Light and Shadow

by oop

Chapter 9 Showtime

“Book fort one, book fort one, come in book fort one. This is fluff tower two over!”

“Copy fluff tower two, armed and ready.”

“Book fort one, fire at will!”

Shadow could vaguely hear the sounds of Lightning and Vinyl strategizing some sort of war game, but was still blinking off the last dregs of sleep. He was noticing more and more that Lightning would wake up before him pretty much no matter what he did. The sudden disappearance of his pillow from beneath his head confirmed the magical mischief of the white unicorn. He groaned and sat up, not even bothering to try and earn a few more minutes of sleep as he looked exactly the wrong direction.

Wham! Some mass suddenly connected with the back of his head and sent him reeling forward, falling off the top bunk and onto the canopy bed with a poof. Just as he was going to spring up to repel the attack he was struck yet again, and this time with far more firepower. It was hardly a minute later he found himself covered in a fluffy mass of pillows.

“Nice shot commander Lightning!” Vinyl’s muffled voice penetrated the pillow pile “Target completely obliterated!”

Shadow pushed his way angrily out of the pillows, his bed head now porcupine-like from the early assault. All idea of sleep gone from his mind, and finally catching onto their silly game, Shadow grabbed two pillows and took to the air.

“This is air force one requesting permission to target book for tone!” he said, observing the completed book igloo Lightning has apparently finished, and was now looking up from the inside of.

“Air Force one, target confirmed,” Vinyl responded from the top bunk of the other bed “Prepare to drop!”

Lightning squeaked, taking one of the larger books and holding it over her head as a shield while Shadow threw the pillows down from above. A few books toppled out of the structure, but Lightning had built the fort surprisingly well, and it held strong. She stuck her tongue out at Shadow who simply glared down at her.

The section of the bookshelf that was the door swung back as Twilight walked into the room. She looked tired, but highly pleased with herself. “You all can stop trying to wake up the entire castle now,” she said, though not unkindly “The ceremony will begin at lunch, and I want Shadow, at least, to be ready for it.”

“Well I guess we’d better all be ready to go,” said Lightning, emerging from the book-fort “Because there is no way no how we’re letting him go alone.”

“Not that I want to,” said Shadow, landing next to her “But if you think you can steal my thunder, you’re dead wrong.”

“Well you know thunder always comes after the Lightning!” Light said with a huge and obvious smirk.

Twilight wasn’t paying much attention to their bickering. Her attention was focused on the book fort, which bothered her. Honestly, what a waste of good literature. They should be reading those books not building silly play structures with them…

“I need to get my turntables set up,” said Vinyl, jumping down onto the canopy bed and bouncing onto the floor “Unless you could maybe have someone do that for me? That would be fantastic.”

“I suppose we could arrange to have that done,” said Twilight “Now come along, we have to get you into uniform.”

“I thought we had like till lunch before all this started,” said Shadow “Why do I have to put on clothes before then?”

“So that you can look like a proud and respectable young stallion,” said Twilight, as if her words really meant anything “Now come along my little ponies. I have the perfect little dresses in mind for Lightning and Vinyl, and a little tux for Shadow.”

Vinyl nearly gagged as they followed Twilight out of the room and down the long stone staircase. As they trotted down Lightning and Vinyl shot each other a few signals. Twilight seemed oblivious to this, but Shadow noticed, he just didn’t understand. When he looked toward Lightning questioningly she shook her tail in a fashion that clearly meant something in a code he didn’t know. He sighed, resigning himself to simply follow them if they tried something.

And try something they did, as they reached the foot of the staircase Lightning and Vinyl shot off in opposite directions, dashing silently down two different corridors. Shocked at the amazing silence of their escape, so much so Twilight didn’t even notice it, he opted to make the same movement; following Vinyl who he felt he had a better chance of catching up with.

“What was all that?” asked Shadow as he caught up to Vinyl, who turned to him in surprise.

“You were supposed to stay behind and keep Twilight talking!” said Vinyl, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world “Now she’s going to notice we’re gone, great job…”

“How in the world was I supposed to know that?” asked Shadow indignantly “You two were doing all your tail shakes and head bobs that I couldn’t understand at all!”

