A seemingly unnatural silence descended on the train platform everypony was standing on. It seemed that nature removed all sound from the area as the words spoken by Shadow sunk in.

Every eye or head slowly moved to look at the former Solar guard or Lunar Princess to stunned to speak.

Shadow simply blinked as he turned to look at Luna and slowly started to smirk at her. His smirk died as he felt what he imagined liquid fire would be wash over him.

Shadow dared not move to look at the source but instead moved his eyes to Celestia.

He saw pure fury on her face that demanded to be vented at its creator.

'Well, that backed fired,' Other Shadow brought up with a flat tone and sigh, 'See what I did there?' He added with a tone that conveyed a smirk.

Shadow gulped as his eyes snapped back to Luna whom had a face that probable mirrored his own. He saw dread, terror and regret.

For a brief second the two made eye contact and they both saw the 'I'm blaming you' look before they moved their eyes back to Celestia.

The Solar princess took a step towards Shadow with a silence shattering clap as her hoof hit the stone floor.

Celestia stared down at Shadow as she moved to stand close enough to hit him with a wing with each hoof fall repeating the sound of the first.

After several steps Celestia had reach destination and as she stopped she flared her wings out to their greatest extent.

If she did it to further intimidate Shadow it wasn't needed, her hoof falls had done it.

The sound made by her wings seemed to snap Luna out of her shock. Luna opened her mouth to speak to her sister but was silenced.

Celestia broke her stare at Shadow to turn her eyes to her younger sister. Shadow guess Luna got the 'I'll deal with you next' look because her mouth snapped shut as she look down to the ground to broke the stare.

Shadow was doing his best to look unaffected by Celestia and believed he was doing so but internally he was freaking out and thinking back to Canterlot.

“Shadow would you please explain to me what you just said” Celestia asked with an icy tone with fury doing it's best to melt through.

Shadow gave yawn he covered up with a wing and tilt of his head before he spoke.

“I can but I'm not going too, and before you protest. I fail to see what your sister an I did in private is any of your concern, seeing as we're both responsible adults.” Shadow replied in a calm and civil manner as he turned to look at the princess as he spoke.

Celestia narrowed her eyes and lowered her head to nearly Shadow's eye level before she spoke again.

“You misunderstand Shadow, that was a simply polite request, you are going to tell me.” Celestia told Shadow with no room for interpretation in her voice.

Shadow blinked and while his eyes where closed moved them to look at Luna. The princess if the night seemed to not want to make her older sister any madder and showed no intention of speaking.

With another blink Shadow moved his eyes back to Celestia.

“I still fail to see why it's any of your concern what your sister does in her off time. I'm not going to say anything that happened between us last night without her okay.” Shadow countered to his former boss with a calm polite tone.

Without turning to look at Luna Celestia lifted her head while maintaining eye contact with Shadow. After raising her head she spoke a single word to her sister to get what she wanted.

“Luna.” Hearing her name the princess looked at her older sibling before answering.

“Sister, we must agree with Shadow. We think tis not thou concern.” Luna answered as neutrally as she could not wanting to have her sister's anger directed towards her.

Celestia lowered her wings and rested them against her body as she spoke.

“Luna if you are involved it does concern me.” When she spoke Luna could hear the caring in her sister's voice even if anypony else couldn't.

Luna paused for a second as she thought about how to reply. She believed Celestia was overreacting to something small but only because she cared.

Luna also thought Shadow was doing his best to keep everything civil and keep their game to themselves.

With a sigh Luna turned to look at Shadow to see him looking at her. She narrowed her eyes knowing the pegasus would more then likely make things worse before making them better.

“Shadow tis fine to tell art sister.”

“If you're okay with it, I've got no problem answering.” Shadow stated with a calm tone as he rolled his wings against himself.

Shadow then proceeded to give a brief recount of what had occurred the night before.

“So after that Princess Celestia your sister asked if I wanted to be on her moon...” There were several gasps from the girls that until now had been forgetting by the two princesses and Shadow before he went on.

When Shadow finished his account he head a mix of groans, gasps, and mutterings from the Princesses and Elements.

Shadow was only partially successful in keeping a smug smirk of his face as Celestia raised a hoof to rub a temple as she commented.

“All that from a silly crude game between them.” Annoyance clear in her voice as the train blew its whistle signaling its departure.

Shadow let the smirk fall as his head snapped to the source of the shriek without thought as his body tensed.

When he realized what was going on he moved his head to talk to Twilight and her friends.

“I think that's our hint to get on board or be left here.”

Twilight was using her wings to message her temples as she turned and moved towards the train. Before he turned to leave he held up a wing to muffle his voice from Twilight.

“I'll mark this one down as a win for me.” Shadow told Luna as the smirk returned. Luna gave a playful pout at the declaration while her sister moved her head in disappointment as she rolled her eyes.

After seeing the royal sister's reactions Shadow jogged to overtake Twilight before she reached the train. As he started his jog he heard the Celestia informing Luna they were going to have a talk when they got back to Canterlot.

