A Shadow Brought to Light

by k12314

Chapter 2: Kindness

CHAPTER 2

All right, so you may be confused as to what is going on so far. Well let me tell you, bub, I was too. So, let me go back a bit farther, back to where it all started.

I was a little colt, small and lanky, no real mass to me at all. Everypony in class had gotten their Cutie Marks, and I was constantly being ridiculed by them for not having it. I eventually took to hiding in the darker corners of the schoolhouse. Just shunning the rest of the world. As I grew up, I still didn't have my Mark, and it was slowly eating at me. With all of the other kids messing with me and threatening me, I had become paranoid. I always felt like I was being followed, and I couldn't trust anypony. I was slowly becoming an emotional wreck, and over the years, everything got worse. Eventually, I knew that I would never have a talent, so I turned to crime to earn my keep. I hurt ponies, in many different ways, and not just physically. I got in with the wrong crowds, and made all the wrong people angry all the time.

Alright, so that's the back story. As you know by now, my name is Shadow Weaver, and this is my story. Got it? Good. Now, back to where we left off...

I just stared, mouth agape, at the hundreds of ponies standing at the door. I slammed it shut, and stood against it, breathing heavily. The first thing to run through my mind was: "Am I getting run out of town again?" I hadn't even done anything! And before I could figure it out, I heard the knocking again. So I took a deep breath, and opened the door. Some of the ponies had confused looks on their faces, but what caught my attention was the pink mare standing only a few feet in front of me.

"SURPRISE!" She pointed behind me, and I turned around. There was a big banner that said "Welcome to Ponyville," and there were decorations and food of the sorts. I was just staring at all of this, dumbfounded. "How did she-"

Before I could even finish thinking that, Pinkie had begun dragging me all over the room, introducing me to the ponies that were there. After everypony in town knew my name, Pinkie told me to enjoy the party, and trotted off to make idle chit-chat with somepony else. So I did what I would have done in most, if not all, situations: I separated myself from everypony else and sat in a dark corner until the party was over.

Eventually, after maybe two or three hours, the music had stopped and everypony left. That is, everypony but Pinkie. She stood in the middle of the room, looking around for me. I saw sadness wash over her face as she left, thinking I was gone. As soon as I heard the door close, I stood up and emerged from the shadows.

I yawned, and stretched my back and my hind legs, satisfied when I heard popping sounds. I decided it would be best to just turn in, as I had nothing else to do.

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Nothing much happened for the next week. I spoke to Twilight some, but tried to just keep to myself, as I always had before. I took orders, I took them to the cook, the same thing, every day. After a while, it was just routine. Wake up, go to work, come back, go to bed. It wasn't eventful, but much more peaceful then the work I had been doing in Manehattan. Every once in a while I would wait on Twilight and her friends, but Twilight is the only one who really payed me any mind past giving me orders. Pinkie didn't even look at me, and he hair seemed to "deflate" when I came around.

One day, I decided to figure out why. "Hey... Twilight..."

"Oh, hi Shadow. What is it?"

We were in the library, and she was studying something that had to do with ancient magic or something. My shift had just ended, and it was another day of Pinkie seeming to hate me. I didn't really care, I just wanted to know why.

"What's up with Pinkie?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... She just doesn't look at me, and whenever I come to the table, her hair straightens..."

"Huh... I never noticed. Maybe you did something?"

I thought for a moment or two, trying my hardest to remember what I could have done. I shrugged, and Twilight just shook he head.

"It's just Pinkie being Pinkie. Don't worry about it."

I just nodded, and went off to bed.

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The next day, I woke up, and almost started getting ready to leave, when I remembered it was my day off. I decided not to do anything to groom myself, and just went downstairs. Spike and Twilight were gone, probably out practicing some spell or another. I just sat down and picked up another novel. I didn't really do much in my spare time but read.

Knock knock knock

I sighed, and closed the book. "Every time I try to relax..."

I opened the door, expecting it to be a pony who wanted to check out or return a book, but instead, it was Pinkie. She didn't have any emotion on her face, and her hair was straight... It was pretty creepy.

"Oh... Hey Pinkie..."

She said nothing, and instead just walked past me, and started looking through the shelves. "I didn't know Pinkie liked to read..."

"So... How are things?" I wasn't the best at starting a conversation. Or ending one. Or keeping one going for that matter.

"Fine."

"How's the bakery?"

"Good."

