"Please, do tell. We have the time." Rarity said in a pleasant tone. The pegasus took a sip of his drink and sat down in a chair in front of them.
"OK, but it's kind of a brutal tale." He cleared his throat and began. "First off, the name is Maroon Comet. The reason that's my name is because my parents said when I was born, a maroon colored comet flew across the sky." He stopped and looked out the window. It was dark outside and there were stars everywhere. He smiled, then continued. "You see, I came from a rather rich family. I lived with my mother, father and my sister. My father and mother were very successful. Until... it happened. The king of this once glorious land, turned on us and began to tax the citizens. He stole almost all of our money. We were loosing a lot. So, my father put me and my sister to work. We worked at a local store as cashiers. We were eating dinner one night when there was a knock at the door. It was the royal guards. They wanted tax money, but we couldn't afford it. My father told us to hide in our room. He said no matter what we hear, don't come out. We could hear talking from downstairs. We heard a loud yelp and we heard our mother scream. Her scream was cut short, and that's when we knew she was..." He stopped and took a deep breath. "The guards walked up to our room and grabbed us. I was just about their size, so I held them off while my sister escaped. I was fighting one of the guards when I looked over and saw the other trying to hit my sister. She struggled to escape his grip. I punched the guard I was fighting and went to help her. He pushed me back to the ground. My sister tried to hit him, but when she did that he hit her up side the head causing her to collapse. I was scared and had no other option. I grabbed the lamp and..." He started to cry. "I had to do it to save my sister. Both of them had to be stopped. I closed my eyes and swung. When I opened them, they were dead. I ran to my sister and check if she was OK. We had to leave, for I knew that there would be more guards. Ever since then, we've been on the run." All of the ponies stayed quiet. They all had tears in there eyes. Twilight spoke up.
"So, where is your sister now?" He looked down and then to the back of the room.
"You see those curtains?" he asked pointing to the red drapes in the back of the room.
"Yeah."
"Well, just go look." he said with a frown. Twilight got up and walked over to the drapes. She took a peek and saw her laying on a bed with candles around her.
"Is she..."
"Dead? No. She's in a deep coma." He said, walking over to his sister. He grabbed a rag and put it over her forehead. "I've been taking care of her for all of these years. I can't afford to put her in a hospital. Plus, the police will find me and throw me in prison. You see Twilight, I steal because I have to. No one believes me that those guards tried to kill us. When they see me, all they see is a thief and crook. She's all I got left. She's the only reason I stay sane." Twilight looked down.
"I know how you feel." She didn't look up. "I have an older brother. He was kidnapped by your king, and now we need to find him before something bad happens." Maroon's ears perked up.
"What did you just say?" She looked up. Maroon's face showed no emotion as he stared at Twilight.
"Your king. He kidnapped my brother so I know how..." She interrupted by Maroon.
"He's back? No. This can't be." He walked over to a book that was sitting on a coffee table. "We got rid of him. There's no way." he said quietly. Twilight looked at him in confusion.
"You didn't know about this? I thought those guards..."
"Those weren't guards." he said sternly. He didn't look at her. He kept flipping pages and starring into the book. "Those were imposters. They trick the new comers into following them and kill them. That's why I had to kill those two earlier."
"Wait, you told us that those guards were unconscious." Rainbow Dash said raising an eyebrow. Maroon let out a slight grunt and looked back at her.
"Well if I told you that I just killed those two, would you have come with me?" Rainbow Dash was going to respond, but didn't. "I thought so." He turned his attention back to the book. "Crap! The page is missing." he said slamming his hooves on the table in frustration. Twilight walked over to him.
"Um... are you OK?" He said nothing and stayed silent for a few moments. He then broke the silence by throwing the book across the room. It hit the wall with a loud thwack, and all the papers flew out. All of the ponies jumped at the sound. He turned to them.
