"Death!" Shade shouts as she runs out of her room. She barges through the door across the hall. "Death!" Her eyes grow with horror seeing Death in a compromising position with some kind of object caught in her magic sticking out of her rear. "WHAT THE FUCK!" Shade slams the door close.

"Shade!" She hears Death call out, fumbling and slamming follow. Death opens her door and sees the filly by her door standing like a statue. "Shade, sweetie, that is why you knock," Death smiles sweetly and brushes back her sweaty mane.

Shade's mouth hangs open and she stares distantly at Death. "That was your 'gift'?! And I'm right next door! Gross!"

"Here. This will make things better." Death's horn flashes.

"Vāstùch," Shade gasps as she runs her hoof over the Ancient characters of her homeland. Shade tosses the covers off her and zips to her door with the book levitating behind her. "Death!"

She practically rips open her door and jumps to the door across the hall. She latches herself onto the door and knocks wildly, "Death! Death! Death!"

Death opens the door and cocks her head at the filly hanging off her door. "Where's the fire, Shade?"

Shade slams the book into Death's face. "Why is there Ancient text in this world?"

Death pulls the book off her face with cartoonish physics stretching her muzzle before the book comes off with a pop. "Why not?" Death shrugs. "I created the world. Besides, we're speaking Angin but ponies call it differently."

"So what do ponies call Vāstùch?"

"The Old Language. Very few ponies can read it, let alone speak it."

Shade detaches herself from the door and lands on the floor. "Well. . . That is all. You can go back to whatever it is you were doing."

"I will!" Death sing songs.

Shade turns back to Death and sees her hiding behind the door. She waves bye and slams the door close. Shade cocks her brow. "Weird," she comments.

She returns to her comfortable bed and begins reading about "The Historæ of Magicka Theoræ and the Fundamentals of Practical Applickation." For the next five hours she spends the morning reading before sleep takes her.

"Aren't you even more adorable when you're asleep!" a bubbly voice comments beside her bed. "Where's my camera?"

Shade opens her eyes and sees Pinkie Pie beaming down at her. Shade stretches her legs and releases a yawn.

"Wakey wakey, Shadey-wadey!" she chimes.

"It's too early for this," Shade groans and tosses over on her other side.

Pinkie Pie bites down on the covers and pulls them off of Shade. She turns her head back and steps away from the intensity of glowing yellow irises. Pinkie Pie smiles sheepishly and reaches into her fluffy mane to pull out a banana.

"A little snack before we go," she says and holds it out for Shade.

Shade's burning glower subsides and she accepts the fruit with her magic.

"Ooo! Red!" Pinkie Pie comments.

Shade throws her legs over the side of the bed, grabs her goggles, and takes a bite out of the peeled banana simultaneously. "What's 'red'?" she asks after finishing a second bite of delicious banana.

"Your magic!" Pinkie Pie answers.

"Oh."

"I'm so excited!" Pinkie Pie explodes into confetti, "And I just can't hide it!"

"Can you not be loud in my room," Shade complains, removing her fore hooves from her ears.

"Sorry," Pinkie Pie whispers.

"Why are you excited, Pinkie?" Shade asks with disinterest after Pinkie Pie gives her an expecting look.

"Because we are going on an adventure through the Whitetail Woods! I have never been through the woods. Everypony says the woods are beautiful. I " an ivory hoof in her mouth muffles her.

"'We'? This is the first time I'm hearing about this." Shade quickly retracts her hoof after feeling a wet sensation tickling her frog. She scowls at Pinkie Pie for licking her.

"Yeah! DB wants us to gather some wild plants for her while she sets up the shop!" Pinkie Pie informs with a smile.

Shade sucks her teeth, "Tch. You mean she is too lazy to do it."

Pinkie Pie hugs Shade's foreleg, "C'mon! It'll be fun!"

Shade stares into Pinkie Pies big eyes with uncertainty. "Well. . . maybe I can find game trails to hunt," she finally buckles under Pinkie Pie's puppy eyes.