“Well then next time we have a brilliant plan we’ll say it out loud,” said Vinyl, rolling her eyes “So that the colt can understand us too.”

“Or you could just teach me your cool code language…” said Shadow, clearly grumpy by now.

“We didn’t plan it all out,” said Vinyl, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world “It’s just signals that we both kind of understand, I thought you did too.”

“Well I don’t so…” Shadow began, but Vinyl quickly cut him off.

“Look,” she said, pointing to where the shadow of a pony was outlined on the wall, approaching from a turn in the hall “We need to hide, now!”

“There!” Shadow said quickly, pointing to a splintery wooden door immediately to their right. They opened the door and ran inside, shutting it behind them and plunging into total darkness.

“Where are we?” asked Vinyl “I can’t see anything.”

“I don’t know…” Shadow muttered “I ran at random, just like I thought you did.”

“That wasn’t random at all!” said Vinyl angrily “The plan is to meet up with Lightning again in the dining hall to get breakfast.”

Vinyl lit her horn and the room was suddenly illuminated in a dim blue. It was some sort of wooden platform littered with mechanics and pieces of litter. To one side was a huge velvet curtain, evidencing that they were on the floor of some sort of stage, though it didn’t look like it had been used in quite awhile. They walked about the place, Shadow keeping close to Vinyl for the light, observing the various broken sets and props.

“This is pretty cool,” said Shadow, picking up a small Styrofoam brick “I bet this went to a big castle or something, what do you think?”

“I don’t know…” said Vinyl vaguely.

“Oh my gosh is this real?” Shadow asked, gripping the handle of a broken sword in his teeth and swinging it around a bit. “This is awesome! We could just hang out here and explore!”

“Mhmm…” said Vinyl, not paying attention to what Shadow was saying, but her enchanted blue eyes were fixated on him.

Shadow looked over to her, head tilted slightly “Are you alright Vinyl?” he asked “You seem a little bit distracted.”

“Oh…” said Vinyl, trancelike state not breaking in the slightest “I was just thinking, you know. It’s just the two of us here…the dim light…alone…”

Shadow gave her a quizzical look “I’m not following…” he said “What are you talking about?”

“Oh you are so clueless…” said Vinyl, stepping closer “I think it’s cute…”

“Um…thank you…?” said Shadow, unsure of himself, as well as flustered as he felt her breath on his neck. She really was uncomfortably close…

“That’s when you’re supposed to say something sweet in return,” said Vinyl, batting her eyelashes as she followed Shadow’s awkward backward scuffle. It was obvious that despite his obvious discomfort Vinyl was just going to press closer.

“You have pretty…eyes…?” said Shadow, tripping a little and stopping so he could keep his balance.

“That’s it,” said Vinyl, swaying her hips in a practiced seductive manner she didn’t have any memory of practicing “I guess there might be some hope for you yet…”

Shadow felt his back hoof connect forcefully with a metal wheel as he made one last reverse movement. Vinyl finally leapt forward, closing the last few inches. She stared deep into his eyes for a fraction of a second, blue meeting red, infatuation meeting confusion, and then she pushed through the tangle of thoughts and emotions to finally connect.

Lightning had taken refuge from the crowd of ponies in the main hall by ducking down a side passage. She didn’t really know where she was, but she had stumbled into a large auditorium so she clearly couldn’t be lost. It was a very old looking theatre room, with rows of wooden seats, the discomfort of such slightly put off by the faded silk cushions. There were no balconies in this auditorium, probably because it was much older and smaller than the current concert hall.

It was actually somewhat eerie, walking about the moldy old seats. Lightning could smell what she thought was mothballs, but wasn’t entirely sure. What if that was what ghosts smelled like? Oh she hoped it wasn’t ghosts… did ghosts eat ponies? How did a pony go about not being eaten by a ghost?

There was a squeak as the curtain on stage started to rise. Lightning screamed, pressing herself against the back wall, wondering what sort of horror she would see on the other side. What she did see as the curtain rose shocked her even more than actual ghosts would have. Vinyl was up there, and Shadow, and they were…?

Shadow pushed Vinyl away the moment he noticed the curtain rising, it must have moved upward when he had kicked the metal wheel. He went so deeply red when he saw Lightning staring at them from the hall that it could be seen clearly even through his gray fur. This was easily the most embarrassing moment of his life.

