//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - The Meeting. // Story: The Red Dusk // by Barony //------------------------------// "I would like to start this meeting by saying that the concept of allowing that... monster run free in our palace is absurd and asinine." Blueblood sits at his side of the meeting table in the sitting room with a stern, authoritative face on. All other 4 faces were scrunched up in outright disgust in what the unicorn had to say. The three princesses and the captain of the guard were the only faces other than Blueblood in the room at the time. "Duke, musteth thou be so rude and inconsiderate?" Luna frowned at Blueblood, who just pointed his muzzle into the air with his eyes closed, a typical move by self righteous nobles. A sigh escapes the muzzle of both Celestia and Shining Armor. "Blueblood, we are here to civilly talk about Red and how we can deal with him, not imprison him again or kill him." Blueblood lowers his head, looking at Celestia with a scowl. "That beast deserves nothing more than a good stabbing and burning of his corpse. He does not deserve any mercy, even if it comes from a sympathetic god." he growls, still sitting in his seat surprisingly. Cadance and an armored Shining Armor give eachother looks as the conversation continues. "Im still surprised nopony has seen the thing. I would have expected a pegasus flying by the palace walls to be able to see a six foot tall alicorn through the glass, let alone just as a silhouette." Blueblood continues, putting his muzzle back into the air to signify the ending of his rant. Celestia cleared her throat, shaking her head softly, Luna doing the same while stirring a cup of coffee right infront of her on the table. "Another meeting ruined by the simple rudeness of Blueblood." Celestia mutters under her breath, rubbing her eyes with a hoof. "Anyway. This meeting, as we all know, will be for the discussion of how we will deal with Red Dusk. Blueblood is here because he is a liaison to the nobles, Shining Armor is here because he's the captain of the royal guard, and us for obvious reasons." she gestures to herself, Luna, and Cadance. "Firstly, we need to find out how to reveal him to the public quick and efficiently." Celestia states, putting a hoof up to clarify. "What about in a cage?" Blueblood boldly suggests, Celestia puffing in sheer annoyance. "No, thats not what I was looking for Blueblood. Anypony else?" Shining Armor puts his hoof up, which made Celestia smile. Atleast Shining had a sense of decency when it came to Red. "What about we let him go out into the town himself?" Shining Armor says, Celestia shaking her head and looking out the only window of the room. It was a sitting room that looked out to downtown and overlooked one of the major streets of Canterlot. There were ponies walking around peacefully, doing their business, the occasional nobles walking around all self righteously, and some carriages going through the streets, full of whatever cargo they possessed. They were all at ease, all having their own agenda. However, if she threw Red Dusk out there... "No. As much as that sounds conveniently the best option, do realize that these are regular ponies. They get scared easily and after Red Dusk gets into the public eye, there will be a panic and then the press get into the equation. Everything I would have planned for him would be vaporized into metaphorical ashes and smoke." Celestia explains, Shining's ears drooping down. "Oh, right." Shining Armor deadpans, putting a knee on the table to support his head. "Cadance?" The Princess of Love seems to give a little jolt, saving some of her tea from pouring out from her little action. She blushes, obviously having been surprised. "Sorry, just thought you'd ask Princess Luna next and I had nothing on my mind." She apologizes to Celestia, who nods in forgiveness. "Alright, let me think..." she trails off as she pats her chin with the tip of her hoof, her muzzle pointed up as she thought. An idea comes to mind and she looks over at Celestia with a c-shaped smile. "Why dont we introduce him at the Gala? Its coming up in like, a week. Next Friday, actually." Celestia gives an "Hm." of interest while the others look at Cadance. "Why the Gala, exactly?" Shining Armor asks, Cadance smiling and tilting her head as she turned her head at Shining. "Well, we wont have to prepare much, for its already a planned event. All we need to do is do some event changing in the party's schedule, maybe some tweaking to the preparations, and then ta-daa! Instant representation." Shining Armor puts a hoof to his chin while Celestia and Luna nod their approval. Cadance smiles more, making a motion of her hoof clamping back down on its own leg as a sign of "Aw, you guys flatter me.". Meanwhile Shining Armor gets an idea. "Your Majesty, should we put extra guards on duty and lock the doors in the ballroom when he's revealed?" he asks, getting a weird look from Celestia. The alabaster alicorn turns her entire body to look at the captain, tilting her head. "Why are you asking this?" she inquires, the captain putting a hoof up as he speaks. "Well, when he's revealed, we probably want him to interact with the ponies. So why not lock the doors and force interaction with him so that they could see who he really is, which we dont really know yet." Celestia looks at him blankly, staring off into space as she thinks. Her lips seem to zoom around to where they can move as a fidgeting gesture. She slowly begins to nod. "Im reluctant to do that, but it seems that maybe we'll have better results from that. If worse comes to worse, a mob of scared ponies will knock the doors down and probably get somepony trampled. But yet again, it may be worth the risk." Celestia says, her head turning to Luna. "Ideas, dear Sister?" Luna shakes her head, pointing at Shining Armor with a silver clad hoof. "We believe that the captain's idea is most adequate." she says plainly, Celestia giving a little chuckle, looking back at how fast they got around to dealing with Red's reveal. But that left the meeting to end quite prematurely, way before Celestia ever thought it would end. There just wasnt that much to talk about Red, and Shining, even Blueblood, have taken the initiative to keep the knowledge of him being out wrapped in the castle. Shining bolstered patrols around the palace and prohibited civilians from entering certain areas of the castle to prevent any confrontations between Red and unsuspecting civilians. Meanwhile, Blueblood had the decency to convince the nobles of Canterlot not to attend the day courts at certain times and days. Only Celestia's mother knows how he convinced them without much difficulty, but the