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Monday...just...Monday

Dark Light

Chapter 3: Monday…just…Monday

The rest of the day was like a survival challenge for the dragony.

‘Man, how do these ponies make it with such “parties” on a daily basis?’ He asked himself mentally, as he visualized the past afternoon and evening.

The amount of sweets, despite their amazing taste, nearly put him in a food coma. Good thing he did not have the ability to breathe fire, or he might have burned down Applejack’s barn with the gassy explosions, which erupted from his throat. The loud music, dancing and party games continued for what seemed like an eternity, despite Shadow’s pleads for their end, draining away his strength, and put his stamina to its limits. The last thing he remembered was consuming lots of hard cider in attempt to get away from a certain glamorous white unicorn.

A sharp pain in his head woke him up. Not paying attention to his surroundings, Shadow put a hoof on his head, and closed his eyes. Once the pain faded a little, he reopened them, and was startled by the place he was in. The dragony was laying on a cloud, roped to a purple air balloon, raising them to a giant cloud formation. He got up on his hooves, and then flew up to the basket of the balloon. In it were five of the six mares he had met, with the exception of the cyan pegasus, and the purple dragon. Each was having a light breakfast.

“Morning Shadow.” Twilight greeted.

He simply raised a hood in response. Then he leaned on the side of the basket, and just hung from it. With a groggy expression he called to the little lizard.

“Hey Spike, pass me one of them orange ruby muffins.” He pointed at a basket with gem bakeries.

“Roger.” The dragon replied, grabbed the requested pastry, and gave it to the dragony.

“Thanks.” Shadow said, took the muffin, and gobbled half of it in one bite. “So, where are we going?” he asked, finishing the desert.

“To Cloudsdale silly! You have a race with Rainbow Dash, remember?” Pinkie happily exclaimed.

“Right.” The dragony uttered as he stretched.

Then he flew to the side, grabbed a dark cloud, and squeezed out the water in it on top of himself.

“Aaah…refreshing.” He stated as he shook his head to dry his mane.

“So, Shadow, yer gonna have trouble winning this. Not only is she fast, but Rainbow Dash knows this course like the back of her hoof.” Applejack chuckled.

“Beating someone on their home turf isn’t that hard. You just have to observe the muscles at the base of the wings, the feather tips’ positioning, and the movement of all four legs. Predict as much following actions as possible. Use every opening you get, while leaving no such yourself, and you’re golden.” Shadow explained casually.

“Right…” The orange mare replied.

In a few minutes all of them were at the famous Cloudsdale track. Rainbow Dash was stretching at the start. After a short briefing how the two unicorns, earth ponies and dragon could walk on clouds, the two racers readied themselves in take off positions, awaiting the drop of the flag in Twilight’s magical aura. In the last few seconds the flyers exchanged several words.

“Get ready to suck my dust, and meet me at the finish line grandpa.” The cyan pegasus said.

“The only meeting that will happen at the finish line will be between you and my victorious flank squirt.” The dragony replied.

Their course was an uprising air current with obstacles, followed by a circle around the weather factory, after which a long straight flight for speed, with a few loose clouds, and finally a dive down to the finish line. The lavender unicorn dropped the black and white squared flag, and the two took off. The air current they made nearly blew Twilight off the cloud.

Through the obstacles the flyers were pretty even, each poking a head in front of the other in short intervals, but once they reached the city, Rainbow’s superior speed and smaller size gave her the upper hoof.

“And this here is our rainbow fountain.” A gray coated colt with a dark mane, dressed in a white worker’s outfit pointed at the pouring colorful liquid.

Missis Cherilee and her class were on a special platform for tours, on which all kinds of ponies could walk.

“And with that we conclude the tour of this section of the factory. Hey you three, don’t drink that!” The tour guide yelled at three certain fillies, who were trying to taste the rainbow.

“Girls, what did I say about eating various substances on the school trip to Hoofington’s parasprite pesticide factory last year?” Their teacher exclaimed.

The yellow earth pony, white unicorn and orange pegasus’s faces saddened.

“Now what do you have to say for yourselves?” Cherilee asked.

The three looked up. Instead of the expected: ‘Sorry Missis Cherilee.’, their eyes widened, and they screamed, pointing at the sky. Everypony turned their heads to see Rainbow Dash being chased by a giant black creature.

“Sweet merciful Celestia, what the hay is that thing?!” The tour guide yelled.

“That was the monster I saw go in Twilight’s library yesterday, but someponies here thought I was hallucinating!” Scootaloo loudly exclaimed, and gave her friends an irritated look. The entire facility was in panic.

“Send word for the Royal Guard now!” Somepony yelled amongst the chaos.

Shadow was lagging two, maybe three meters behind the cyan pegasus, as they flew up the weather factory. Reaching the top, the two started the long straight flight, before the dive for the finish line. They maneuvered between rogue clouds, who were a lot harder to dodge than the ones at the start of the track. About a yard from the dive, Rainbow turned around, and mocked her opponent.

“What have you got to say now loud mouth? Let’s see your “smart flying” help you now!”

Then she turned around, and sped away. The dragony rushed to catch up to her. All of a sudden a large cloud appeared in front of the rainbow maned pegasus. With a little effort, and back bending, the mare dodged it. Unfortunately, Shadow didn’t have such luck, and whit a scream he rammed into it, and disappeared inside the cloud.

Right before the dive, Rainbow stopped. She flew back to the cloud, and called for the dragony as she inspected the puffy surface.

