the time, if only to make sure you were safe, but I could never stay long without risk of being discovered.”

As Flurry pondered his words, she couldn’t help but wonder what he was hiding, but that was not something she wanted to dwell on now. “Why couldn’t you have come to see me? In six years, how could you not find a single moment to let me know you were ok?”

“It’s… complicated.”

Complicated? So complicated that he couldn’t take a few minutes to explain it to her. “Shadow, Please—“

“We’re here,” Shadow spoke loudly enough to drown out talk of anything else. He pushed aside the shrubs with his magic and for a moment Flurry forgot about the subject. Before them was a pond of shimmering water with lily pads floating on its crystal surface. Rocks were stacked at the far edge in a way that allowed the water to flow from one stone to the next in a mini-waterfall. The entire scene was made complete with a colorful ring of flowers that marked the border of the pond.

“Beautiful,”

“Really?” Shadow’s eyes lit up as he looked to her. “I’ve been steadily working on it for the past week. I wanted somewhere we could speak in private, but no place seemed good enough, so I made someplace myself.”

At his words, Flurry realized she had yet to question where they were. “It’s lovely, but where exactly are we?”

“Don’t worry, we’re only in the outskirts of Ponyville, in the Whitetail Woods.”

“And this location just happens to be outside the range of Twilight’s detection magic.” Shadow’s only answer was a knowing smirk.

Flurry stepped to the water's edge and dipped a hoof into it and watched as the surface rippled. From the reflection, she could see Shadow walking up next to her. “The Minotaur Legion and Ramhalla, you must have traveled to the entire world by now.”

“Not all of it, but not for a lack of trying,” Shadow said with a laugh. “I never forgot about you, I even remember that your favorite food is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”

“That’s not my favorite food.” Flurry interrupted. In fact, it had been a long time since she had such a sandwich. She wasn’t sure why she stopped eating them, perhaps she grew tired of the sweetness of the jelly, but for whatever reason, it had been years since she last had one. She locked eyes with Shadow. Before her stood, not the naive colt who couldn’t even remember his own name, but a stallion who had traveled the world and grown wiser from it.

She, herself, was no longer the innocent filly who thought to rule a nation meant smiting ponies with laser eyes. She had matured from hardships and lessons learned to understand what it takes to lead ponies. “Shadow, do we even know each other anymore?” She looked into his eyes, longingly, searching for answers, but found only the same longing staring back. “I’m not the same filly I once was, and you’re not the same colt I met in the market district.”

Shadow broke off the gaze and looked into the pond. “No, I’m not that colt. I haven’t been since the night I left.”

The thought that the colt she once knew was gone filled Flurry’s chest with a numbing pain. They were just strangers now. Strangers, yes, she realized with a smile, but they didn’t need to stay strangers. “Then let us start over.” Flurry took the lead and gave a bow of her head. “I am Princess Flurry Heart, first in line to the Crystal Empire; it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Shadow gave a nod of his head. “The pleasure is mine, I assure you. I am Shadow, a fragment of the former tyrant King Sombra.”

Sombra. The sleepless nights, the endless fights with her parents, all because she assured with every fiber of her being that he was not Sombra, yet she was wrong. Unconsciously, she took a step back, an act that Shadow was keenly aware of.

“I am not Sombra!”

“B-but you just—“

He would not let Flurry’s confused words stop him. “I was born of his magic… the details are not important, but know that I am not nor have I ever been Sombra.” Slowly, carefully, he inched forward and took hold of Flurry’s hoof. “I believe that one should be judged on their actions and not how they were born. We were only together for a short time, but do you truly think I could be Sombra?”

Flurry shook her head, unable to get the words out for several long seconds. “No, I’ve never thought that.” A sense of awkwardness fell between the two of them, with neither knowing quite what to say next, but Flurry broke it with the first thing to cross her mind. “Nice weather.”

They managed to keep a straight face for a few seconds before erupting into laughter. Shadow caught his breath and said, “I’m glad I got to see you before I left.”

Flurry gasped as if ice water flowed through her veins. “But I just got to see you again, so you can’t leave now!” If he left now would it be another six years before they see each other again? How much farther would they drift apart and could she ever hope of closing such a gap. All of these questions and more poured through her mind, as all she could do was silently beg him to stay with her eyes.

“I, um, misspoke. I’m leaving, yes, but not for another few weeks at least,” Shadow said, as Flurry’s face became watched with relief. “I still have some business to take care of here.”

“That’s great!” Flurry looked up to the sky and noticed how little of the evening light was left. “I need to get back before I’m missed.”

“Yes, we wouldn’t want all of the city guard to come looking for you. Do you need help getting back?”

Flurry shook her head. “Activating the runes shouldn’t be as difficult as setting up the magic circle.” She lingered for a moment, her hooves not wanting to move, and her eyes stayed locked on Shadow.

“You can’t leave if you don’t move,” Shadow said jokingly.

Flurry smiled back. “I suppose not. Thank you for coming back, Shadow.”

Shadow gave a bow of his head. “Have a good night, Princess of the Ice Lilly.”

Finally able to tear her gaze away, she moved to walk away but before she did so she said one last thing, “I’ll leave the magic circle in my room, do come visit.”

***

Shadow watched Flurry disappear into the underbrush and out of his sight, yet he could still practically see the butterflies that danced around her head. He, however, felt only dread for what he had said. He looked to one of the large stones nearby and pondered if repeatedly bashing his brains in would help knock some sense into his head, not that it would help at that point.

He knew it was dangerous to let his emotions lead him; his Master had made it clear that he needed a logical mind to keep his magic under control, yet one look into those eyes and his logical mind melted away. He agreed to stay in Ponyville for another week at least, but he needed to leave NOW if he was to face his rival. He was strong enough to take on Sombra and hopefully defeat him, and the sooner he did that the safer everyone would be.

Shadow plopped down on the ground, unsure of what to do. If he was honest with himself, he wanted to stay, to just be a normal pony and not constantly training or trying to develop some new magical trick to use against his rival. It was only a silly dream, but if only for a little while, he wanted to experience it. Through the Call, he could feel that Sombra was still hiding in that icy cave, yet to move after all of these years, so what were a few more weeks before he faced him.

Comments

[Mindac]

I loved this whole story! Wonderful! Great work! Any idea for when there might be a new chapter?

[DR-Fluffy]

10252862
Thanks. I've started writing again, but right now I'm trying to find a schedule I can stick to consistently enough to get any work done, which turns out is harder than you would think.

[DR-Fluffy]

The story is not dead, if anyone is wondering, I do plan to finish this thing at some point.
Edit 2023/24: this is still true!