Pinkie was playing with the Cake babies by popping out from random places in the room, but she was interrupted by her twitching eyes.
“Twitch eyes?” she pondered. “Oooooooo! A new pony is coming to town!” She looked at her back legs. “My hiney legs are jumpy, so the pony is coming to the train station. I better prepare a welcome party!” she cheered and threw confetti into the air. She saw the young foals clapping their hooves happily at the sight. “Um. Maybe I should get them to bed, first.”
With a soothing lullaby, the foals were lulled into sleep. Pinkie carefully tip-toed out of the room and closed the door. She grabbed her ‘Welcome!’ banner and party machine, the contraption still freshly covered in cake and confetti. With the toy in toy, the pink pony jettisoned out of the bakery and towards the train station. The Cakes ignored her, used to her antics by now. She had to hurry or she would miss the newcomer.
A train stopped at the Ponyville train station, letting its passengers out of the locomotive. Some of them carried baggage, with a tiny magenta pegasus having trouble pulling her two massive black suitcases. She took a break and wiped her forehead, panting with fatigue. Seeing an opportunity, a very ‘suave’, white-glinted yellow stallion walked next to her, a grin on his face.
"Perhaps I could assist you with those suitcases?"
"What. No, you--"
"Please, allow me."
Displaying skepticism and a discreet ‘mocking’ face, the pegasus mare moved away from her luggage, inviting the stallion to do as he said. Too many ponies’ surprise, he couldn’t even budge the cases no matter how much he struggled.
His face matted with sweat, he looked to the mare and shouted. “What did you put in these things? Other ponies?”
The mare giggled. “Only the necessary. I had trouble moving them because the wagon has such small corridors.”
The mare kicked the two suitcases with her front hooves, letting them land on her spread wings. She clutched to her body and saluted the flabbergasted stallion with a hoof, smile, and wink, walking away from the station with satisfaction. She stopped further down, apparently expecting someone to come. Her blood-colored eyes caused unease to all who looked at her, causing them to absorb the same feel of an atmosphere drenched in cold and emptiness.
From the corner of the pegasus’ eye came a gray mare with a beehive hairstyle. She calmly approached the waiting pony before talking to her.
“Excuse me, m’am,” she started. “Are you Crimson Gaze?”
“Yes,” the pegasus responded dryly.
“Great. I’m here to how you to your new house. Please, come with me,” the pony invited nervously.
Halfway to the destination, Crimson’s irritated eyes looked to her ‘escort’. “How did you know it was me?” she asked.
“Your...eyes?” the mare trailed off quietly.
Crimson snorted. “Fine. I’ll buy that excuse.”
Crimson didn’t display any form of positive emotion, her eyes always scrutinizing everything around her. The house itself was nothing special. It was near the town library, had two floors, and walls colored a pale vanilla. After receiving her keys, the pegasus looked at the earth pony with a tilted head.
“What is it? Are you bothered by something?” she asked.
“I-it’s just that...I thought that pegasi all went to live in Cloudsdale...u-up there,” the pony explained nervously.
“I don’t care,” Crimson replied. “I don’t like...to go on clouds.” The mare’s eyes squinted with disgust and fear, causing her ‘escort’ to become suspicious.
"Have you ever flown?"
"Yes..."
"Are you afra--?"
The escort sealed her lips when Crimson glared at her. She felt her blood boiling in her veins as if she was about to be taken from the world.
The ‘escort’ bolted out the door, shouting at the new inhabitant of the house.
"ALRIGHTHAVEANICEDAYINYOURNEWHOME!"
“Eugh. Always asking things they’re not supposed to,” Crimson grumbled. “Nosey ponies.”
She opened the doors to her house, threw her luggage across the narrow hallway, and slammed the door behind her.
She could see that her employer had already prepared amenities, such as colorful and massive carpets, and the oh so enormous living room. A beautifully clean, shiny couch in the room spanned the nigh entirety of its walls. The walls were painted sky-blue and had several works of Disirvian art hung onto them.
One depicted a tough pony known as Lenion; ‘Dictator’ of Disirva. Despite being a good willed pony, he was most renown by the Disirvians for wrestling bears that would enter the city and attack its people. He was more proof that the Disirvans were quite the stubborn, tough group of ponies compared to the rest of their kind.
There were slidable ‘win-doors’ leading outside, and one blocking stairs to the second floor that lead to a library built along a white, crescent-moon shaped floor.
The sight of such a large, almost alluring creativity made Gaze want to soar high, all the way to the library. Even as her abnormally large wings, easily a size and a half to her, spread out and she took a few feet off the ground, her serene smile was destroyed by her wings slamming to her sides and she returned to the ground. She grit her teeth angrily.
“Why?!” she bellowed. “Why can other pegasi soar through the skies but I’m too terrified to get away from the ground?!”
A knock on her door flew through her ears like broken glass scraping along a stone road, inciting Gaze’s ire. Storming to the door, the mare almost ripped the door off its hinges when she opened.
“What do you want?” she asked coldly.
“Sorry that I couldn’t find you at the train station,” the pink pony gasped. “I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?”
The pink pony shook Crimson’s foreleg, catching her off guard.
“Crimson Gaze.”
“Cooooool name.” Pinkie pointed at the mare with her forehooves and winked. “I just wanted to welcome you to Ponyville.”
“I don’t care.”
“Awwwww, don’t be like that. Nopony likes party poopers!”
“Not my problem. Leave me alone.”
Crimson Gaze slammed the door shut, blocking Pinkie from entering the house. The pink pony patted her curly mane and started to think.