“Woops…” said Vinyl, turning quickly and running off the stage. Shadow heard the door they had come through slam shut. He turned awkwardly to face Lightning, wondering just what she would say.

Lightning moved away from the wall and walked right up to the stage. She took a mighty leap up and landed on all four hooves on center stage. She walked over to Shadow, who braced for an attack, and ruffled his mane.

“Shadow’s got a girlfriend!” she said in a singsong voice “Shadow and Vinyl sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

“Shut up…” Shadow muttered, not knowing what else to say.

“First comes love!” Lightning kept singing “Then comes marriage, then comes the…”

“I said shut up!” Shadow shouted, wings flaring outward angrily, his glaring red eyes making him look positively alarming.

“Okay jeez…” said Lightning intimidated into backing down “I would just poking fun of you, I didn’t mean it…”

Shadow sighed, his wings furling back to his side. “I’m sorry too…” he said “I just really… just… I don’t know… Vinyl just kind of forced it on me…”

“That’s the second time in two days Shadow,” said Lightning curiously “You aren’t…are you…?”

“No!” Shadow exclaimed immediately “Buck no! Pardon my language… It’s just ever since we got turned older like that I’ve had this kind of image in my head. I keep thinking of this girl, and she’s beautiful, but I can’t actually see her…” he pawed the ground a bit, kicking up dust “I dreamed about her… and I don’t even know who she is…”

“Iris…” Lightning remembered “Hey, I didn’t ask for an explanation, I just wanted to make sure you’re not spreading your cooties to any pony else!”

Shadow had turned back to the door Vinyl had run out of. “It’s silly…” he said, brain dancing in all different directions “Maybe I’m just thinking it’s only friendship and what I’m dreaming about is what I think I’m missing…” he glanced to Lightning again “How can you tell the difference between being friends and being in love…?”

Lightning blushed a little, realizing how much it meant that he was trusting her with that question. “Well…” she said slowly “My brother said it’s when you really want to be with someone all the time, and being with them makes you feel really happy!” she shrugged “Of course he broke up with the girl he was dating when I asked him about it, so he could just be crazy.”

Shadow licked his lips slowly, imagining he could still taste Vinyl on him. It hadn’t been bad, the kiss, actually he thought it was a great feeling. It just seemed somehow wrong… he didn’t know why, but it did. Of course maybe that was just because he didn’t know what he was doing.

Before he could voice another question; the door to the auditorium slammed open and in stomped Twilight. Her composure looked like it had finally reached breaking point, and she was seething.

“I have been looking all over the castle!” she exclaimed “You cannot just go running off like that!” she proceeded to lift them both up in a purple nimbus and carry them over to the door.

“You can’t do this to us!” said Lightning indignantly “We weren’t doing anything wrong, let us go!”

“I’m royalty too you know!” Shadow said angrily “You don’t have any right!”

“Well if you’re going to take that attitude with me,” said Twilight, trying to calm herself down again, “I’ll give you over to someone who can.” Lightning and Shadow dropped to the tile floor outside the room and found themselves under a familiar gaze.

Princess Luna was standing over them, not quite her previous height, but teenaged at the very least. She glared down at them with a clear and obvious anger.

“I shudder to think what you did to your house with a year alone,” said Luna, her voice as proud and commanding as it ever was “You cannot go even a day without supervision? You have somehow succeeded in activating two rare and ancient glyphs that are expressly forbidden to be tampered with, and that, just in a single day?”

“What…but…how?” Lightning stammered. Shadow looked down at his hooves in shame, at a total loss for words.

“You may go Twilight,” said Luna, her tone not slipping out of its stern tone “Lightning, Shadow, you will come with me to the dressing room as Twilight had planned, and no more goofing off.”

Twilight gave a nod and vanished in a flash of bright purple magic. Luna gave a stern glance and began walking down the hallway. Not daring to do anything else, Light and Shadow followed, moving at a quick trot to keep up with Luna’s walking pace.

“I thought you got turned into a filly,” said Lightning cautiously “How did you get back to normal?”