"No, I'm not OK. That pony shouldn't be here. He was defeated years ago. He shouldn't be alive!" He walked over to a closet and opened it. Without looking back, he spoke up. "Twilight, you said he has your brother?"
"Huh, yeah."
"Tell me. Would you kill to save his life?" She stayed silent. He turned his head back to her. "Would you kill to save his life? Yes or no?" He was very short with her. She looked to her friends, who were sitting down and looking at the ground. She took a deep breathe and answered.
"Yes." All of her friends gasped and stared at her. Maroon then let out a small grin.
"Good. Take this." He threw a sword type object to her. "It's an old family weapon." Fluttershy was the first to realize what he was getting at.
"Oh my. You can't be serious. Twilight would never do such a horrible thing." Twilight just looked at the weapon with wide eyes.
"You want to get her brother back? Well, this is the only way. If you don't want to go, by all means, stay here."
"Hold up, sugarcube," Applejack spoke up. "This turned very quickly. Can we have ah' moment to talk this over with Twilight?"
"Sure, but make it quick." he said before leaving the room. They walked over to Twilight, who was still looking at the sword.
"Twilight, are you OK?" Asked Rainbow Dash. She looked up at her friends.
"I... I... I..." She tried to get the words out. "I don't want to do this, but it looks like I have to." She started to cry. Pinkie walked over to her and gave her a hug. She didn't smile. She had a straight face. Twilight looked into her eyes and saw that she was serious.
"Twilight. If you REALLY need to do this, then do it. You need to save Shining Armor at any cost. Even if that means you have to kill. We won't judge you and we will keep this as our little secret." She then did her Pinkie promise.
"Darling if you do this, you may regret some things." Rarity said putting a hoof on her shoulder. "But if you don't, you will regret it. Either way, you can't win. I would go with this crazy pegasus and fight for Shining." She gave her an encourageing smile before giving her a hug.
"OK. I'll do it, but I want you to stay here. I don't want you to get hurt. Plus, you you can watch over his sister to make sure she's OK."
"So you came to an agreement?" Maroon said walking into the room with yet another large weapon.
"Yep. I'm going."
"Wait, where are you going? How will you find him?" asked Rainbow Dash. Twilight thought for a minute before she remembered what Celestia said to her.
"I have a certain magic that will help me find him. I will know where to go, don't worry." Maroon walked over to her and handed her a bag full of supplies.
"Don't worry. I know this place like the back of my hand. We will find him." Twilight smiled and they set off to find her brother. They looked back to give one last wave goodbye to her friends.
"You guys stay safe. We will be back soon!" Twilight yelled back.
"You take care of my sister as well." Maroon yelled back. "Help yourselves to anything in the house." They waved back and closed the door behind them. As they were walking, Maroon looked at Twilight. He could see that she was scared and sad. "Hey." She looked up to him. They stopped walking and looked into each others eyes. "Everything will be OK. Your friends will be fine and we will find your brother. When we find him, I will put that no good king out of his misery for what he did to us, once and for all" He let out a small chuckle. They kept walking walking, until Twilight asked her next question.
"So, do you know how he returned?" Maroon stopped walking and scratched the back of his head.
"Well," he started, "I have read that he could not escape the underworld. I never thought he would return. I mean, we got rid of him years ago..."
"We? What do you mean we?" Twilight said interupting him.
"Huh? I meant we as in the subjects and Celestia." He shook his head. "Look, I don't really know about the past. Let's just go find your brother and get home. OK?" She nodded in agreement. She couldn't help but think that he was hiding something. He didn't seem to be hiding something, but she just had that weird feeling. In fact, she had a even weirder feeling. Her horn started to glow bright. Maroon looked back to her with wide eyes. She couldn't really see anything. Her eyes were filled with a bright blueish light. This only lasted about a minute before her eyes went back to their purple color. Maroon looked at her.
"What was that?" he asked. Twilight rubbed her eyes.
"I know where my brother is!" She said with wide eyes.