//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Settling In 
// Story: Darkside Equestria: Redemption and Resurrection 
// by DarksideEquestria 
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	Applejack checked the time. AJ and her friends always tried to meet up together each week in one place, just to catch up on anything that might have happened and iron-away the stresses of the past few days with some good food, good laughs, and good company. Sometimes they wouldn't get together, if they happened to have a particularly busy week of adventuring, learning lessons about friendship, or wreaking havoc accidentally at Canterlot high society affairs. Some weeks they were just too darn busy to meet, whether it was Cider Season at Sweet Apple Acres or Rarity was called to make a particularly large and short-notice order, sometimes life just got in the way.

Despite these things, all six of the ponies tried their best to make time for themselves to just be themselves in their own company. Applejack grabbed a few new sweets to test with her friends and carefully set them in her saddlebags before heading off to Twilight's arboreal home, the site of this week's get-together.

When she arrived, she barely knocked on the door before Pinkie Pie burst outwards in a cloud of confetti, enthusiastically hugging Applejack and giggling madly. 

"APPLEJACK! Oh I'm so excited, now the party can REALLY begin! Twilight is making some tea, and Fluttershy made some before-the-meal snacks that look SCRUMPTIOUS, and Rarity brought over new design sketches to run past us all! Can you believe she would trust US to look over her designs!? After what happened last time she let us critique her work, it's a huge act of generosity to let us look at the designs at all!"

Applejack laughed heartily. "Well darlin' that would make sense, what with Rarity bein' tha element of Generosity and all. Still, ah suppose it IS rather nice of her to let us look at them."

Pinkie grinned wider. "Let’s go inside, I'm so excited I could just WRIGGLE and SQUIGGLE all the way to Fillydelphia!"
Applejack followed the overly-enthusiastic hopping pink pony into the library, closing the door behind her and checking quick to make sure Pinkie's tight hug hadn't destroyed any of her new recipes. Luckily they had all survived mostly intact, and Applejack couldn't help but smile to herself as she walked in to greet her other four friends.

They were all sitting down at a small table in the center of the room when Applejack joined them; setting out her new deserts much to the joy of the other mares. Everypony laughed and joked around for a while, and one time a joke Twilight told (or rather, attempted to tell; She was reading in a flat monotone out of a book) made Fluttershy laugh so hard and suddenly that tea shot out of her nose and sprayed all over the floor. Wheezing slightly, and thoroughly embarrassed, Fluttershy helped clean up the mess. "I'm so sorry," she said, “the joke really wasn't too funny, but when I looked at you Twi you looked so excited at your joke that I couldn't help but laugh at your expression!" The other five fillies laughed heartily after Fluttershy said this, and Fluttershy giggled quietly the whole time.

As the evening rolled around things at the library began to settle down. Tea-snorting guffaws gave way to quiet chuckles and minor giggling fits, the practical jokes and prankster antics of Rainbow Dash gradually decreased and eventually ceased, and pretty soon each of the six ponies sat in a comfortable armchair as the fire burned low. Spike was serving as a temporary messenger for a noble in Canterlot, a job Celestia herself asked of him and of which he had hardly ceased bragging about to Twilight the entire week before he had set out. Because of this, the house and friends grew quieter and quieter until conversation at long last leaned gently towards the newcomers, two ponies that had entered the citizenry of Ponyville about a month before this very night.

"So Applejack I've been meaning to ask you, how is that Seething Mass guy doing? Has he had any of those crazy fit-things where he starts screaming about "bronies" like he did last week?" Rainbow Dash asked. 

Applejack replied. "Nah he's been doing a lot better. I had him apologize to Derpy Hooves for tha' whole incident, poor thing thought Seething was a'pointing and a'ravin bout her eyes. I don't know what set him off that day, he just seems to pick up the darndest' things! You know we offered him a room in the house but he prefers to sleep out in the barn, woke the whole family up for three nights screaming about somethin' called 'the Internet', and yelling out nonsense like,'For-chan lies' and crazy gibberish like that. Now Granny Smith couldn't hear nothin o'course, but I thought Big Macintosh was goin tah throw Seethin out tha door himself the third night it happened."

Rarity gasped. "My gosh that sounds terrible! Honestly I don't quite know how you stand to have him live so close to you. I mean, I'll be honest he's a nice enough pony but he gives me the creeps. I know I shouldn't judge him so harshly, but the way he stares is quite uncouth! "

Applejack nodded slowly. "Well I don't be'grudge ya none Raritah, he can be quite the hoof-full sometimes. But the lads got a good heart in 'im, and he works hard. Did I tell you what he did when I shown him the barn?