Luna let a smile play around her lips, the stern scolding she had delivered seeming to drop away slightly. “I do owe you an explanation I suppose,” she said pleasantly “Twilight finally got the grand idea to use a memory charm to restore our memory. After that Celestia called for manna batteries from the treasury so we would be able to return to our original ages. Unfortunately they could only bring us this far along, and manna batteries are incredibly rare.”

“I think I’ve heard of manna batteries somewhere…” said Shadow, thinking hard, but not remembering when he had heard the term before.

“I read a storybook once that had a manna battery in it!” said Lightning, proud to remember a seemingly vital detail “A unicorn prince had to battle an evil witch to get it and save his sweetheart from a terrible disease!”

Shadow rolled his eyes, finding this an exceedingly silly little story. “The tale of Glowing Heart and the witch of the ice kingdom,” Luna said in recognition “It was actually a story of King Sombra originally, in the days before his conversion to evil. I suppose the story has been somewhat skewed, but there was no manna battery involved…”

“What did happen then?” asked Lightning curiously, the story having been one of her favorites for when her brother would read to her before bed.

Luna sighed “The truth of the matter is far more tragic,” she said “Sombra was a unicorn of spectacular power in those days. He attempted to live in the crystal empire but was shunned by the magic fearing crystal ponies. About the same time, however, the young princess of the crystal empire was discovered to have been a unicorn in secret. When she met Sombra they fell deeply in love. When it came time for the princess to rule she changed many ponies opinions of unicorns and they finally accepted Sombra. Unfortunately a sickness came upon the princess and she died with none to succeed her. Sombra took the throne by force, and in his anger at losing his love he took his revenge upon the ponies of the Crystal Empire.”

“Oh…” said Lightning, looking down “So there wasn’t a happy ending after all.”

“The manna battery in the story now could be a reference to the crystal heart,” said Luna mildly “That is a special kind of manna battery after all.’

“Then why didn’t Sombra just use the crystal heart to save the princess?” asked Shadow.

“I’m afraid by that time Sombra’s own heart had turned cold from the hatred he had endured during his alienation. The crystal heart caused him more harm than good. He would never have been able to channel its power.”

“That’s so sad…” said Lightning “Did they really hate him that much just because he was a unicorn?”

“You have to understand this was a very long time ago,” said Luna “Not long after my sister and I conquered Discord. In the wake of his chaos those who had no control of magic of their own considered it a great source of fear.”

“I used to be scared of unicorns…” Shadow admitted sheepishly “I know they aren’t any different, but the fact they could use lasers or dark magic any time they wanted… it’s scary.”

“But what stops the pegasi from using the weather in the same way?” asked Luna “Are your thunderclouds any less intimidating than their magic? No, it’s not the fear of their ill-intent as much as it is fear of the unknown.” She gave a kind smile “Do not be so quick to judge harshly, most ponies will be more inclined to do good than harm.”

Lightning and Shadow looked to each other in a sort of stunned silence as they continued to walk down the hall. More of the meaning went over their heads than perhaps should have, but it wasn’t lost in its entirety. It wasn’t a great deal longer before they stopped at a medium sized door that was a very bright fuchsia.

They entered the room behind Luna and looked around, Shadow in dread, Lightning in obvious delight. It seemed like they had walked into a salon with huge hair driers and mane washing sinks, barber chairs, and half a dozen wardrobes. Questionably dressed ponies, mostly female, walked here and there doing things with curling irons and paste that Shadow could never even begin to comprehend.

Celestia was seated in one of the barber chairs, her hair being attended to by a yellow unicorn mare with what looked like a hundred floating tools. Shadow realized this was the first time he had seen her without her aurora colored magic. The way it hung now the natural pink color was visible in its entirety. She looked to be almost totally herself again, more so than Luna anyway.

“So they have come at last!” came a voice with a completely unrecognizable accent “Wundarbar! The Prince and his little friend, this way please!” A blue coated mare walked out, wearing an incredibly puffy pink dress and what looked like Vinyl’s shadows. Her mane was so transparently white it looked ghostly.

“Oh my gosh…” Lightning squeaked “It’s Photo Finish!” She’s the greatest fashion designer in Canterlot!”

Shadow stared at Photo Finish incredulously “I don’t suppose I should know who she is?” he asked.

