Shadow was having another dream similar to the one he had yesterday. His ears twitched as he heard a sound outside and opened his eyes groggily. He heard singing and water dripping. His mind was telling him to go back to sleep but his powerful headache was keeping him from doing so.

He managed to get up while tripping a bit. He opened his wings to stretch, followed by his front and back legs. He walked outside the entrance of the cave as the early morning sun shined brightly at him. He looked around and shielded his eyes until they adjusted to the light.

"I wonder where that girl went." The whistling got louder as he got closer to a tree. When he got to the tree, he looked up and saw Fluttershy flying around the tree. She seemed to be collecting some things while humming a song. Her singing was beautiful, thought Shadow. Shadow then sneezed.

Fluttershy heard this and was frightened as she dropped her basket on top of Shadows head followed by herself. Shadow's head was feeling worse now. Fluttershy rubbed her back in pain as she saw an angry looking pegasus staring down at her.

"I-I'm so sorry. You just scared me, that's all."

Shadow felt like yelling, but what good would that do him. But that wasn't it. It was the face she was giving him. She was scared, a very familiar face he had seen before, and her pure turquoise colored eyes seemed to make him guilty for almost yelling at her again. She was probably still terrified of him because of yesterday.

Shadow quickly went back to his usual scowl cause his angry look seemed to be scaring her, and compared to other ponies reactions to his stare, she wasn't taking it pretty well.

He backed up and sighed. "It's all right." he said, walking back to help her up. "What were you doing out here anyways?" he questioned.

"W-well, I was just gathering some herbs to make medicine...to cure your headache. By the way you were moving in your sleep, I assumed that you were still sick."

"You were watching me?"

"N-No! I just happened to be woken up by your moaning."

"Moaning?"

"Yes, you kept moaning about some pony, but I forgot her name. "I'm sorry if you didn't want me to hear anything."

Shadow developed a more solemn look now. "It's fine." he said while starting to walk away.

"Wait!" Fluttershy called.

"Hm?"

Fluttershy opened her basket and pulled out a bowl with some to powder in it. "I made this out of some plants and herbs to cure your headache, i-if you wouldn't mind taking it."

Shadow wasn't too excited to just take some weird powder from a girl that probably put poison in it for payback at yelling at her. But he couldn't go walking around with the major headache he had. He had no choice.

"Fine." He walked back to take the bowl from her.

Fluttershy noticed he was more rude then last night. She wondered why. He tasted the powder and started coughing violently.

"Oh, I forgot to mention that it's a little sour."

"A little?" But then Shadow was amazed. The medicine took effect immediately, getting rid of headache.

"Um, did it work?"

"Yes, it did." said Shadow while smiling slightly. "Thanks."

Fluttershy smiled too. "I'm glad it helped." Shadow was feeling lucky that this girl had met him instead of some of the other ponies that had tried to talk to him.

She wasn't annoying, she was patient, and she had a timid personality. And she had a beautiful figure along with beautiful eyes that seemed to make Shadow shut his mouth when he was about to say something negative to her. He figured he should be more appreciative to the pony that had unnecessarily taken care of him.

"Um thanks I guess." Fluttershy noticed his sudden change in expression and smiled in relief.

Then Shadow started to walk away. "Um, uh..." Shadow noticed her weak call for him and turned back around. "Yes?" "Well, I was just... wondering if you walk me home? It's quite a walk from here back to my cottage."

Angel looked up at her confused. Why would she want him to walk her home? And she knew she wasn't alone cause she had her pet bunny. There was another reason, but he didn't muse about it for long. She seemed to be embarrassed from asking the question, for she was looking away and blushing slightly while rubbing her leg with her right hoof. He didn't have any other way of thanking her for taking care of him, so it was the least he could do.

"Um, sure, just lead the way." Fluttershy smiled gleefully and started walking back to her house near the Everfree forest. She called for Angel while Shadow sighed tiredly and followed suite.

"Thanks for walking me home." said Fluttershy, in that sweet voice that seemed to catch Shadow's attention every time. "Yeah, I feel honored." said Shadow sarcastically.

