//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty-Three: Something Happening Here... // Story: From the Outside In // by DarkParable //------------------------------// "It's so good to be home..." muttered Twilight as she strode through her door and into the much beloved scent of old parchment and ink the permeated the library she called home. Sighing softly she sat her saddlebags by their customary spot near the door and made right for her bedroom. Her and her friends had just returned from something she could only term nerve wracking. Tests were one thing, tests that involved saving an entire civilization from an ancient evil king and a solution that had her believing she'd failed right up until the princess had told her otherwise... Yep, nerve wracking about covered it. She was glad Spike had decided to spend some time at Rarity's, gave her an opportunity to relax and be by herself for a bit. Time to think without the background noise of a busy dragon doing his chores. Time she kind of needed to be honest. Seeing Shining Armor and Cadence once again had reminded her just what love could do, and made her wonder if love was what she felt for a certain quiet... and very very red pegasus. Love had quelled an invasion, and now it seems it had saved an empire and finally stopped a tyrant for good... Did she really want to be part of something like that when she didn't know the other half all that well? Sure, she and Red had spent hours and hours discussing things about Red's old home, but what had she learned about her colt friend in truth? Grumbling a bit to herself she flopped onto her bed as these thoughts rolled through her head. That grumbling subsided into half muttered words and phrases as her thoughts seeped out through her voice. A habit she wasn't aware she had. "Well... He's shy and quiet for starters. Seems to know a lot about old pony mythology, or at least some of it. He's brave when he has to be... According to Dash he's pretty hard working when he's given a job to do... Wow... I really don't know anything important about him do I?" she asked herself, or more accurately the pillow she'd dropped over her face to help shut the world out a bit. "Well..." she muttered into the old goose down of her favorite pillow, "I'll just have to ask him next time I see him... Though, why wait? I know where he lives so I could just go see him now!" Normally she'd not be so bold, but... Questions and the potential answers were the ultimate motivator for the purple pelted page-turner. Red's eyes snapped open suddenly as he drew in a sharp breath that immediately broke into a coughing fit. He had no clue where he was now. In fact the last thing he remembered were those blank eyes staring into his own and a sudden explosion of mind blowing pain against the side of his head. Speaking of which, the movement brought on by his coughing made the entire left side of his face throb angrily. He made the mistake of bringing a hoof up to it and lightly touching his cheek only to yelp and jerk his hoof away again the moment he made contact. He'd had the shit beaten out of him enough times to know what a broken jaw felt like... For a moment that brought his old life crashing back into the forefront of his mind along with the phantom pain of a broken and battered body no longer his own. As such it took him a moment to really take stock of his actual list of current hurts. From the top down he took stock, once he could that is. Broken, or at least fractured jaw. A few very loose teeth on that side too. A myriad of bruises along his sides. A very sore tail base, and a few assorted cuts and scrapes. All in all, probably drug along by his tail after he'd been knocked silly by... Whatever it was that hit him. He blinked suddenly, it had finally hit him. Something had knocked him flat and he'd woken up in a strange place he had no memory of what so ever. It was about this time he began to freak out a bit. The sight of a battered and jittery pegasus in hysterics is likely an amusing one, but Red of course wouldn't get to see that. What he could see, all be it faintly, were a few cave walls, some old iron bars, and the faint glow of his staff... Hold a moment, glowing staff... Well whatever had taken him hadn't been smart enough to separate somepony they'd drug off from their weapon... Or they just weren't concerned enough to not leave it with their victim. Either way, Red was grateful for it. A small bit of familiarity in an alien local. A rather dark local if truth be told. He could only see by virtue of the faint shimmering light of his staff, a light the brightened ever so slightly as he drug himself over to the weapon and laid a hoof on it. Cradling the weapon close to himself Red hunkered down a bit and decided to wait until he could move his head without it hurting so badly before attempting to escape from where ever he was. In Red's home a red Pegasus lay sprawled atop his newly claimed bed and smiled to himself, his red eyes flashed a blank white for a moment as he finished adjusting to his new shape. Life was good when taken from another, none knew this better than a 'Ganger....