Two very prissy looking ponies suddenly jumped to either side of Photo Finish, expressions of complete shock on their faces. “Photo Finish is the name!” they exclaimed together, striking poses obviously meant to bedazzle and awe “Making every pony pretty is her number one game, now get up on the stand so she can do her job!”

Shadow resisted the urge to bring a hoof to his face. If that was any more obviously rehearsed it would have to have been synchronized swimming. Fortunately before he could make any movement to signal his exasperation he was whisked over to a small podium where Photo Finish’s assistants began taking his measurements.

“These wings are going to make this so difficult…” one of them said “They’re problematically large; the holes in the outfit are going to look simply gaudy…”

“These tangles are absolutely hideous!” another assistant exclaimed, dragging a comb painfully through his mane “When was the last time you used conditioner, last year?”

Shadow didn’t bother asking what conditioner was, he guessed he wouldn’t get a straight answer anyway. There was the sound of pipes coming on underneath him and water started sprinkling out onto him from the podium. Before he could find it weird that the castle would have showers but not toilets he found his wings tugged outward magically and two pegasus ponies started washing his feathers.

“Oh would you sit still?” a voice came from Shadow’s right, and he turned to see Lightning trying to keep an eye on the pony who was chasing her hair this way and that. The tilt of her head kept the braid tantalizingly out of reach; it looked like they hadn’t even managed to start on her. He smirked, receiving a self satisfied look in return.

“You really must start preening at least once daily Prince Shadow,” said one of the pegasi on his wing “the state you’re in you might start getting lice or other parasites, if you don’t already have them…”

“This is utterly disgusting, look at this!” said the other pegasus, holding a beetle in her hoof “I found this under a feather! We’re going to need to get some insecticide and thoroughly wash him down, pelt, wings, mane, everything!”

Lightning wasn’t in much better of a situation. They had managed to get her mane out of its ponytail and were starting to wash it out with force. “you got soap in my eyes!” she shouted at them “You can’t do this! Cut it out!”

“We’re sorry ma’am,” said one of the assistants “but we really must fix some of these split ends, and we think you may have dandruff. In that case we’re going to have to get some potions.

Celestia, now finished with her treatment, had stood up and reactivated her mane’s enchantments. “This is going to be a long day for them isn’t it?” she asked Luna, who was watching the display with a look of amusement.

“I think I’d better stay here,” said Luna “You know how kids are with bath-time, and these two have had years to accumulate grime…”

“Shadow has bugs in his wings…” said Celestia, wrinkling her nose “Not eve worms and lice, but actual beetles? You were right, he wouldn’t have lasted another day on his own…”

“He’s having trouble adjusting to castle life though…” said Luna, her happy tone slipping slightly “He’s not just going to be contained here and get used to it, he’s going to make an adventure out of every single day no matter how hard it is to do so. He’s been raised in the wild, there’s no taking that out of him.”

“For now the castle is an adventure,” said Celestia “That should keep him for some time yet, but you will have to find another solution before long. What will you do if he abandons the castle?”

Luna’s smile returned “I like to think that I would stop him,” she said “but I don’t think I will.”

After an hour of preening, poking, washing, brushing, combing, and tampering, they finally decided Shadow’s mane was just going to stay a mess. He had heard they were going to call in a potions master for his lice problems but they hadn’t shown up yet. He and Lightning had been instructed to remain on their podiums and wait patiently for them to arrive. Photo Finish and her aides had retreated to another room to work on their clothes. The shower on the floor had been left running to “soothe the maladies a bit” some malady if he didn’t even notice it…

The big pink door opened again, and Shadow perked up from where he had been laying in the water. His first impression of the potion master was that she looked kind of tacky. Her mane was up in a Mohawk of sorts and she was adorned with both golden ear-bands and bracelets. What was perhaps most interesting, however, was that her coat was not a solid color, but striped in black and white.

“Good morning my little pony friends,” she said as she entered “I hear you have problems; I am here to mend.”

“Zecora!” Lightning said excitedly “You’re the potions master? That’s fantastic!”

“Indeed little filly of brightest blue,” said Zecora with a smile, “It’s good indeed to see you too.” She entered the room and Shadow noticed a younger looking zebra following close behind her. Unfortunately they seemed to be hiding in Zecora’s tail and he didn’t get a good look.

