A Shadow Brought to Light

by k12314

Chapter 15: Help

CHAPTER 15

I stared at the door in front of me. "Dr. Trustworthy... Seems fitting for a therapist." I was taking my own advice, and had signed myself up for therapy, as you can probably tell. I raised my hoof to knock. "Wait, what if I end up telling him about the murder, and he goes to the Royal Guard?" I shook my head, dismissing the thought. "No, I need to be more trusting. He's a therapist! Doctor/patient confidentiality." I knocked on the door.

"Come in." I walked into the room, and looked around a bit. The room was a little dark, and there was a pleasant smell in the room, most likely from the candles on a desk nearby. A brown unicorn with only a little bit of a grey mane and a brain as a Cutie Mark sat on a chair facing the door. He was wearing a green sweater vest. "You must be Shadow Weaver. Please, take a seat." I plopped down on the chair next to him, and he levitated a quill and clipboard up, ready to write down anything I said.

"Thanks for having me, doctor."

"It's no trouble. Anything to help another pony. Now... Lets get to the point. You're here because..." He levitated a paper up and read over it, saying what he read. "You have a phobia of physical contact, paranoia, and trust issues. OK, lets go back to when you were a young foal. Did other ponies hurt you or make fun of you?" I nodded. "Can you tell me exactly what happened?"

"Yeah, I can. You see, back when I was only four years old..."

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(Eighteen years ago)

"... Ha! Yeah, kick 'im again!" A large, brown earth pony, around seven or eight years old, who I knew as Heavy Lifting, kicked me in the ribs again, taking orders from the green pegasus sitting nearby, at the front of a large group of other young ponies.

"You like that, loser?" I didn't say anything, but I coughed up a little blood. "Hmph. You really ARE a freak. You can't even talk! All you do is sit around all day..." I coughed again, and moaned a little when I breathed in. "What's the matter? Is the wittle baby hurt? I think I know what to do..." He picked me up by my tail, and carried me over to the fountain. "How's about a little dip in the pool?" He sat me down in the water, and pushed my head under, and he held it there. I struggled, but it was no use. I felt my lungs emptying, and the eventually begin to re-fill with water. I knew then that these ponies wouldn't stop until I was dead, but I didn't care. I'd given up hope by that point. The brown pony seemed to notice that the bubbles had stopped coming up, so he quickly yanked me out of the water.

"Oh crap, Heavy, what'd you do?" The green pegasus walked over to me, and stared at me. "You alive?" I barely managed to nod. "Alright, boys, he's had enough. We'll see you tomorrow." He shot me an evil grin, and the group around me dissipated. I just laid there, trying to stay conscious. I couldn't even drag myself back home that day, but frankly, I didn't want to. My parents would have seen me all wet, and yelled at me, and maybe even beaten me. I decided to just sleep on the ground in the town square that night.

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(Present day)

"... And then the next morning, my parents came by to find me, and sure enough, they took me home and beat me, and then locked me in my room." The therapist just stared at me, a look of sympathy mixed with horror on his face.

"That's... Terrible! How much did these kids hurt you? And how many times did your parents beat you?"

I put my hoof on my chin. "Well, the kids beat me every day, and my parents went off on me about three or four times a week. I've actually come to terms with those things."

"Actually, no you haven't, Shadow. Your touching issue most likely arose from this. Have you let anypony make any physical contact with you as of late?"

I went beet red, remembering when Pinks and I kissed. "Y-Yeah... Just the other day, me and my marefriend... Kissed." He nodded, and kept writing on his clipboard.

"That's great progress to be made alone, Shadow! Dare I say that if you keep up the intimacy with your marefriend, it may just fix your physical contact phobia. Now, with the paranoia... Was there a time when you were younger when you were followed by a threatening pony, or something of the likes?"

"Actually, yeah, I remember when I was nine years old..."

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(Thirteen years ago)

It was a very dark, and cold winter night. I was walking home after being sent on an errand to pick up some "special stuff" for my parents, said stuff I knew full well was just drugs. I had the brown bag in my saddlebags, and the strange feeling that somepony was watching me. I brushed the feeling off, thinking of it as me just being crazy. Every once in a while I would hear the sound of hooves on snow, but when I turned around, nopony was there.

"I've gotta stop reading so many horror novels..." I facehoofed at my own craziness. I just kept on walking, ignoring any weird sounds I heard. Then, the sounds were suddenly REALLY close, as if right behind me.

"Hey kid!" I jumped, and turned around to see a homeless looking pony. He had an unkempt beard, his mane was filthy, and he had a few needle marks on his neck. "So... What'cha got there?" His eye twitched, and he scratched his neck.

"Uh... Nothing." I took a few steps back.

"Oh, but I think it's something! Lemme see!" He reached for my bags, but I jumped back a bit.

"No! It's for my parents! I don't feel like getting in trouble tonight, bub!" Then, when I turned around to walk away, I bumped into two more homeless ponies. One grabbed me, and the other yanked the bag away. They all ran off with my parents' stuff, and when I got home, I was on the wrong end of a rolling pin.