"Yeah!" Pinkie elates with a hoof pump then drops her hoof with her face twisting in confusion, "What?"

Shade gets out of bed and slides the energetic filly off her leg. "What?" Shade questions back and starts making her way out of her room.

"Y-you," Pinkie gulps and stares at Shade in horror, " eat meat?"

Shade rolls her eyes and walks down the stairs, "No. I use a spell and it magically gets in my belly. My canines are just for show."

Pinkie wipes a fetlock across her brow, "Whew! For a second, I thought !"

"Sarcasm."

Pinkie freezes at the bottom of the stairs. She has befriended a carnivore a potential cannibal! All the clues add up: preferring solitude, the sharp teeth, the cold stare of death, the delightful shiver that runs down her spine every time Shade looks at her, Shade's soft yet commanding voice, the muscles that peek out from her snow white coat, Shade's thick, lush mane and tail, and the way Shade's flank sways

"Pinkie," Shade's voice and a flick to her forehead snaps Pinkie from her thoughts.

"Huh?"

"You were staring off into space and," a napkin levitates to her in a red aura, "drooling," Shade finishes with slight concern on her face.

Pinkie titters nervously and wipes her muzzle clean of drool, "I was just thinking about the powder donuts Mrs. Cake made this morning!"

". . . Right." Shade turns away from her strange friend and speaks to Death, "How am I supposed to know what these plants look like? I'm color blind."

Death tosses a book at Shade with her magic and smiles, "Pinkie isn't; that's why she's going with you."

Shade catches the book with her left hoof and opens the book. She flips through the book with her magic and quickly memorizes the forty pages.

"The circled ones are the ones I need. You get me the plants and I'll pay you fifteen bits." Death smirks.

Shade frowns and turns to Pinkie. "Is that a lot?"

"Oh yeah! Fifteen bits can buy three gallons of premium paint, or two hundred balloons, or five cans of "

Shade turns back to Death and drowns out the yammering filly, "Thirty bits."

Death smiles and holds out her hoof, "Deal!"

Shade goes to shake her hoof and pulls back at the last second. She narrows her eyes at Death. "You will agree to any amount I say, wouldn't you?"

"Thirty is only fair," is Death's answer.

"Thirty million bits."

"Oh, Shade!" Death ruffles the ivory filly's mane. "Thirty it is. Get going before it gets too late."

Shade pulls down the goggles over her eyes and turns around to leave, "Let's go, Pinkie Pie."

". . . a whole bushel of bananas, or a gallon of kerosine, fifteen matches," she continues to list as she follows Shade out the door.

Pinkie Pie senses Shade's sadness as they walk down the road nearing the edge of Whitetail Wood. Why? What brought about her sudden shift in mood? Pinkie Pie wants to know and wants to help cheer up Shade but she knows how. . . sensitive Shade is about revealing her thoughts and feelings.
Pinkie Pie bounces beside Shade trying to figure out how to approach Shade.

Shade, meanwhile, wonders how Pinkie Pie produces a spring like sound every time she bounces. Pinkie Pie stops mid hop when she comes to a conclusion and Shade gawks at how she defies the Laws. Pinkie Pie leans against Shade and squeaks as electricity shocks her.

"Will you get upset if I ask how you feel about being color blind?"

Shade frowns. "How would you feel if you couldn't see colors? Or taste sweets? Or hear laughter?"

Pinkie Pie rubs her chin pensively and shifts more of her weight on Shade. "Honestly? It would probably be frustrating at first but I would probably. . . not get used to it but adapt? Life would be challenging, yeah, but what's life without a challenge? Existing. Life needs hardships and the ponies that overcome them become an inspiration to us all." Pinkie Pie smiles earnestly up at Shade.

"'Frustrating' and 'challenging' do not begin to describe how I feel. Sometimes, I just want to rip pictures up, tear out my eyeballs, shout, rampage "

"Cry?" Pinkie Pie inputs.