Beating her to the entrance Shadow once again moved to inspect the car before his boss got on board. When Twilight boarded Shadow was satisfied the car was clear.

While Twilight and her friends sat down Shadow decided to wait before he do himself.

Shadow stood in the aisle looking back and forth between the entrances on either end of the car until the train began to pull away from the station.

Even after the train pulled away Shadow waiting until the train station was no longer in sight before sitting down across the aisle from Twilight and her friends.

Shadow moved to pull out the more damaged of his two armor plates with some difficulty but stopped from setting it down when he heard Twilight talk to him.

“Why are you sitting over there Shadow? There's plenty of room for you so sit with us?”

“Well I wanted ti take a closer look at this plate and decide if it was scarp or recoverable.” Shadow answered as he held the plate in question up with his fore hooves.

“Darling why would you want to reuse such an um, flawed material?” Rarity inquired as she looked over the plate.

“The big reason is its stat mods.” Shadow replied to her causing confusion to everypony at the table.

“What are those?” Rainbow asked as she moved to get a better look at the plate.

“Stat mods are benefits to a pony through the use of magically means.” Twilight quickly rattled off in professor mode before asking her own question.

“So what are the mods Shadow?” She asked as Shadow moved to her booth.

“Well the two big ones being minus two from income and plus one ta debt.” Shadow replied as he let the plate drop to the table the Elements were sitting at before letting a sigh out.

“I get that reference.” Twilight gleefully exclaimed as she clapped her fore hooves together with a smile. Her friends simply shared a confused look with each other.

“Ah, would ya mind sharin' with us sugar cube?” Applejack ask as she gave the plate a looking over.

“It's from a fantasy game my BBBFF played with his friends and myself at times.” Twilight explained as she tipped the piece of metal with a hoof.

“Wow, that seems really uncool. I'm surprised you would know that Shadow.” Rainbow added boredom started to setting onto her face as she sat back down.

“When in the field you'll do almost anything to pass the time.” Shadow returned as he sat at the end of the bench.

“Kinda like when you would read those fashion magazines!” Pinkie exclaimed throwing up her fore hooves.

Shadow paused for a second before answering with a flat monotone voice.

“Yes, reading and nothing else.” He stated taking a glance at Fluttershy and saw her brightly blushing trying to hide behind her mane.

After that the topic quickly fell back to wanting to know more detailed about what had happened on the other side of the portal.

Shadow zoned out giving only enough attention to his surroundings to stay aware of the car. He only came out of it when he heard Twilight ask him a question.

“So in your option Shadow what's the quickest way to a stallion's heart? Hypothetically!” She asked with unease and embarrassment clear in her voice as her friends giggled among themselves.

“Tempered steel blade inserted parallel between the second and fifth ribs.” Shadow rattled off having been asked the question hundreds of times throughout his various training but not in this context.

Shadow didn't hear the normal response but instead gasp of shock, terror, and revulsion. Before he could gave an explanation Rarity spoke.

“Why would you know that?! It's simply uncivilized.” Shadow turned to look at her to gave her a look of confusion and disbelieve.

“Um, it's part of the training when a pegasus goes through mandatory basic training.” Rainbow answered with she rubbed the back of her head with unease in her voice.

For a moment no pony spoke before Shadow broke the silence.

“So, what was that about an upcoming festival or something or another Princess?”

Twilight gave a quick shake of her head to clear it out before answering with puzzlement.

“Have you already forgotten the meeting we had yesterday?”

“Just because I'm at a meeting or the like doesn't mean I'm there. I was more then likely using my super secret special sergeant skill to use my lifetime, all access pass to Shadow Land and completely not paying attention.” Shadow replied with boredom and uncaring tone.

When Pinkie heard that she took a deep breath a started to rant about how she hadn't been invited and how could she get passes. That's what Shadow thought she was rambling about as he could only pick up a word here and there.

“She's not going to try and burrow into my skull is she?” Shadow asked with genuine concern and some fear at the edges of his humor.

“I've already got enough residents in my skull.” He quipped with humor to further break the unease from earlier.

“Ya should be safe partner, ah at least I think ya should be.” Applejack answered with a smile on her face as she covered Pinkie's mouth.

The table all laughed before Twilight gave Shadow an overview on what was going to be happening.
He waited until she finished before speaking up about his concerns.

When Shadow told Twilight he didn't have a formal uniform for the event he didn't think it was too big of a deal.

“You think the two of us could get with you later Rarity to work something out?” He asked thinking the whole process would be a simply affair.

When he didn't get an answer after several seconds he gave the seamstress a look to figure out what was going on.

When he thought he saw glowing stars and diamonds in her eye she gave several quick blinks to try and clear his eyes.

He then differently saw the wheels turning in her head as pure fashion ecstasy spread across her entire face. At the same time so did Shadow's sense of dread and hopelessness of his future.

“I done fucked up, didn't I?”

Author's Notes:

An actually chapter, yeah!
I hope the wait was worth it. I feel a lot better about this chapter having given it extra attention.
Thanks for putting up with the new chapter an I hope to have you come back.