Shadowed Past, Twilit Future

by Tatsurou

Winter Wonders

5. Winter Wonders

As Hearth's Warming Eve approached, Shadow found himself roped into preparing for it, setting up decorations all over Ponyville and watching over the fillies and colts as they played in the snow. Having read up on the holiday, he was able to determine that it was Equestria's equivalent of Christmas as a Winter Solstice holiday, although the story behind it had no connection to Christmas whatsoever. However, he did notice that contact with other worlds - Mobius and the like - had resulted in a few additions to decorations. Earth Ponies especially had apparently become fascinated with hanging mistletoe everywhere, in addition to the usual wreaths of holly and other garlands.

Shadow took direction in most of these endeavors from Twilight. Apparently, her annual success in directing the Winter Wrap Up had led her to become Ponyville's official organizer, and she was now trusted to organize nearly every major event. Shadow privately wondered if Mayor Mare would still be Mayor after the last election if Twilight had shown any interest in the office.

Once all the decorations around Ponyville were complete, however, Twilight had a surprise for Shadow. "I've got two tickets to the Hearth's Warming Eve Pageant in Canterlot!" she told him excitedly. "We're gonna get to go see it! I wonder who Celestia selected to perform the Pageant this year?" She sighed nostalgically. "I remember the year she asked me and the others to do it..."

Shadow smiled. "So when do we go?" he asked. While he had read the story of the holiday, it would be interesting to see it performed.

Twilight smiled happily. "We leave tomorrow morning!" she said happily.

The next morning, they went to take the train to Canterlot...but before they got on board, Shadow paused. "You know, I think there's a faster way there."

"Really?" Twilight asked, intruiged. "What?"

"Chaos...Control." In a flash of white light, Shadow and Twilight appeared at the Canterlot train station.

"Wow!" Twilight said excitedly. "My teleportation spell never had this much reach. Can you teach me that spell?"

"It's not exactly a spell," Shadow said depreciatingly. "It's one of my chaos energy manipulation techniques. And...while you have used the Elements of Harmony to tap the power of Chaos...I don't know if you'd be able to keep it under control without them. You don't have as strong a connection to chaos as I do, since I was created to wield it." Shadow glanced around at Canterlot, looking for something to change the subject. "They really went all out with the decorations, didn't they?"

"Yeah!" Twilight said happily, distracted. "Come on, we've got time before the pageant starts. I can show you around. And after the pageant, Princess Luna is holding a private get together with a very exclusive group...and we're on the guest list!"

"That's kind of her," Shadow said calmly. He glanced around as they explored the city. "You used to live here, right?"

Twilight chuckled. "Yeah. Haven't been in the city proper since I got my Cutie Mark, though...except when I came here with my friends. Once I became Celestia's student, I stayed up in the castle for the most part, except for occaisional visits to the library...unless I was with my big brother or foalsitter." Twilight tilted her head as she walked. "You know, I still don't know when they had time to get to know each other and fall in love. Why didn't I hear about any of that before the wedding?"

Shadow smiled. "How often when you were with your foalsitter did your big brother just happen to stop by?"

"Quite often actually," Twilight said, looking confused. "He'd always be there to take me to do something together. After the first few times, though, he'd always invite Princess Cadence to come along. After the first time she said yes, he started stopping by a lot more frequently. Never did figure out why, though." Twilight noticed Shadow chuckling. "What?"

"My guess is the reason you never heard about their romance through letters is because you were there for most of it." Shadow smiled broadly. "It was through you that Shining Armor probably first met Princess Cadence, and their first bonding emotionally probably came from how much they both enjoyed spending time with you. If I'm right, Twilight, YOU brought them together. No wonder he insisted on you being his Best Mare."

Twilight opened and closed her mouth a few times like a landed fish. "Oh," she said at last. Then she grinned. "I hope Princess Cadence doesn't think I was poaching on her territory. Bringing ponies together is supposed to be her job."

Shadow couldn't help but laugh at this last comment.