Shade glares at Pinkie Pie but quickly looks at the ground crestfallen, "I don't cry."

"Keeping all your sadness, pain, anger, and frustration inside is like eating poison. It will corrupt your soul and make you feel even worse. Whenever you cry, you let go of those toxic feelings and wash your soul.

"Hugs help ease the pain, so does talking. Trust me; I'm speaking from experience. You can tell me anything, Shade, and I will not tell another soul." Pinkie Pie wraps her forelegs around Shade's neck, "And I'll give you all the hugs!"

Shade did not want to admit to feeling warmer inside, did not want to admit to wanting to cry, did not want to admit she needs hugs she did not want to admit feeling weak. Shade stood there in the middle of the road waging a war of the ages inside her. She fought to reinforce the cracking wall around her heart while Pinkie Pie's warmth continues its siege. Shade pushes Pinkie Pie away and presses a hoof against her ivory throbbing chest.

"We need to collect the plants," Shade reminds Pinkie sternly.

As they enter the woods, Shade informs Pinkie Pie about the plants they are looking for specifically their colors and where they are likely to grow. They spend the remaining two hours of daylight collecting the plants and loading their haul into baskets and jars.

A low growl catches Pinkie's ear. "If you're hungry, we could snack on the plants, Shade," she giggles.

"I thought that came from you," Shade replies.

"If it wasn't you and it wasn't me then. . . "

The answer appears before them: a dirt brown, four hundred pound, ten foot, hungry looking answer. The bear roars ferociously and charges at the closest pony to it: Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie freezes in terror and stares helplessly as the bear slowly runs at her. Suddenly, a flash of white stands in front of her. A crack of a black tail to the face snaps her to her senses.

"Run!" Shade looks at the filly and shouts. She light up her horn and gets hit by a massive paw which sends her crashing into a tree.

Pinkie Pie runs to Shade but the bear cuts her off which makes her stumble onto her back. The bear rears back and cocks back a paw packing five, seven inch blades. Pinkie Pie sees her life flash before her eyes. A red flash blinks behind the bear and the bear roars in pain. It turns around and receives a second blast of red magic directly to the face.

"You've gone and pissed me off!" Shade snarls and charges at the beast.

Pinkie Pie watches with shock and awe as Shade goes claw to hoof with the beast. Shade punches and kicks the bear, dodging his swipes, occasionally blasting him with a torrent of magic. The bear swings down a paw and Shade blocks the attack with her forehooves. She sees too late its other paw and gasps as the claws stab into her side with a sickening sound. Pinkie Pie cries seeing Shade grow limp and being thrown to the ground. The bear locks its hungry eyes onto the pink filly pressing up against a tree.

The bear lumbers toward the easier prey. The white filly gives him a good thrashing and he will certainly feel the punches for weeks to come, but for now, he will feel a full belly. A flash of red from behind alarms the bear. Spinning around, he sees a frightening monster.

"I. Am. Not. Done. With. You." Shade speaks with a dark voice and her eyes bleed to red.

She undergoes a drastic transformation: she is the size of Princess Celestia; wields three, three foot long horns; has black, flamelike mane and tail; the wings and tail of a dragon; cloven hooves like a centaur; a slightly reddish pink coat which match her draconic parts; and finally, a fiery crown of flames rests between her horns. She lowers her head and her horns alight with a red glow that bubbles black, which charges for a second before blasting the bear, leaving a clean swath of annihilation in the ground and trunks of surviving trees.

"Shade" walks over to a quivering Pinkie Pie, leaving smoldering holes in the grass. A sigh escapes Shade and her transformation disappears in a flash of white. Shade smiles weakly at Pinkie Pie.

"That's new," Shade cracks and collapses in a pool of her orange blood.

Pinkie Pie is at a lost for words and breaks away from the tree. It seems to her that Shade and DB are hiding a dark secret.