"So where's your house at again?" he asked, a bit annoyed.

"It's just on the edge of the Everfree forest."

"Huh." Shouldn't be that far then."

He's so mysterious and has an almost carefree attitude. He was was the complete opposite of her, yet she was strangely attracted to him. His "I don't care attitude" seemed to make her even more curios about this strange black-maned stallion. He was pretty tall for such a young looking pony, about the size of Princess Cadence or Luna. She had told him stuff about her, but he wouldn't spill a single word about himself. And who was this Jenny pony? So many questions were running through her head, trying to escape, but her timidity kept her curiosity locked in her head like steel bars. She was afraid that she might upset him, but she had one question that just couldn't stay inside her head. And those other two ponies that were looking for him made her wonder even more.

As Shadow stretched his wings again, Fluttershy noticed a scar under his left wing. Depending on the fragility of wings and the size of the scar, it must have been a pretty serious injury. She wondered about it and decided not to ask for now. Fluttershy was getting ready to say something until Shadow said something.

"So why don't you live in Cloudsdale? You're a pegasus are you not?"

"Yes but, believe it or not... I'm afraid of heights."

"Well, I've never heard of a pegasus afraid of heights." said Shadow, somewhat surprised.

"I prefer to stay on the ground and take care of animals. "You have such nice wings. "Do you fly a lot?"

"Not really. I don't like to be seen a lot so I just lay low on the ground."

"Well that's one thing we have in common." said Fluttershy. Shadow nodded in agreement with her with a slight smile. Then a strange pain surged through his head. It weakened him as stopped and kneeled on the ground.

"Oh my goodness." said Fluttershy. "Are you okay?" she asked while letting him lean on her shoulder. As soon as she touched him, the pain went away like it was never there.

Shadow stood up firmly.

"Shadow?" said Fluttershy in a concerned voice. "I'm fine." "What was that all about?"

"I-I don't know...let's keep going." said Shadow and resumed walking.

Fluttershy developed a worried look and started walking again too.

"I felt some weird dark pain, but why did it go away when she touched me?"

It wasn't a pain from my head injury, but it felt like something was trying to corrupt me for a split second.

"Shadow, are you sure you're all right? You've been acting strange all morning and last night."

I said I'm fine."said Shadow rudely.

Fluttershy noticed this. "I'm sorry for asking a lot of questions, I'm just worried for you."

"Worried?" Shadow thought. She had only known him for a day and she was worried for him? What was with her? There's a such thing as a being nice, but she was just too kind. There was only one other pony he knew that was like that.

"It's fine.

I'm just a little on edge from yesterday. "

Fluttershy sighed in relief and walked a little closer to him. "Wow, you're more quiet then me."

"Is that an achievement?"

"It's just that my friends see me as shy and quiet. Its true, but I'm sometimes oblivious to it, and I show it without knowing.

"Well it hasn't been hard to notice." said Shadow.

"I know, I can't control it sometimes.

Even the most little of things can scare me when I'm not paying attention." "You don't seem that scared of me." Why wasn't she scared of him? "Well, I guess you're special then, hehe." Shadow nodded at her with a slight smile. "She has a cute laugh too." Shadow thought to himself.

Fluttershy mustered up the strength to ask him the question she was saving for later.

"So where did you get that scar from?"

"Hm?"

"The one under your wing."

Shadow checked the scar under his left wing. "Oh just an accident." It almost got cut off."

Fluttershy sort of recoiled at this. "Oh my, I couldn't imagine how painful it must've been. With the fragility of wings and all.

"Yeah, but others were able to fix it up and it was good as new again." said Shadow while extending his left wing a bit.

They chatted about a few more things. This was very rare, but Shadow was actually enjoying a nice conversation. Fluttershy was enjoying it too, a lot. But they finally got out of the forest when they could see her house in view. (Not the Everfree forest. Just pretend there was some other forest.) Angel sighed in relief as she hopped off Fluttershy's back and ran into the house.

"Ah, we're here. And everything in working condition. Shadow continued walking with her until they got to her doorstep.