After a while of exploring Canterlot - Twilight's parents weren't in town at the moment, to her dissapointment - they went to the Opera Hall to attend the Pageant. They found their seats and waited for it to begin.

They - and every Pony attending - were in for a real shock, as the curtain pulled aside to reveal the Narrator...Discord. "Greetings, Mares and Gentlecolts...and Celestia." He grinned as much of the crowd laughed while Celestia glared from her box seats. "Tonight, your fine Princess of the Sun has decided it is time for me to make an effort assimilating into pony society...by performing this year's Hearth's Warming Eve Pageant. I will be your Narrator. Playing the role of Chancellor Puddinghead..." He snapped his claw, and a smaller duplicate of himself appeared wearing a pudding on his head. "...will also be me. I will also be playing the roles of Smart Cookie, Princess Platinum, Clover the Clever, Commander Hurricane, Private Pansy...oh, and the scenery and the Windigos." With each character named, he snapped his fingers and another duplicate of himself appeared, dressed as the named character. "I hope you all enjoy!"

At first, everything seemed to be going normally...until it reached the point where the various characters had lines. At that point, the Discord's playing the lead roles couldn't seem to keep track of which one they were.

"Of course the Earth Ponies are hoarding all the food!"

"Umm...Chancelor Puddinhead, we ARE the Earth Ponies."

"Oh. Then why do I have wings?"

"You don't." *snap of claws, and 'Puddinhead's wings vanish*

Similar instances occured as Commander Hurricane apparently thought he was a unicorn, until Private Pansy made his antlers vanish. "Egads! I'm going bald!"

As the pageant continued to dissolve into further barely controlled chaos, Celestia struggled very hard to keep her temper in check...as the entire audience was dissolved in helpless laughter. However, Discord did bring the play to a succesful conclusion teaching the proper moral, absorbing his duplicates into himself as he sang the final musical number.

As Shadow and Twilight headed to Luna's party afterwards, still laughing, they overhear Celestia having it out with Discord.

"I ask you to do one simple thing...ONE simple little thing to integrate yourself with the ponies...and you turn it into a gigantic JOKE? Do you know how important this celebration is?"

"Of course I know, Celestia," Discord replied, his voice silky smooth. "In case you'd forgotten, while it was before your time, I witnessed the entire event." His voice became thoughtful. "I'm actually surprised how much of it carried through to modern day accurately. In any event, these events ARE what woke me from my slumber since the dawn of this world, after all, and led me to seek dominion over Equestria. I know exactly how important this holiday is."

"Then why would you do this?"

"Because, Tia, if I'd done as you wanted and treated it in full seriousness, every pony in the audience would have been too terrified of what I'd do next to enjoy themselves at all. So I played my greatest joke of all...on myself, and you. By making myself the butt of every joke, I brought them Laughter...one of the Elements of Harmony, in case you'd forgotten. After all, this IS the story of how Ponies discovered the power of Harmony."

"...you're incorrigible!"

"Admit it, Celestia, you love that about me."

Seeing the way Celestia grinned at that statement, Twilight decided they should hurry over to Luna's partry.

The party was a semi-formal affair, including ponies from every city and town in Equestria, as well as representatives of the other races of the world and dignitaries from beyond Equestria. However, the air was entirely relaxed, and aside from the semi-formal attire, Twilight would have mistaken it for one of Pinkie Pie's parties. "This is a nice party," she confided to Princess Luna, "though I'm surprised everyone's so relaxed."

"Why wouldn't they be?" Luna asked in surprise. "These are all the friends I have made since I was freed from being Nightmare Moon...although some were unable to make it, and others - like your own friends Rarity and Spike - I was unable to find in time to invite."

"You couldn't find them?" Twilight asked in shock.

Luna smiled. "I would have been able to...if they stayed in the same bed for as much as two nights in a row." Shaking her head, she nudged Twilight. "Go, mingle. There are a lot of new friends to meet."

As Twilight wandered around the party, she greeted everyone happily, doing her best to remember all the names and faces. Eventually, she found herself in an out of the way corner of the room with Shadow. "This is some party, isn't it?" She asked, sipping from her drink.