I just stared at her. Whenever I saw her with everypony else, she was really cheery and happy. Now she was just being gloomy, and it was creeping me out.

She kept rifling through the book cases for a bit longer, until she pulled a book out, and sat down to start reading. I started picking up on some signals that she wasn't here for the book. That, and the book was about Ursa Minors. I doubted she had any problems with those.

"The book isn't why you're here, is it Pinkie?"

She just kept reading, but I could tell I was right.

"Can you at least tell me what I did wrong?"

She just closed the book and stared at me. "Well... Why are you avoiding me? Do you hate me?"

I rubbed the back of my head, not really able to answer that question.

"Well... No. I'm just not a pony person... I like being alone."

She stared at me like I was an alien creature. "Why would you like being all alone? Isn't that like, the worst thing in the world?"

"No, when I'm alone, I feel calm... Like, I'm safe, and nothing can hurt me. When I'm around other ponies, I always feel unsafe, like they want to hurt me."

She averted her gaze to the floor, and she looked even more depressed than before. "So... You feel like I'll hurt you?"

"Well... Yes. It's nothing personal, if that's what you're thinking..."

I could see tears welling up in her eyes. I never liked it when I heard somepony crying. I felt really awkward, but I wrapped a forehoof around the back of her neck, trying my best to comfort her.

"You don't need to cry... I didn't mean anything by it..." By now, my already quiet voice had gone to a near whisper. I didn't like it when other ponies touched me, and holding Pinkie felt just as bad. My breath was short and frantic, but I tried my best to stay calm.

"So why do you avoid everypony?"

I just stared at the wall. "I don't wanna talk about it."

Pinkie, who just a moment before was depressed in the worst ways, was now perked up, and looking at me with a concerned look in her eyes.

"You can tell me. I'm your friend!" She gave me a big grin. I just went pale... Well, it felt like it. I was probably a dark grey color instead of the usual jet black.

"Friend?" The word was almost foreign to me.

"Yeah! Haven't you ever had friends before?"

I stared for a moment, before I shook my head. Pinkie's jaw dropped, like what I had just said was completely unheard of.

"How could you have never had friends?"

"Because all my life, everypony I knew was either too dangerous to get close too, or hated my guts."

Pinkie thought of this for a moment, before her eyes beamed and her smile widened even further. "Well, I'm not dangerous, and I don't hate you! And none of my friends are like that either! Twilight talks about you sometimes, and she says you're really nice when you talk!"

I pondered that for a second. "Why would Twilight go around talking about me like that?"

I fell into deep thought, trying to think of reasons why she would do something like that. Then, I realized.

Kindness.

Nopony had ever been truly kind to me. They either stabbed me in the back later, or wanted something in return. But Twilight was just being nice.

"...Andthenwecouldallgoandhaveallsortsoffun... Are you listening?"

I hadn't heard Pinkie over my trance. I rubbed the back of my head again, and smiled sheepishly. "Heh... No. Sorry, I was thinking."

She just smiled, and then started... Bouncing towards the door. I've seen some strange things, but Pinkie takes the cake. "Bye-bye Shadow! I'll seeya later!"

She left, and I just sat there, thinking about what had just happened. At first, I didn't know. But then, all the pieces clicked into place.

"I just made a friend."

Comments

[Mother3Forever]

Sweet Chapter! Now that I've gotten some sleep, I'm gonna reread the story so it sticks.

ALLONS-Y!!!

[Ice]

I feel sorry for the guy having to deal with Pinkie

[Super]

Pinkie being Pinkie. Yep.

Quick question: Any chance this is gonna cross-over with your other fic?

[k12314]

103630

Oh, that sounds like a good idea...

[Eon]

Looking like it's going to be a good story, I shall track!

[Broneyofnoel]

Hmm, I can see some either Shadow/Pinkie, Shadow/Twilight shipping, or maybe, based on shyness and nervousness, Shadow/Best Pony(Fluttershy)

[RLYoshi]

His talent is spying.

He should try out for RED team.

[Ice]

108499 lol sarge

[RLYoshi]

108511 ...actually, it was a Team Fortress 2 reference.

[Ice]

108514 oh well then it looks he's here to f*** us

[Vinetion]

108499 maybe he has a "black" spy mask for a cutie mark if he's so good at spying ;D

[TenshuraX]

he actually seems to be good at being in the wrong place at the wrong time

[Tesla Moon]

Well that was ..... Eventful?