A Shadow Brought to Light

by k12314

Chapter 10: Heart to Heart

CHAPTER 10

Me and the Cakes, along with Pinkie's friends, hid in the dark in Sugarcube Corner. It felt good to be hidden, although I did trust MOST of the ponies I was hiding with. I would have shot Rainbow Dash an angry look, but it was pitch black, so there was no point. I felt a hoof touch me, and pull away almost immediately. It was Rainbow Dash, OF COURSE.

"Hey, this is really nice of you, y'know."

"I guess." I was still a little spiteful for what she did. I know she didn't know, but hey, personal space.

"... You aren't mad at me, are you?" Even though they couldn't see me, I could see in the dark really well.

"Frankly, I AM. That was a horrible thing to do. I can't believe you would just act like that on a whim, thinking it would be funny." I let out a "hmph" for emphasis. She just lowered her head dejectedly and trotted over to hide with Applejack, who was huddled under a chair. Almost immediately after Rainbow pulls her tail under the table, we hear the bell over the door jingle. I look up, and see Pinkie in the doorway.

"Hello? Anypony home? Shadow?" She looked around a bit, and I snuck up right beside her, and nodded to Mr. Cake, who flipped the light switch.

"SURPRISE!" She fell back on her haunches and just stared. I hadn't yelled, but just stepped in front of her and smiled.

"Hey there, Pinkie. So, what do you think?" I sat down so I could be at eye level with her. She looked like she was having all sorts of conflicting emotions.

"It's just... Nopony's ever really thrown me a party. There was one time when everypony set one up, but I ruined it by going a little... Nuts." Her hair deflated, and her coat darkened. She was on the verge of tears. "I acted like I enjoyed it, but I really felt, and still do feel really bad about it." She hung her head dejectedly. I wasn't having any of that.

I gave her a hug, and stroked the back of her mane. She seemed surprised at first, but then returned it. I gently whispered into her ear. "Now come on, do you really think they're mad at you for that? Don't feel upset..." I stopped hugging her and stood up. "Now come on, lets have some fun!"

Her coat regained it's color, her hair puffed up, and she had the biggest smile yet on. "OK!"

We mingled for a few hours, and she told me a hilarious story about Twilight learning to just accept things without needing an explanation. That had me laughing for a good minute or so. But something was eating at me.

"Her childhood... Being cast away like that... I can't believe her parents would do that..." I shook my head, but it just wouldn't go away, so I decided to do something stupid.

"Pinkie... I need to talk to you."

"Okie-Dokie-Lokie!" She skipped over to me. "I'm all ears!"

"Can we go up to your room?" As soon as I said that, I regretted it. Pinkie blushed, and I knew I was too. "Er... I mean to talk... It's kinda private." Still kinda dirty.

"O-OK..." We both trotted up to her room, which I hadn't actually been in yet. It was, of course, pink. There's no other way to describe it, other than... Pink. She sat down on her bed, and I sat next to her. We didn't say anything for a few minutes, when I decided to speak up.

"Pinkie... I want to know... How angry are you at your parents for what they did?" She looked at me, her eyes like saucers. I gave her a knowing and understanding look.

"Well... I... Not at all! They're just Silly-Willies is all. It's no problem, really." She gave me a half-hearted smile, and I knew she was lying.

"Pinkie, it is a problem. Whenever Mr. and Mrs. Cake told me about that, I felt really bad for you. Let me guess, you have to go every day knowing your family doesn't like you, that they don't want you... Painful, isn't it?" By this time, she was crying, and looked at me with teary eyes.

"H-How do you kn-know how i-i-it feels...?" She sounded angry.

"Because my family turned me away too, albeit for different reasons." Then, her tears stopped, and she gave me a look that told me she wanted to know more. "You see, my family had really high expectations. If you didn't have an amazing talent, you didn't belong. Well, whenever I didn't get my Cutie Mark, everypony in my family who hadn't been cast away just turned on me, and treated me like a slab of meat. They would refer to me as 'it' instead of 'him,' hurt me, yell at me, and sometimes not even feed me, the whole time saying blank flanks don't deserve ANY kind of kind treatment whatsoever. So one day, I ran off, and I never looked back." This didn't bother me anymore, but I couldn't bring myself to look at Pinkie, as I heard her whimpering and crying. I just stared at the floor, expressionless.

After a few minutes, Pinkie stopped crying, and I looked at her. Her eyes were red and bloodshot, but she was smiling.

"Shadow... Thanks."

"Thanks? I just made you cry!" I had the most bewildered look on my face.

"Yeah, but it isn't always bad to cry... I should have cried about that a long time ago... I feel a lot better now without that bottled up inside of me. I'm sorry you had to remember something so horrible though..." She nuzzled my neck.

"Nah, don't worry about it... I feel better getting to talk about it and get it off my chest... So thanks for listening." I smiled, and she smiled back. We hugged again, but Mrs. Cake walked in.

"Pinkie, are you- OH! I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" She started to back out of the door. Pinkie and I looked at each other and blushed, and we started flailing our hooves around frantically, shouting at her that she isn't interrupting, and that we just started dating. She stepped back in.

"Oh, good... Well, everypony was just wondering where you two were. You ought to come back downstairs, it is your party, you two." She smiled and turned to leave.

"Wait, OUR party? Whaddya mean?" I raised an eyebrow, my mouth slightly opened in confusion.

"Oh, that was a surprise for YOU, dear. You see, this is actually your 'New couple' party! Mr. Cake and I decided it would be a great idea, as Pinkie is usually the one who plans those. But you can't plan your own surprise party, now can you?" She gave us a wink, and left.

"She just pulled the wool over our eyes, didn't she?" I stared at the doorway, shocked.

"Yep."

I stood up and headed for the door. "We'd best just go downstairs. After all, it is our party."

Suddenly, Pinkie was right next to me, and jumped on me, sitting up. She tapped me with the sides of her back hooves, and pointed forwards. "HI HO SHADOW!"

I almost fell over laughing, but stayed up and carried her downstairs. We got so many looks from everypony...

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Comments

[Nathan Traveler]

just...d'aw 'n' stuff...

[RLYoshi]

I tried to express how many d'awww's there were, but I broke my finger from holding it on the W key for so long. Typing this with my nose right now. The keyboard is very messy.

[Anteh]

138541
Why didn't you just use another finger You know that you have 10 of them, right?

... Right?

[RLYoshi]

138562 I tried that. The W key broke all of my fingers.

[Elmoz]

Aruughh.... All the d'awwws are killing me. too.. much... HAPPINESS!

[EvilEnchantress]

why must daws be so common in equestria I have dawed more in the past few weeks than in my entire lifetime (I've only found the show a month ago)

[Aphex Pony]

666th viewer :(

[TenshuraX]

138586 you forgot toes :) you could also pick up a stick in yout teeth

"She just pulled the wool over our eyes, didn't she?" ... not sure if they have sheep in equestria... they might, i've just never heard it come up

[Gigabyte]

She should haspve said allons-y, and the doctor would be proud

[Morphile]

242339 There are, in one episode a sheep says "she could have just asked" after being herded into a fenced area.

[Darkflare]

I get that Lone Ranger reference

[Tesla Moon]

for crying