Zecora took a silent look over his wings, visibly wincing as she looked closer. “Could you get me my lice potion dear? This condition it seems is far worse than I had feared.”

The figure under Zecora’s tail emerged, revealing a zebra filly who looked to be about Shadow’s age. Her mane looked more normal than Zecora’s but there was something visibly wrong with her eyes. They were a deep violet, but they were misty, like she had a fog behind them. She seemed to stare at the small saddlebag she had for a long time before pulling out a small red vial.

“Thank you,” said Zecora, taking it and pouring it out onto a rag “Hold still please, this should help with those ticks and fleas.”

Shadow winced as the rag made contact with his feathers. The potion seemed to burn at him and the smell that floated off of it was completely revolting. What startled him more was what looked like flecks of black sand beginning to fall out of his wing as the potion started to take effect. That was what was in his wings? Gross!

As Zecora moved to treat his other wing Shadow noticed the zebra filly’s purple misty eyes trained on him. She seemed to be focusing hard on him, or something behind him. He found the situation growing awkward as she continued to stare at him without so much as blinking.

“Now let’s have a look at you Lightning,” said Zecora, moving away from Shadow “Let’s figure out where to treat your sting.”

Shadow couldn’t help ruffling his wings and letting out a sigh. He didn’t even notice how much he had itched until the unpleasant sensation had passed. He did feel the need to preen a little, but the stink of the potion made him hesitant to put his muzzle within any sort of proximity to his wing for the time being. The filly was still staring at him, and it was starting to make him feel uncomfortable.

“Why are you staring at me?” he finally asked, after making sure Zecora wasn’t listening.

“I’m not…” said the filly in a soft voice.

“Yeah you are,” said Shadow “You’ve been looking at me for almost ten minutes here.”

“I’m not looking at you…” said the filly, blushing slightly.

Shadow rolled his eyes, if he was reading these signals right again then this was kind of a problem. “I can see…” he said, a little ticked off at this point.

“Oh…” said the filly “That’s lucky…I can’t…”

“What do you mean you can’t?” asked Shadow, his steady dread changing rapidly into curiosity.

“I can’t see…” she responded, waving a hoof vaguely in front of her eyes “I’m blind… I always have been… I was listening to you, and trying to smell, but my mother’s potion smells kind of bad…so I’m having trouble…”

“Oh…” said Shadow, the thought of being blind almost totally alien to him “I’m a gray pegasus if that helps.”

“Yes, a little…” she said, a small smile gracing her features “I could hear your wings but I didn’t know what they were… I don’t know what gray is though.”

Shadow looked over to where Zecora was chatting with Lightning about something or other, then to the filly again “Well what do you see?” he asked curiously “When you open your eyes, what’s it like?”

“Nothing…” she said “I can’t tell if my eyes are open or closed…”

Shadow nodded slowly, and then shut his own eyes, trying to get an idea of just what he was seeing. “Well…” he said “gray is like the nothing, but there’s less of it. It’s like if you had something and nothing together. That’s what gray is like!”

The filly’s misty eyes widened curiously “I think I can sort of imagine it…” she said “my mother could never describe colors like that…thank you…” Her ear twitched, listening for Zecora’s location “Can I touch you?”

“Um… I guess…” said Shadow with a shrug. The filly walked steadily and slowly over to the podium he was standing on. Her front knees touched it and she felt her way carefully to the top until she could judge the height. She gave a little jump and landed next to him, pushing against him slightly.

“You’re very soft…” she said” and wet… but you did just shower…” she put her muzzle up against his neck and sniffed “You smell like the sky… That’s very cool…” she smiled at him, her head rising up to eye level.

“Come along little daughter of mine,” said Zecora, evidently done with Lightning “It’s almost time for lunch, we have little time.”

“Okay…” said the filly, not turning away “Goodbye Shadow… It was nice meeting you…”

“You too…um…” Shadow suddenly realized he hadn’t ever found out what her name was “wait, before you go could you tell…”

“We mustn’t dawdle!” said Zecora “Lest we get caught amongst the rabble!”