Well Big Mac and Seething Mass and I headed out to that barn behind that first apple field south of our house, you know the one we keep our snow-clearin' plows and old farm equipment we never use? Well we take Seething over there and it's only about a minute oer there by hoof, and as we get nearer an nearer Seething just gets odder and odder, like he can't wait to get there. Now Big Mac didn't like Seething much back then so it just sorta ticked him off, but as soon as we git there Seething rushes forward like he was holding in his excitement and couldn't keep it in any longer. He opens the door to the barn and gallops inside and just sits there, pokin' at some machine from Granny's days, I don't even know what it's good fer. An he just sits there, pokin and proddin this thing and shaking up and down. Pretty soon I realize he's GIGGLING, laughing like Pinkie just told him her funniest joke. "

At this point Pinkie chimed in. "OOOH! The one about the leprechaun!?" Applejack gave Pinkie a somewhat stern look. "oh, right, sorry AJ. " Pinkie said. Applejack continued.

"Anyways, ah tell him that he can tinker with anything but the Snow-plows. Then he says something strange, he says 'Twilight couldn't drive well without magic.' I think he was talking' bout last Winter Wrap Up Twi. I doubt he heard that story bout you round town, so I don't know why he said it. That darn pony just knows things sometimes. Anyways, I tell him he can tinker with any of these machines he wants and he looks at me like I gave him Canterlot as a present. 'Thank you,' he says, ‘you can't imagine how wonderful that is to hear.' I thought he was goin to cry. His coat did that weird color thing like he's done before, ya'll remember how he changes colors sometimes, and he just dives into the machines and starts tearing them apart! Well Big Mac and I took our leave, but when we came the next mornin to fetch him for chores the crazy colt had been up all night fiddlin' with his machine! I can't quite make sense of it all but it looks complicated and he's in the shed working on it almost day and night. After chores."

"Woah, maybe his special talent is machines!” Pinkie chimed in. Rainbow's eyes were ablaze with inspiration. "I wonder if he could make me a ROBOT SUIT!" "Or perhaps an automatic bunny feeder.” Fluttershy mumbled ponderously.
“Well, It’s good to know he’s having a good time and staying out of trouble. He had me pretty worried for a while. He's such a curious pony, but I never could find anything in my studies to connect him to Discord." Twilight pondered for a moment. “You know now that we’re on the subject of our new friends, how is Tor doing, Rarity?”

Rarity blushed a little, then answered Twilight’s question. “Well, he’s just the sweetest thing, really! Since he lost his job he’s been trying to help me out around the house, and it’s adorable how hard he tries to be delicate and graceful! Why, just the other day he asked me if I wanted any help with my projects, and I let him help me by being a model for me! The poor darling turned as red as a tomato but he patiently stood there, wearing the tuxedo I was making, which barely even fit him in the first place! He’s such a large stallion, and then there is all of that steel, you know?”

The other ponies were staring at Rarity, smirking smugly. Rarity didn’t even notice.
“Then there was this time when I was in the middle of a huge project that took the whole day to complete, so the dear asked me if he could do any chores for me while I worked on it. I gave him a list of just a few things that I needed to have done, I didn’t want to overload him after all, and when I was taking a break in the afternoon he was trying to sweep the floor! The darling could barely hold onto the broom, and he was trying so hard too! I suggested he use his magic to hold the broom, but he just got embarrassed and told me that he didn't 'know any practical spells like that...’ so I took it upon myself to teach him some new spells. It was so very fun that I almost forgot about my order! Can you believe that?” Rarity giggled uncontrollably.

It grew very silent as rarity’s raucous giggling slowed down and eventually stopped when she had noticed the other ponies, still smirking as smugly as could be. She touched her mane and face, horrified. “What? What is it? Is there something on my face?”

“You liiiiiiike him!” Pinkie pie teased.
“I do not!” Rarity blushed.
“Yes you do! It’s written all over your face!” Rainbow dash fell on her back and laughed at this.
Then Applejack noogied Rarity with her hoof laughing, “You sure do! Well lookey here, the princess has fallen for the beast!” She joked. Rarity’s mane was messed up pretty badly, and her face fell as she heard Applejack say this. A.J. noticed and apologized quickly, “Gee, I’m awful sorry Rarity. I got caught up in the moment. I didn’t mean to tease you so much. I sure am sorry. Really, honest.”