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(Present Day)

I took a few shaky breaths. "And... That's it. Ever since then, I've been insanely paranoid of everything and everypony." Dr. Trustworthy had on a "no way" expression. "What?"

"I can't believe your parents would just send you out at night to get them drugs!" He pushed his glasses back up his muzzle, but he kept staring at me.

"Well, believe it, because it happened a lot. I'm actually more surprised nopony killed me for the drugs one day on the way back. And even after I left my parents, I still ran drugs all over the place.."

"Why?" I stood up, and showed him the blank space above my hind legs. "Oh... I think I understand. Desperate for money, no special talent... I'm sorry, that was terribly unprofessional of me-" I waved my hoof in the air.

"No, it's fine. Really, I don't mind. You're right."

"May I ask where you got those scars?" He motioned to my chest, where a stray scar can just barely be seen stretching out from my underside.

"Yeah. Most of them are from being tied down and tortured within an inch of my life, all because I either said something wrong, messed with the wrong ponies, or fell behind on some debts. However, this one..." I lifted my right hind leg, displaying a large, jagged scar reaching from my hoof to my tail. "This one came from my dad. That happened after I was attacked by some crazy junkie on one of my 'errands.'" I sat back down, and took a deep breath. I was freaking out over the memories being dug up, but it felt good to get them off of my chest.

"Well... What about your trust issues." I winced, and realized what that was caused by.

"... Alright. About four years ago, when I was eighteen, I had a friend named Quick Fix..."

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(Four Years Ago)

I ducked into another alleyway, keeping the package hidden in my hoodie's pocket. It was pretty small, but apparently the stuff inside was amazingly strong, and amazingly expensive. As soon as I headed back onto the main road, I could have sworn I saw a familiar pony dash behind a pear cart. I started to be a bit more cautious, and ducked back into the alley. I squeezed myself in between two dumpsters, but it was no use.

"Hey, Shadow! I know you're in here!" It was Fix's voice. I came out of my hiding place and flicked my hood off of my head.

"Oh, hey Fix. If I'd known it was you, I'd've just kept on moving. What's up?" I smiled at him, but he had a serious look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Don't you 'what's wrong' me! I know what you have, now give it up!" I looked at my pockets, and back to him.

"Are you nuts? I'll be killed if I lose this! Come on man, stop messing around!" I took a step back.

"I'm not messing around. And you know what? You'll be killed if you DON'T lose it!" I knew what he was saying, but I couldn't help but grin. "How's he gonna do that? I can outrun him." Me and my big mouth. He pulled a knife out of his pocket, and held it in his mouth, trembling a bit. Even though his voice was muffled, I could understand what he was saying. "Now GIVE IT UP!"

"Oh hay no. You'll have to take it." I was calling his bluff. I was his best friend! Why would he kill me? Apparently, for drugs. He rushed right at me, and I reached down and grabbed a shard of glass off of the ground. I sidestepped Fix, and then rammed the shard into the back of his neck, and it went all the way through, and out the front. He started gagging and stumbling around, blood pouring out of him like a faucet. I just watched in horror as my 'friend' died right in front of me. He just looked at me, and managed to get out one word.

"Shadow..." He collapsed, and the blood kept flowing, creating a steadily growing pool around his corpse. I turned to leave the alley, and saw a mare staring in horror.

"GUARDS! THAT STALLION JUST KILLED SOMEPONY!" She ran off, and so did I. I flicked my hood back over my head, and I didn't look back. I wouldn't have been able to see anything anyways, on account of the tears.

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(Present Day)

"... And... That's it. Just like that..." I felt a few tears run down my face. Dr. Trustworthy just looked at me.

"... Listen. Shadow. I want you to look at me." I looked up at him, and stared him right in the eyes. "I want you to know that his death wasn't your fault. You were just defending yourself from a crazed, strung out druggie. You didn't do anything wrong. I'm not going to go telling the Royal Guard, because you aren't a criminal. You're just a stallion who lost his way. I just want to know one thing: Have you done anything illegal since you got to Ponyville?"

"N-No... I work at a restaurant." I wiped my eyes. "I've been trying to turn my life around."

"And you're succeeding." A warm smile broke across his face. "You have a real job, and a caring marefriend. You're doing great. All I have to tell you is to put the past behind you, and keep moving forwards. You have a great life ahead of you; Don't waste it regretting the past." I felt a smile coming on.

"Thanks, Doc. It feels good to get all of that off my chest. Same time next week?" He nodded, and I headed out the door and onto the streets of Ponyville. I took a good look around, and I felt my smile widen.

"I have my whole life ahead of me... And I'll be spending it here."

Comments

[Ice]

159308 Shadow the hedgehog really?

[Zephyr]

Nice chapter, good job Kyle!

[Dark Lightning]

165488

BULLSHIT!!!

This is story just keeps getting better and better!!!

[EvilEnchantress]

I'm shedding manly tears

[Fluttrick]

This would be a good ending, and it reminds me of MLD. (Original Ending) But....DON'T STOP!!!

[sillyfillybowilly]

Good job shadow! You go spend time with pinkie pie now.

[NotABrony]

i luv drugs

[Tesla Moon]

Well now we have some back story