[Perspective: False Front]
I can't believe the princess would do this to me. Instead of being able to just send Arrell or whatever his name is back to Ponyville and go on with my life, I have to watch him for 'as long as necessary'. And knowing the princess, that's pretty much a life sentence.
I've only known this guy for a couple of days, yet Princess Celestia thinks I'm the perfect pony to have watch him? Why not have some of the higher-ranking Royal Guards take care of him? They'd keep him in line a lot better. I can't even hope to handle him. Give him an opportunity to do anything annoying, and he pounces on it like a manticore on a young colt.
"You alright there, Miss Front?" I heard a male voice ask to my left. I turned, snapping out of my trance to see...Risk, I think his name was? I only met him just yesterday, and this was the first time we ever had a conversation without other ponies joining in. I was in the guest room Twilight had offered me, unable to sleep through Luna's night. Apparently Risk was having the same problem.
"Just call me False," I replied. "And yes, I'm fine."
"You were zoning out," Risk said. "I've seen Arrell do that. Usually it's because he's trying to remember something, but other times, he's just daydreaming."
I wanted to facehoof, but given the circumstances, it wouldn't look very professional. I settled for just an irritated sigh. "Of course somepony like him would spend his time daydreaming," I grumbled. Risk raised an eyebrow.
"What's eating you?" he asked, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice. "What did Arrell ever do to you?"
I could tell I wasn't getting off on the right hoof with this guy. He seemed to think I knew more than he did, or was a threat to his friend. Really? Arrell is a Celestia-damn Windigo. If I even wanted to hurt him, I'd be dead before I got a chance to try.
"He annoys me," I said simply. "He never shuts up, he's always making dumb jokes, and he doesn't leave anypony alone. Almost every time I turn around, he's behind me. It's like he's stalking me."
Risk relaxed somewhat and closed his eyes. "False...you haven't known him very long, have you?"
"No, I haven't. Why?"
"Arrell is...different." Understatement of the century. "Everything you described about him just now doesn't really fit, does it?"
I glared. "What do you mean, it doesn't fit?"
He opened his eyes. "Think back to when you first met him. Was he at all then like he is now?"
I opened my mouth to say 'of course', but then I thought about it. I recalled my first encounter with the Windigo – finding him passed out, just outside Manehatten. He looked absolutely helpless. When he woke up hours later and we had our first talk, he...did act a bit different than he does now. He was all business, trying to figure stuff out, and tried to avoid saying anything he didn't want to say. But now, it's like he's done a complete one-eighty. It wasn't until the next day he started acting so much more casual, and even then he didn't pick up his entire personality until he was back in Ponyville.
"No," I replied at last. A short and simple answer.
"Think about it," he began. "You've seen two personalities of his. One is carefree, optimistic, and – to be blunt – weird. The other is serious, quiet, and shy." He looked directly at me, and for the first time in my job as a Royal Guard, I felt scared.
"Which do you think is the real Arrell?"
[Perspective: Risk Reward]
I think I managed to talk some sense into False. She's a nice mare, but she gets ticked off a lot easier than she should.
When I asked her that last question about Arrell, she didn't answer. She thought for a moment, not saying anything. She just kept staring at her hooves.
"Let me know once you've figured it out," I said at last, leaving the room. She didn't respond, so I just closed the door and shook my head.
Twilight only had one guest room, so I took the couch and Arrell was...somewhere. Really, that guy just seemed to do whatever he wanted. He always justified it by saying 'Spiderman dot MP4', whatever that means. Probably some kind of human joke.
I checked the clock. Midnight. All three of us should have been asleep, since Arrell was planning to leave tomorrow, but neither False nor I could fall asleep. And I obviously didn't know how Arrell was doing.
Sighing, I decided to make the most of my insomnia and pulled out some books on pony anatomy. I needed to find some way to fix my horn. Twilight said she knew there was some way it could be done, but she couldn't remember exactly how. I took the matter into my own hooves, seeing how she was busy with other things and we would be leaving soon anyway.
After about an hour of reading, I heard one of the upstairs doors creak open. Looking up, I saw Twilight step out of her room. Her mane and tail were messy, so she probably had been sleeping and just woke up. I waved at her.
"Can't sleep?" she asked, obviously knowing the answer. I nodded. "If the couch isn't comfy enough, you can take my room."
"It's not the couch," I said, shaking my head. "I'm just not tired."
She hesitated, but nodded finally. "If you're sure. Say, do you know where Arrell went?"
"I don't think even Arrell knows where Arrell went," I joked. We laughed. "He's probably sleeping somewhere outside so none of us are left without somewhere to sleep."
"Oh, I hope he's okay..." A worried expression overcame Twilight's face. I chuckled.
"Arrell knows how to stay safe. Besides, it's Ponyville. What could happen to him?"
"Ursa Majors, parasprites, timberwolves, gangs of thugs, or the evil within him getting released."
"...now I'm worried too."
[Perspective: Arrell]
I stood facing two doors. They didn't seem to be attached to any walls, but then again, there wasn't anything for them really to be attached to anyway. I was just floating in a white void with them.
The doors were both pure black, to the point where I almost thought they were just holes in this bleak expanse. But they were clearly made of wood, as evidenced by the sound made when I knocked my hoof against them, and they had doorknobs on them.
I looked between the two of them. I felt like I had to choose one, and I had to choose now. Neither door was unique; they both looked and felt the exact same way.
I decided to experiment. I reached for one door and opened it, then let myself float backwards away from it (don't ask how I managed that). Through the door, I saw a sea of red. It looked like blood, but it was swishing around like water.
Through the second door, I saw a similar ocean, but this one was blue. Not as blue as oceans normally are, but rather a darker shade. I looked between the oceans, trying to choose one.
That's when I got another dumb idea. I reached into the red ocean and got my left hoof coated in the red water. When I pulled my hoof out, it actually looked like it was covered in red. Floating over to the blue ocean, I stuck my red hoof inside, hoping for a reaction by mixing the two.
I heard the sound of someone's hoof hitting their forehead, followed by a voice.
"You weren't supposed to do that..."
Suddenly, the blue and red water leaked out from their respective doors, covering me. I tried to swim, but the liquid was like air; I couldn't move in it, yet I couldn't breathe.
"You were supposed to make a choice!" the voice yelled. "You can't always take a third option!"
The now-purple ocean swallowed me up, drowning out the voice, and I blacked out.