"Yeah," he replied. "I had no idea there was so much of this world."

Twilight smiled. "Well, I'd be happy to teach you everything I know of it."

Shadow ducked his head. "...I'd like that."

Looking up at him, Twilight noticed something up near the celieng. "Look, Luna's hung some mistletoe." Smiling, she turned back to Shadow...only to find his lips on hers. Startled, she pulled back. "S-shadow? W-what are you doing?"

Shadow pulled back. "...sorry," he said quietly, turned, and ran out of the party.

Twilight chased after him. "Shadow, wait!" She finally managed to catch up to him on Luna's balcony. "Shadow..."

Shadow wouldn't meet her eyes. "In...on Mobius, there's a tradition that if you meet someone under the mistletoe, you exchange a kiss. ...I take it you weren't aware of this?"

Twilight shook her head. "No...I wasn't..."

Shadow hung his head, still not meeting her eyes. "...I'm sorry..."

"...yeah...me too..." Twilight looked away.

-------------------

As Winter wound to a close in Ponyville, the awkwardness between Shadow and Twilight that had begun that night still persisted. Shadow and Twilight had trouble looking at each other. In Shadow's case, he felt he had done something he shouldn't have, and it may have damaged their friendship, as his latest research showed that a kiss had much more emotional significance amongst ponies then it did amongst Mobians. As for Twilight, she was left wondering if Shadow had only kissed her because of the tradition or because he actually wanted to kiss her. This only compounded her emotional turmoil over his, as she had already begun to question whether or not she was beginning to see him as more than just a friend...that, and that he had in effect stolen her first kiss, left her very confused as to where to go from here, especially since they had so much trouble talking to each other now.

With Winter Wrap Up around the corner, Twilight buried herself in organizational details. With her friends no longer living in Ponyville, she needed to find others to head each of the teams handling the various tasks. Applejack wasn't even around to help as she'd taken a large shipment through to Mobius the previous week, and she wasn't expected back before mid-spring. As such, the details Twilight had to handle were much more intesne than what she'd had on her plate in previous years. However, she was glad of it, as it allowed her to shove her emotional turmoil aside.

She noticed that Shadow had signed up with the animal handlers. Seeing an opportunity to buck two trees with one hoof, she assigned him as the head of the team. She'd noticed that other ponies seemed to instinctively defer to him - whether through awe at his aura of strength or simple respect for his abilities and prowess, she wasn't sure - and Shadow had a knack for organizing others. She figured if they both tired themselves out getting Winter Wrap Up completed on schedule, then they would be too exhausted for the awkwardness to get in the way of talking.

Most of the Winter Wrap Up went off without a hitch...except in regards to fetching the birds home. Twilight was cursingherself, knowing it was a mistake to put Derpy in charge of that part. However, everything still managed to get done on schedule, although it left Twilight with a major headache by the end of the day.

As she rubbed at her forehead just below her horn, Shadow approached her. "You alright?" he asked, concern in his voice.

Twilight couldn't help but smile. It seemed her plan in that regard had worked. "Just a headache is all," she said, trying to make light of it, put a shock of pain went through her ehad right then. "Ouch."

Shadow leaned over, his face full of concern. At first Twilight was happy...but she leaped back like she'd been struck by lightning when his horntip touched hers. "W-wwhat are you doing?" she stammered, her breathing ragged and her face red.

Shadow blinked. "You always lay your horn against me to offer comfort. I thought..."

Twilight turned away, blushing brightly, suppressing tears. "Shadow...a unicorn's horn is the center of his or her magic...and is very sensitive as a result. While laying a horn against someone's forehead is a comforting gesture...a horn-to-horn touch is an...intimate one that unicorn couples...generally only do in private." This last came out in a rush.

Shadow backed up several steps, turning away. He didn't see the tears Twilight struggled to hold in as she cursed herself internally.

Comments

[Windy0]

The first sentence of this chapter is missing a 'w'. Read it to find out where.

[VeryDeadlyBee]

Morbing time