“Hmmmm. This looks like it’ll take a lot more work to make her smile. Let’s get started.”
Tired and annoyed, Crimson climbed a second set of stairs in the kitchen to a room with a large, comfy bed, easily for for a princess. It was perfectly round and pure white, and rolling around on it was like resting on perfectly soft feathers. She saw that her communications device was sitting in the middle of this bed and grabbed it. A number was attached to it, one that she called, and one that she waited patiently to answer. The other side came in as a crackling voice.
“Yes?” it asked.
“It’s the Red Crow.”
“Ah. Good. I’m glad you reached Ponyville alright. How is your new house? I trust you like the little amenities?”
“Very much so. I am honored that you would gift me such a standard of beauty and size. This must have cost you a fortune, and entices me to perform my own duties with added fervor to pay you back.”
The rough voice chuckled. “No no. No need for that sentiment, my dear. You have rarely ever failed me, and those successes alone were enough to have something as simple as this house be offered and refurbished for your tasks. Consider it to have been built with your own coin.”
Crimson instinctively lowered her head. “Thank you, sir.”
“Hm. The documents pertaining to your mission should be on the study next to your be--”
“Found it.”
“Oh…” The voice seemed disappointed. “A-anyways, are the envelope all there?”
Crimson flipped through them. “There’s only three.”
“Good. One is the mission planning, and the other contains information from our spy in the castle. Guard rotations, entrances, dangers, common folk, and so forth.”
“This will prove extremely useful. I’ll still need to do my own sweeps to make sure all the information is valid.”
“Understandable. I wouldn’t trust you if you didn’t act cautious like this...Actually, now that I think about it, there’s an annoying pink pony that lives where you are. She’s most likely to become troublesome, so dispose of her if you feel it necessary.”
Gaze grumbled. “That wouldn’t work. She’s too energetic and charismatic. It wouldn’t surprise me if the other ponies like her or something.”
“I see. Then do what you feel is right, but don’t let it compromise the mission.”
“Yes, sir.”
“One more thing! Your fridge is empty, but I’ve given you enough money to purchase the necessary foodstuffs. This is one thing I could not prepare for, so have fun with that.”
“I’ll definitely increase my trophy rack,” Crimson promised.
Finally able to lie down on her bed comfortably, the mare noticed a small stereo on one the night tables next to her resting spot. Pulling the drawer underneath it, she saw many discs of classical music and decided to put one in and listen to her favorite style of music. She was going to enjoy this melody of ‘refined tastes’ before getting her food.
Back in the dungeons of Canterlot, Celestia was having a little chat with Farseer. She was waiting for Twilight to stop talking with Psycho, but Farseer suddenly jolting his head upright surprised the princess of the sun who hadn’t seen the stallion move in over a year.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“The Red Crow is here.”
“Red crow?” Celestia wondered.
“I wouldn’t worry about her right now, but she will become a nuisance later on. The Enderland is dark path crossed by the lost, and she has been treading it for almost her entire life.” He looked at Celestia. “I suggest you continue your duties and pretend you didn’t hear this.”
“I was going to do that regardless,” Celestia laughed.
Farseer nodded. “And that is why you’re the princess.”
While walking away from the stallion, Celestia wondered just who the Red Crow was, and knowing Farseer, he wouldn’t tell her even if she asked. His abilities were truly unique, capable of seeing far beyond his actual area of currently secluded space. The princess hoped that he could better serve Equestria when he was allowed out of the dungeon. That being said, Celestia wondered further about this sudden arrival. Why would such a thing happen so close to Psycho’s invasion of dreams? Was it possible that Psycho would be freed? The fear of the two princesses would hopefully never come to fruition until he was rehabilitated, but Celestia didn’t hold her breath, especially since it would mean the same destruction of the city as before.
The sun princess reminisced of the time her foal-sitter had been captured, and the images and sounds of him laughing while being dragged away were still fresh. The sight of him and a Canterlot in flames was a horrific memory, although it was marred by normal flames and those comprised of pastry and glue flickering about. He wasn’t trying to hurt anypony, but whatever gave him these powers didn’t account for him being unable to control them. It was only with the efforts given by the Council and the Council’s Militia; Predecessor of the Royal Guard, managed to capture Psycho by accidentally knocking his hat away when they couldn’t even keep a firm grip on him.
Climbing out of their hiding spots after sneaking out of the castle amidst the confusion, Luna grabbed Psycho’s hat with the best she could do with her magic at the time. She has held it close to her ever since. The crazed stallion did not seem to smile when he was wrapped in a black straightjacket and tied with chains. It’s only when he caught glimpse of the alicorn sisters that he smiled widely again, the edges his mouth almost reaching his eyes. He wanted to give them one last goodbye to Luna, as he had always found her to be the most delicate of the two.
“Don’t worry Woona,” he reassured. “Stay with your sister. Family and fun is important. She’ll watch over you while I’m gone, and that shouldn’t be for long!” He ended his speech with a bellowing, joyful laugh.
The militia pulled on the stallion violently to get him to shut up, but all it did was choke his laughter momentarily before he resumed, laughing past a curtain of smoke and tormenting the citizens of Canterlot for centuries to come. The young Celestia stretched a hoof out despite herself, hoping to hold her foal-sitter’s hoof one last time, but there was no point. She and her sister were found by an unhappy council member, and yet, Celestia couldn’t remember what they looked like.
It was often that the princesses would think about the events at the time and what had happened. Were their memories real? Were they false? What was remembered and what was forgotten? Celestia wiped her forehead and took a deep breath. Her first audience of the day was coming in now.