important thing was that he was able to efficiently change up schedules, aswell as persuade nobles to not go to the palace at certain times. Now all that was left was to begin his reeducation on the world around him, aswell as the education of the ways of harmony and friendship to him. The problem was was that she would be preoccupied with dealing with two students, one of them a male alicorn who just came out of a freeze and will come with obvious frustrations because of his background. The ponies all sitting around sat there, looking at Celestia. She'd think of it later, she thought. "I would assume this sums up our rather unexpectedly short meeting. I bid you farewell, everypony, for I have work to do and you all too." she dismisses the meeting, nods coming from them and all of them getting up towards the door. Shining Armor was the last one off of his cushion, walking in his armor towards the door. Something ticked in her mind as she looked at the armor, then realized the fact he was a soldier and a male. "Captain?" Celestia calls after Shining. He turns his head to look at her with an attentive face, an ear twitching. "Yes, Your Majesty?" he asks, wheeling his body around to look at Celestia firmly. She looks left to right, with a scrunched up muzzle, and then looks back at him. "I want you to be Red Dusk's friend." Shining immediately gives out a nervous aura as he shakes. "Why me?" Celestia gives an unamused face at Shining, continuing. "You're making it sound like you are going to be brutally tortured, but you are far, far from the truth. I want you to be his friend for the simple reason that he need's a friend, a stallion to hang out with and have fun with, one who will support him. It will help him in his education, while also repairing his fractured mind to a healthy one, and you could get him accustomed to the era, the world we live in now." Celestia explains, all of this flowing like a river into Shining Armor's ears. For some reason, he felt less nervous about this. What can really go wrong? Shining contemplated this, the feeling of sympathy returning to him from the cavern. The poor guy has no friends, is probably really terrified, but not showing it, of his situation, and needs a shoulder to cry on apart from Princess Luna who's sort of in the same situation, only she's halfway through it probably. Sighing, Shining looks at Celestia with a dedicated look. "I'll do it." Shining Armor peeked into the doorway of a guest bedroom. A particular bedroom, for it was in temporary ownership of Red Dusk. He peeked in, no armor on, to find an alicorn sitting by the window and blankly staring out of it into the sky. His red friend here was obviously in deep thought, for he had not moved at all since Shining had decided to poke his head in. The unicorn looked all over the room that was lit by the afternoon light, spying the armor stand carrying both his suit of chainmail and his plate armor, not to forget his strange looking helmet. He looked around more to find a plate and an empty glass right by the crimson stallion. It was at that moment that Shining saw Red's tail beginning to wag while the alicorn chuckled. "Disturbing." Shining Armor quietly mumbled to himself. Now that he thought of disturbing, he realizes that he is spying on the poor fellow. He had not made any sound that Red was able to hear or hint that he was right by the door way, watching this possibly schizophrenic thousand year old Nightmare Moon fanatic do whatever he was doing by a window from the guy's door way. Shining's thoughts are cut off as the crimson stallion's head turns slowly to meet the eyes of Shining. Shining is horrified, his face showing it for a split second before a half smile replaces it. Red seemed confused, however, at Shining being there. "Greetings....?" Red greeted the newcomer, tilting his head as he did not know the name of the unicorn stallion. Shining nervously waved with a hoof, looking to the side. "Shining Armor... Captain Shining Armor. You might have seen me yesterday when you woke up." Shining Armor nervously put a foot down, looking up at the host of the room. Red Dusk nodded, prompting Shining Armor's legs to begin moving. He walks right towards Red, sitting down by him with a space of a foot between them. The alicorn turned his head back out the window, blinking as he watched outside into the palace grounds. The sun shone from the right side of the window, illuminating the right side of the alicorn's face and giving a better view of his features on the side of his face. His facial fur was short but thick and compacted. His slightly lighter crimson mane was almost the same way: short and thick, but still possessing alittle height. His ears were big and long, while his horn was obviously bigger then Shining's, topped off with a sharp point. The muzzle that he possessed was broad and square, his muzzle ending with sharp corners. His eyes were blood red, conforming with his bodies colors. Everything on him was pretty much red. His tail was like his mane, just short and thick. His body structure was lean, but Shining knew there was power in those legs of his. Raw strength that could snap a pony's neck like his as if it were a twig. His wings were the same thing as the rest of his body, large and lean. All in all, this alicorn was meant to be an intimidating and effective foe in battle. As Shining sat observing the stallion next to him, the alicorn turns his head to look down at Shining. Shining takes a nervous gulp of spit as he looks upon the face of Red Dusk. "Pray tell, why are you here, Captain?" Red Dusk inquires, a suspicious tone having entered his voice. "Just to... Talk." Shining nervously answers, giving a slight smile. The alicorn is only slightly amused, but he does crack somewhat of a smile. A very tiny one infact. "Very well, what shall we talk about? My entrance to this world? How I will be accepted?" Red looks back out of the window, waiting for an answer. Shining looked to the suit of armor on the stand, then back at Red. "Lets not talk about that stuff right now, Red." Red Dusk looks at Shining, cocking an eyebrow. "Red?" the alicorn asks, Shining breaking a sweat in nervousness, waiting for something to happen. Only for the stallion next to him chuckle. "That is acceptable. Heh, Red." the crimson stallion chuckled again, looking back at the unicorn, who was ready to respond immediately. "What about your armor? How did you get it?" Shining asks, pointing at the stand with the old, faded armor on it. Red turns his head around and tilts his head at it, smiling as he looked back at Shining. "Alright, sit tight then, my good fellow, for I will take you on a very short story of adventures in trial and error."