“But you know, you shouldn’t be afraid to share with us. We are your best friends after all. You can tell us your feelings. WITHOUT the fear of being laughed at.” Twilight chimed in. She turned to the guffawing Rainbow Dash and glared at her. Rainbow Dash went quiet and sunk in her chair a little.

“Yeah, of course you can share with us Rarity! We’re your friends!” Pinkie chimed in.
“This is a safe place Rarity.” Fluttershy helped “Remember when I had that EMBARRASSING accident with my hoof and the pickle jar, and nopony even laughed?” Rainbow Dash remembered this and snickered a little. The other four glared at her and she gave a sheepish grin. 

Fluttershy’s gesture brightened Rarity's face slightly. "Well, you all know how kind he’s been to us... It hurts my feelings a little to hear people make jokes about his appearance. We all know how nice and sweet and funny he can be.” The other ponies nodded their heads in agreement. Tor had shown how good he was under that scary steel exoskeleton to everypony in the room. The friends all looked at each other understandingly. Then Rarity spoke out quietly, “But... I guess I do like him...” and everypony, including Rarity, giggled wildly, like fillies at a slumber party.

“I do feel a bit bad about it though... We all know how much of a crush Spike had on me...” Rarity said with guilt in her voice. "It's really quite obvious how much he likes me, I just don't want to break his heart!"
“I suppose that would be a problem... We’ll just have to be very careful and thoughtful towards Spike until he gets used to the idea...” Added Fluttershy caringly.

“Do you think we should tell him right away?” Asked Rainbow Dash.
“I don’t think so sugarcube. That would make it even more painful for him.” Replied AppleJack.
“Hey, I’m sure it’ll all end up alright!” reassured Pinkie Pie. “Spike is pretty tough, after all!”
“I agree. This may be hard for him, but I think he’ll come to understand some day. Anyways, back to the subject on hoof,” Continued Twilight, “How does Sweetie Belle feel about Tor living with you?”

“She actually hasn’t been over to visit for a while. She probably doesn’t know he’s there. I should probably make a point to tell her about that...” Answered Rarity.

“You probably should. Be sure to take your sister's feelings into consideration. Has Tor only been helping you out around the house? Has he been doing anything else?” Fluttershy quietly carried the conversation.

“Well, sometimes when the dear leaves the boutique, he tells me he’s going out looking for other work. I’m not too sure how well it’s going though... Every afternoon when he returns home, he looks sad and dejected. I think ponies aren’t hiring him. Maybe they think he’ll scare the customers away. If only they knew how nice and not-scary he actually is.”

Twilight reached over and grabbed a book from a shelf. "I did a little reading on those braces and muzzle he wears, and they're called the Royal Decorations. They were designed for criminals." Everypony gasped at the words. "It says here that 'the Royal Decoration is a special restraint for a very special criminal, one whose specific individual crime is so odd or out of the ordinary that the normal laws regarding punishment have no viable application.' Essentially whatever Tor did was completely unprecedented, something about his unique case forced Princess Celestia herself to outline his punishment."

"So Tor did some horrible crime nopony has even thought of before?" Fluttershy cowed. "Well not necessarily. Maybe Tor was accused of a crime, but for some reason Princess Celestia had her doubts about his guiltiness. It says here in Article XII, Section twelve that, 'In cases where the punishment is death or lifetime imprisonment, and there is sufficient cause for doubt by either Princess Luna or Princess Celestia, the sentence may be replaced with a suspension of the sentence. Awaiting further evidence, the accused is Decorated and released once more among the public, the Decorations isolating him or her from their peers and ensuring a more vigilant populace.' so Tor COULD have been falsely-accused, either Luna or Celestia has a good reason to believe he is innocent. "

Rainbow Dash gaped in horror. "So you are telling me that Tor could be completely innocent, but still has to deal with everypony being afraid of him? Do those Decoration things hurt?" Twilight nodded gravely. "Every piece is secured tightly to the bone. It takes a highly trained surgeon just to get them all on without killing the subject, and nopony has near the magical skill to remove them safely except the Princesses. It's an ancient punishment that was used more regularly almost 1500 years ago, back when the Princesses ruled over a far rougher Equestria. I guess the law was forgotten until now. "

“I just got a GREAT idea!!!!” Sang Pinkie Pie. The other five mares stared blankly at Pinkie's abrupt interruption. “What if he were to work at Sugarcube Corner with me? We’ve been looking for another helper and I’d be super excited to see how well he does!”