“Sorry…” said the filly, jumping off the podium and walking steadily over to Zecora. She bit down on her tail; Shadow realized this must be how they stayed together when walking around the castle. They left the room, the filly’s ears flickering toward him as they exited, which Shadow took as the equivalent of one last backward glance.

“Well that was nice,” said Lightning, shaking a bit of water off her coat as she stepped off the podium “It feels nice to be so clean, I don’t think I’ve ever had a bath like that before.”

Shadow didn’t move, he just stared blankly at the still open door. “Hey, are you sleeping on your hooves?” Lightning asked “Snap out of it silly!”

“Um…oh!” said Shadow, shaking off his little daze “Sorry, what were you saying?”

“I was just talking about the bath…” said Lightning “are you alright? You look like you just dropped your ice cream on the sidewalk.”

“I’m fine,” said Shadow, hopping off the podium himself “Come on, I’m guessing Photo Finish is done with our clothes.”

Lightning reluctantly let the issue drop and followed Shadow to the wardrobes, a little curious herself of the outfits that Canterlot’s greatest fashionista would have thought up for them.

Vinyl had taken her place on one of the high balconies, staring around at the crowded dining hall. Someone had already brought her turntables up and she was ready for the show. Shadow would be walking through the main doors any minute and that’s when she would start the music. It was all planned out in her head, and it was going to be beautiful.

Being too short to reach up and spin the discs, she had clambered up onto the mixing board itself to prepare for what she felt was going to be her best show ever. DJ Fill-3, now that was a grand and adorable new title…

She gazed out over the gathered crowd seated along the long tables and eating the buffet of winter flowers that was set out before them. The atmosphere was charged, only a day’s notice and the hall had been laced with star patterns, lunar models, and brilliant blue tablecloths. The dishes and silverware were done in the lunar silver rather than the traditional solar gold. With so much done so quickly It was only natural they would be intensely, even painfully curious as to why.

Of course that wasn’t to say a good few of them didn’t already know what was happening, Shadow had done a very poor job of keeping himself secret. Vinyl was pretty sure she was the only one who had been told directly who he was, but the presence of a fluffy gray colt in the castle during such a busy time wasn’t a huge leap of logic. On the other hoof though, this was kind of a big thing, and quite a few ponies would consider the idea of a new prince, particularly so soon after Twilight’s coronation would seem farfetched.

Twilight and Celestia were already standing at the head of the room in their ceremonial purple and white, though Luna was nowhere to be seen. She supposed Luna would be coming out with Shadow to introduce him, but another princess, who had been present at Twilight’s coronation, Cadence was also conspicuously absent. While she was not particularly important, this was still pretty odd. Shadow was Cadence’s cousin after all, why would she not be there to see him introduced?

Celestia suddenly looked up to her balcony and gave an imperceptible nod; that was the signal. Vinyl smirked, waving to show she had understood and quickly levitated a few discs out of their protective sleeves. She threw them onto the turntables, twirling them a bit to get the feeling for them, then slammed a hoof down on the start button.

Nothing happened. Vinyl looked frantically around to see what could’ve gone wrong when she noticed the power cord had gone limp. She groaned, jumping off the tables to go plug it back in when she saw a brown unicorn standing by the outlet, holding the cord in a nimbus of yellow magic.

“Um, excuse me,” said Vinyl snappishly “I kind of need that, now, so drop it.”

“Oh I’m sorry,” said the unicorn, with a smug grin “I was under the impression that Vinyl Scratch was going to be playing up here.”

“She is, that’s me,” said Vinyl, suddenly remembering who this pony was ‘You’re Discord! What do you want?”

“Easy, easy,” said Discord with a shrug “I’m actually trying to stop some chaos this time. I like a good soundtrack as much as the next guy but honestly Shadow was right to ask me to stop Vinyl Scratch.”

“Shadow was excited to have me playing here today,” said Vinyl, getting really angry now “Why don’t you go serve dancing drinks or something?”

Discord burst out into hysterical laughter “Oh you really don’t know do you?” he said through his conniptions “Shadow positively hates your music! He’s of the belief that dubstep is the worst music ever!” he walked right up to Vinyl and leaned over so he could look her in the eye “You really couldn’t tell? He turned you into a filly so you couldn’t play your music anymore, it’s that bad!”