"Alright, we're here. I guess I'll be taking my leave then."

Fluttershy seemed to motion to him as if to stop him, but couldn't form words.

"Wait." she said as he stopped walking.

"Yes?"

Fluttershy froze up again. "N-Nevermind." Shadow knew something was wrong, but he didn't bother asking and continued walking. Fluttershy sighed and went back into her house.

Rainbow Dash slowly peeked out of the bushes with a still face, which suddenly turned into a big grin.

"Oh. My. Gosh. Fluttershy has a crush!? AHAHAHA!" She took another look at the seemingly depressed Fluttershy. "But she seems to be having trouble. Mabye Rarity can help. I have to tell her." And with that, Rainbow Dash sped back to Ponyville with a smile on her face

Shadow was still walking when many dark figures with glowing eyes were watching him from some trees.

"So this is where he's been hiding at." said a stern voice." His eyes were a lavender color.

"Why are we waiting and hiding? When we can just attack him now and destroy this town.

"You idiot. Then we'd have Celestia and her royal dogs all over us." said another pony with light gray eyes. We shouldn't be attracting any suspicion anyways.

Besides you know our objective. Don't do anything that could jeopardize this for us. His eyes rolled around to look at the others. "Has anyone seen Leo? He and Sombre have been gone since yesterday to cover more ground. "This isn't a big place. So what could they be doing?

"I don't what's going through that pony's head most of the time, and I hate that smile of his." said someone else with golden yellow eyes."I don't trust him."

You don't trust anyone-" interrupted a female voice with dark blue eyes.

"And I have a good reason for it."

"Everyone just shut it." said an older and more mature sounding pony with clear colored eyes, sort of like the color of rain. "We'll break back into groups and go after him tomorrow.

"What?!" He's right there!" said the green-eyed one. Why don't we just get him now?

"In case you haven't realized genius, it's still daylight. If we were to try and capture him now, others might see it and it would cause an uproar." stated the girl."

"You're always disagreeing with everything I have to say."

"That's because half the stuff you say is straight bullshit.

"You askin' for a fight?"

"I didn't ask but I'll be happy to beat you senseless."

They seemed to mobilize towards each other until a clear aura covered and separated them from each other.

"I said be quiet."

"You never said that."

"May I remind you that I'm in charge."

"But she started it!"

"Are you really blaming me you big baby?"

"I will not have immaturity in this group." he said while glaring a glare at her that seemed to make her be quiet.

"Whatever."

He then narrowed his eyes angrily at the green eyed one.

"Fine. I'll be "quiet."

Let's just lay low for awhile. Then, we'll make our move." "We'll have to wait till tomorrow.

"But why tomorrow night?" Can't we just attack him tonight?" asked the girl.

"Yes, but there is business I must attend to."

"What kind of business?" questioned green eyes.

"None of "your" business."

"Besides, Leo is still gone. I'd rather have him with us before we do anything to serious."

"Why? We don't need him just to capture Shadow." said the one with lavender eyes.

"Just because he's alone doesn't mean he can't defend himself. "You remember that "power" that he has." It could take all of us just to restrain him."

"Yeah. Don't remind us." she said with a shiver.

"But don't you think it's suspicious that Leo's always gone off by himself, and Sombre is usually with him." asked golden eyes.

"And he probably is, but as long as it doesn't interfere with our plan, it's fine. Besides, I can trust him more then most ponies I know." he said while eying the green one."

"You trust Leo, the most secretive one out of all us?" questioned gray eyes.

"And that Sombre is no better. He barely talks, and when he does, it's only to Leo." said the lavender eye-colored one.

"Enough of this discussion." We'll start tomorrow. Let's just stay in the shadows, and don't make your presence known."

"

"

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Sorry if it took awhile to update. I've been trying to get the beginning of school out of the way before I focus on this again. I appreciate reviews though. Good, bad, mean, nice, whatever they are. I'll probably go back and update this chapter later on though cause I wasn't quite satisfied with it. I just wanted to get this posted up so I could concentrate on the next chapter and school related stuff. And again, thanks for reading.