“Shadow, you alright?”

A set of black hooves emerged, grabbing her by the shoulders. The colt pulled himself on her back, and jumped off it, sending the cyan pegasus falling behind. The mare quickly got a hold of herself, and dashed after him, but it was too late. Shadow had already taken the dive, and crossed the finish line a firm two seconds before Rainbow Dash.

“What the buck was that?!” The pegasus angerly shouted, as the ponies and dragon gathered around them.

“That was smart flying.” Shadow smugly replied.

“Like hell it is! That was pure cheating!” Dash protested.

“Oh come now. Everybody knows that cheater is just a fancy word for winner.” The dragony continued.

“Nuh-uh! Cheaters never win!” Rainbow shouted again.

Her face had turned red from anger. With a sinister grind the stallion asked.

“And what did I just do?”

“You…” The blue mare just said, before he continued.

“By your own words I am not a cheater.”

Everypony looked at Twilight. The lavender unicorn scratched the back of her head, and spoke with uncertainty in her voice.

“Sorry Rainbow, he has a point there.”

Dash turned around, and her enraged gaze met her opponent’s smug expression.

All of a sudden three white coated pegasi in gold armor and two dark gray bat ponies in nightish blue armor barreled down on top of the dragony, sank through the cloud floor, and started freefalling. In forty seconds of struggling in mid air, the ball of flesh hit the ground, leaving a small crater. Shadow took the force of the entire impact. Down there, two armored white earth ponies, and two more bat pony stallions were waiting for them, and jumped on top of the pile, in an attempt to pin the large creature.

From underneath all of the bodies, an enraged expression took place on the dragonic stallion’s face. His vertical reptilian pupils thinned so much, they almost disappeared in the burning orange irises. He stuck his hooves in the solid ground, and pushed upwards with his legs, and attempted to open his wings. The guards tightened their grip. Their muscles ached as they felt how their prisoner’s strength started to overwhelm their own. In thirty seconds, Shadow tossed them all off his back.
Stallions rained around him, as he stepped out of the crater, bended in a battle ready position, and shouted at them.

“Come on you whelps! I’ve brawled one on one against Cerberus, what makes you think you can do any better?!”

In the next moment he jumped to the side, dodging a blast of purple magic. He looked at the smoking hole, left by it, and then his eyes were set on the shooter, who calmly replied.

“Is that good enough of an answer for you?” Before Shadow stood a white unicorn.

His blue mane could be barely seen under his helmet. The colt wore purple armor, and had a strange looking shield on his flank. On each of his sided stood two more unicorns in gold armor. The dragony huffed out some steam. The purple wearing stallion raised his right hoof, and the other colts next to him took aim. When his hoof fell, four magical blasts were shot at Shadow.

He jumped to the left, dodging the yellow and green one, then he took a spin, avoiding the orange blast, and flinched his head backwards, right before the blue one hit him. The commander ordered another round of shots, this time all directed at one point. Shadow was going to dodge them easily, so he jumped away, but them he noticed that the beams headed for a bird’s nest, so he returned, and took all of the blasts head on.

The explosion made a black cloud around the dragony. Once it cleared out, the unicorns witnessed how the creature’s head was bent down, and it was breathing heavily as smoke steamed from his body. The purple wearing unicorn stepped forwards, and addressed the dragony.

“Surrender peacefully, and we might go easy on you. What do you say, monster?”

“What do I say?” Shadow chuckled.

He lifted his head, wearing a grin, and spoke with a smug tone.

“Biology for the fifth grade. The more a dragon ages over his 300th year, the more he is immune to unicorn magic.” And charged at them.

The five colts dispersed, and surrounded him. Two behind him, one on each side, and their commander in front of him. As Shadow picked a target, all of them conjured magical chains. The yellow and blue ones caught each of his hind legs, the orange and green ones – each of his wings, and their leader’s purple chain locked around the dragony’s muzzle. The stallions pulled in their direction. The struggling creature was hard to hold.

Shadow relaxed his wings, and in an instant clapped them together, pulling their holders at him. The two unicorns smashed into one another, and fell on the ground as their chains disappeared. With the stability from his spread wings, the dragony instantaneously pulled with his hind legs. The two stallions flew at him. Then the dragonic colt bucked them several feet away.

Now the purple armored unicorn was trying to bring down the behemoth on his own. He managed to extend the creature’s head forward . But it was too strong for him to handle alone. Shadow pulled back his neck. The commander was tossed at his target. His magical chain broke, just before the dragony headbutted him in the ground, leaving a small dent in his helmet.

The colt slowly looked up, and saw that his opponent was on his hind legs, and was preparing to splat him on the ground. He covered his eyes with a hoof, preparing for the pain. All of a sudden, a purple shield appeared around the unicorn. It cracked under the dragony’s hooves, but it didn’t break.

“Shadow stop!” A shout was head in the distance.

Both stallions turned around, and saw a purple mare galloping at them.

“Twily?” The white unicorn quietly said, before yelling back at her. “Twilight get back!”

She didn’t pay attention to the warning, and stood between them.

“Shadow don’t!” She exclaimed.

“Why?” The dragony asked with anger in his tone.

“Because he is my brother.” The mare replied.

“Brother?” Shadow quietly said. He calmed down, and took several steps back.

Twilight then turned around, and helped Shining Armor get up.

“Why did you do that?” She scolded the dragony.

He pointed at the white colt before answering.

“He started it.”