Vinyl looked back at the double not on her flank, almost as if to make sure it was still there. “No way,” she said, turning back to Discord “Shadow is my friend; he would never do something like that!”

“Oh but he isn’t your friend,” said Discord wickedly, the cord still in his hand transforming into a length of rope “Don’t you remember Vinyl?”

A cloud of pink smoke suddenly appeared in front of Vinyl’s eyes, she gasped as she recognized the image of her teenaged self within the smoke. “I’m going to be a disc jockey!” her ghostly image shouted “I’m going to make the best music any pony’s ever heard, you’ll see! And I don’t need friends like you holding me back; I don’t need stupid friends at all!”

Vinyl shrank backwards as the image vanished again. Her memory was fading backward, but the memory of that day, the day she had exploded at the only friend she had ever had? That was never going to fade away…

“Remember that do we?” said Discord, still chuckling “Let’s try to keep that promise you made, what’s the first rule of being a great DJ?”

“You don’t need friends…” said Vinyl dejectedly “But…!”

“But nothing,” Discord interrupted “Not only have you attempted to make friends, these ‘friends’ have totally abandoned you because your music is so bad!”

“No…” said Vinyl, not even believing her own desperate words now “Shadow and Lightning…they couldn’t…they wouldn’t!”

“But they did,” said Discord, his eyes becoming wild multicolored swirls “And it’s all your fault!” he put a hoof to Vinyl’s nose, laughing maniacally as her white fur darkened slowly to a somber shade of gray.

Luna walked carefully and gracefully out to the front of the hall, smiling out at the huge crowd of gathered ponies. The last time she had reason to celebrate like this was over a thousand years ago. The feelings of excitement flowed over her like a crashing wave. She didn’t even feel the blue silk around her shoulders that had so chafed on her barely moments before.

“Fillies and gentlecolts!” she said, calling for quiet in the hall “We apologize for the tantalizing wait yesterday during which we set the stage for this fantastic ceremony. I would like to give a moment to applaud the wonderful ponies who worked so hard piecing everything together.”

The audience whooped and cheered. Luna felt proud of the little quip which had simultaneously increased appreciation and tension for the eventual announcement. “We are aware,” she continued, silencing the crowd again “That we have kept you nervous and expectant for an unprecedented amount of time. So without further ado…”

There was a bright flash of blue as Luna released her invisibility charm on the gray pony in front of her. Shadow was suddenly visible for all to see. He was in a black suit, not just dark black, but a deep midnight that reflected the lights of the room in seemingly unnatural directions. The huge holes in the suit were hidden perfectly by a wide black cape that covered his back and fell down past his back legs. He looked up to the crowd, crimson eyes flashing as his deep green mane glinted, slicked back over his head.

“May I present to you for the very first time, Prince Shadow Chaser!”

Author's Note:

A little bit more silliness maybe than the previous chapters of the story, but I think that's a good thing. I cut the chapter in half yet again because I realized it was a choice between either making this chapter short or making it completely impossible to get done in the update time required. That and the next part of the chapter works perfectly well on it's own as a standalone chapter, even better in my opinion. Also, I'd like to point out (because I'm actually really worried a lot of you might not get this yet) that I have yet to introduce a character that is not entirely pivotal to the plotline. If any one detail of this story were to be changed it would not fall at all into the place I've set for it to go. So bascially I'm not wasting time with the cameo appearances of other characters or the introduction of lonely ponies in the archives.
Reference to Shadow of the Heart by TuniPeace, which Luna pretty much summarizes in full. ( http://ponyfictionarchive.net/viewstory.php?sid=1653 )
I'm also going to go through tommorow and indent all my paragraphs, which apparently aren't carried over through the copy-paste from microsoft office. So as of tommorow my stories are offically under construction. That includes my new (for some reason it appears to be more popular than this one) side story Allons-y ( http://ponyfictionarchive.net/viewstory.php?sid=1705 ) also found under the list of my own stories posted here.
Well figure I've kept you long enough, no need to go wasting time with author's notes anyway. Please keep reading and I look forward to seeing you next week with the next chapter (which may or may not have the title Draconequis which both A Child's Mind and Showtime were supposed to have)
-CC