“But won’t he scare the Cake family away?” Rainbow Dash said.
“No, silly! They’re nice ponies too! Besides, he has a lot of selling points they’d be looking for! Firstly, he’s really strong. We’ve been having to order heavy loads of ingredients lately, and it’s been REALLY REALLY super hard for us! He’s also really good with kids! Have you seen that game the little colts and fillies in Ponyville have been playing with him? It’s hilarious how patient he is with them! But besides that, there have been times when I haven’t been able to babysit for the Cake's, he’d be great at it!”

“But aren’t you scared he’ll crush them? I mean... He’s pretty heavy.” Interjected Rainbow Dash.
“I suppose that is true...” Replied Pinkie Pie.
“But he tries so hard to be as graceful and careful as possible! And besides that, he’s really aware of his surroundings!” Countered Rarity.
“I think he should have a try!” Pinkie continued.
Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash and said, “We ALL think he should be able to at least try, isn’t that right, Rainbow Dash?”

Dash looked slightly panicked, then cooled back down, “Of course! I just want to make sure it's a good idea! I can't believe Princess Celestia would allow that crazy Decoration thing; Tor's too cool for that stuff! He could still be dangerous though, even if he doesn't mean it. I just want to be sure." 

Fluttershy leaned forward in her chair. "Well I think it's just a wonderful idea. "
Applejack leaned forward as well. "Me too. " each pony nodded their agreement, until it circled around to Pinkie Pie again. 
“Then it’s settled!” Pinkie Pie added gleefully and began to bounce around, “We’ll offer Tor a job at Sugarcube Corner!”
Rarity chimed in as well, “I can’t wait to tell him when I get home! I want to see his reaction! He’s been looking so very hard for a job the past few days, after all.”

"Well whatever he did, I hope Tor can find a good life here in Ponyville." and with those words Twilight closed the evening. The ponies all went back home, snug in their beds until the next morning's light.

But not all ponies were safe at home. 

Beneath the moon's ivory light there stood two figures, long shadows reaching graspingly towards the Everfree forest. One figure was a mare, her face indistinguishable in the darkness. She was tall, however, and her legs and back shone white in the moonlight as it glinted off of the pearly hooded cloak she wore. The other figure was a stallion, but where the mare stood proud and straight the stallion listed slightly, his stance that of one constantly off-balance. He too was shrouded. His cloak and hood were the deepest midnight blue and trimmed with fine, though very ancient, golden thread. His tail was a scraggly red thing, twisted and bent like ruined wire, and from beneath the hood two square glass lenses flared with the icy light of the moon as he glanced nervously about. His face was covered in strips of cloth, his identity completely obscured beneath the dusty fabric. On his back, sleeping soundly was a small bundled child. She was covered entirely by the thin white cloth, wrapped in a shroud like an ancient mummy from a Daring Do book. She snuggled into the stallion's mane, warm and cozy beneath the blue fabric of the cloak. The stallion looked nervous, and would randomly lurch to the left or right as if expecting to see someone in the distance watching the strange meeting taking place on the hill.

The tall mare leaned forward and whispered something quietly into the stallion's ears. He straightened slightly, and nodded solemnly before lurching his way towards town. The mare gave one last look before she spread her wings, until now hidden beneath her ivory cloak, and flew towards the city of Canterlot.

Through the quiet streets of Ponyville the stallion and the child passed unnoticed. They traveled through the newer parts of town, closer and closer to Sweet Apple Acres and the more historic streets. Finally they stopped in front of a tall dusty building, windows safe from peeking eyes behind lacy curtains the color of a dusty rose. The house was quiet and solemn, and for some reason seemed to hold the sadness of an abandoned child's toy left to crack and gather dust in a basement. No one had lived there in years, until this night.

The stallion took a deep breath and staggered as quietly as he could up the stairs. Each step let loose a puff of acrid dust as he touched it, but he hardly noticed. Standing in front of the tall grey wooden door, he slowly revealed a skeleton key from deep within the folds of his cloak. Brimming quietly with a burnt-red aura of magic, his horn sparked and the thin key slid into the door. A moment later and the two were inside, and the tall grey wooden door slammed shut suddenly in a caustic cloud of dust. A deep creak echoed through the slumbering town of Ponyville and several fillies and colts rolled over, sudden victims of night terrors. Then the town was quiet once more, silent as the grave.