From the Outside In

by DarkParable

Chapter Twenty-Two: Phantasms and Shadows

Red heaved a soft sigh as he stretched out on a cloud and watched the clear blue sky above him. It had been a couple days since his date with Twilight, and honestly he couldn't remember ever feeling as happy as he did that night. Not even finding himself in Equestria had compared with the calm, quiet, and comfort he'd found snuggle up to his... Well, his marefriend. It was official, and agreed on both sides, that they were indeed dating now. A fact that both pleased and frightened the young human turned pegasus. This was the first and only relationship he'd ever been in, and while he couldn't imagine anyone he'd rather be dating, he was mortified that he'd bugger something up eventually. It helped matters that Twilight was in much the same boat, unsure and apt to tip-hoof it until they were both more sure of what to do. It was no surprise that they'd agreed to take things slow, despite their friends' jokes about planning the wedding already.

At the moment however, that was neither here nor there. Twilight, and the rest of the element bearers, had been called off to somewheres for some reason. Red hadn't been told too much, despite his asking, he just knew that they'd be gone for a couple days at the least. He was pretty sure he'd caught mention of some big test in Twi's ramblings so he figured that had something to do with all of them going. Even if he'd be missing them he didn't want to get in the way so he'd stayed behind. Not much else he could do really, save his job or read.

Speaking of which he heaved himself over the edge of his cloud and let himself free fall for a few moments before snapping his wings open and pulling out of a dive that would have made Rainbow proud, even going so far as to let a patch of tall grass tickle his belly as he buzzed the earth. Daredevil impulse quelled for the millennia he got back skyward and set about gathering up cloud cover and ferrying it to a predesignated area. It was supposed to be a cloudy day, a break from the summer heat, so who was he to argue?

After a few hours of shoving clouds hither and thither he landed for the day and trotted his tired self home for a well earned nap, oblivious to the large blank white eyes watching him from the cover of some conveniently placed cardboard bushes... Now who do you suppose put those there?

---

Red awoke with a loud yawn, jaw popping quietly in protest at being stretched so wide. A quiet hiss and soft wince of pain from that pop later he snapped his muzzle shut and slipped off his bed, blinking sleep from his eyes. He ambled his way into his kitchen, pulled down a loaf of bread, dug about in his pantry for the jar of apple butter that AJ had given him when they'd left, and proceeded to make himself a sammich. Say what one will, apple butter was a perfectly suitable filling for a sandwich and he'd happily defend that to anypony who said otherwise.

After he ate he glanced up at his wall clock and sighed... It was only a little after four in the afternoon. So much for a nap to kill time, he'd only wasted an hour in sleep's dark embrace. Shaking his head he cast about for something, anything to do really, and his eyes settled upon his staff. Shrugging he retrieved it from the umbrella bucket he'd placed it in near the door and headed outside to derp about with it.

Now Red was, to a fault, a peace-loving fellow but that didn't preclude him from having taken a couple self defence classes in his human life. He'd never been much into it, the very idea of hurting another living thing had turned his stomach, but it was a decent way of getting into shape and helping to deal with anger issues. Meditation and the like was a part of what he'd learned, what little that was however. He'd never gotten above a yellow striped belt. That said, he still remembered a bit of what he'd been taught and so he took it upon himself to see just how much he really remembered.

He settled down in his front yard, stretching a bit and limbering up before he reared up onto his hind legs and flared his wings for balance. He held the staff before himself in both his forehooves, perfectly parallel to the earth. His hind legs were spread in a sturdy approximation of a horse stance, a fact that brought a slightly amused smile to his face. A pony in horse stance... Now he'd seen everything.

He remained that way for a little while, his breathing slow and his eyes closed, as he worked through his memories to make sure he'd get this right. After a few minutes he began to move, slowly and deliberately. His eyes remained closed as he worked through the basic kata, long dormant mussel memory slowly coming back to life as he allowed himself to slip off into the simple pleasure of putting his body in motion. Motion that was slowly gaining speed and a certain... Fierceness.

In his minds eye he found himself surrounded by diamond dogs. Their baying and howling creating a cacophony of blood lust directed at the pony in their midst as the brandished crude swords and spears. As he worked through the kata for the third time he deviated from the set, switching to something much more free form, fighting a true and apparently violent battle against phantom foes. A dog charged him, blade swinging in in a vicious upward arc to disembowel him. Red pivoted, his staff lashing out to crack sharply against that dog's wrist and shatter the bones. A quick motion tucked the staff against his side for a heartbeat before he jabbed forward driving, driving the butt of his weapon into the shocked and maimed dog's throat to crush his windpipe.

Two charged him this time, swords sweeping in from either side to take his head from his shoulders. Red bent backwards like a reed, wings flaring to keep his balance as the phantom blades passed within a hair's breadth of his muzzle. Like a striking snake he snapped forward suddenly, driving his own weapon forward with his hooves at the center, allowing either end to impact with the unarmed bellies of the dogs. Winded the two fell back, gasping for breath as the air was driven from their lungs. One fell to the earth as a solid thwack echoed through the field, a blow to the temple taking him from the fight. His packmate received a blow to the shoulder, the weight behind that vicious strike snapping the collar bone and rendering it's sword arm useless. It wisely turned tail and fled.

The final dog approached him cautiously, spear pointed and held in an expert grip as the dog took stock of it's opponent. Red simply waited calmly for the dog to make the first move, and his patience was given no chance to wear thin. The dog jabbed at his midriff, only to pull the spear back and redirect the strike at Red's neck instead. Twisting and giving his staff a twirl he swatted the thrust aside and slipped under the haft of the spear as he brought his staff around for a few solid blows to the dog's knees. He worked the weapon with a fury, sharp blows climbing their way up the dog before a final blow came down upon it's skull with bone shattering force. Red had lept and brought the staff down on the reeling down with all the power he could put behind the blow. He could almost swear he felt the the dog's skull crack open like and egg ever as its head was driven ever so slightly closer to its chest cavity.

Panting softly from his efforts Red opened his eyes, eyes that had both gone red as blood, and planted the butt of his staff against the earth, leaning gently on it as he caught his breath. When he had he looked at his hooves, disgusted with himself for conjuring up something like that just to get some exercise. He was no warrior, no. He was just a simple weather pony who used to be a member of one of the most warlike species to ever exist. Sighing a bit he let himself drop to all fours once again and turned to carry his staff back inside and get a shower. This became somewhat difficult when he ran face first into a tall shadow, a shadow who's milky white eyes stared down into the once again mismatched orbs of a startled Pegasus...

Author's Note:

Been awhile has it not? Well that it has I suppose. With this we begin to move into the next arc of this story. An arc that will show us more of Red's other side and that sometimes one of the worst things we can hope to face is our own image...

Comments

[DarkParable]

Sorry for the long wait on the newest chapter for this my dear readers. I've been quite busy and been splitting my time between planning the events of this next arc, school work, job hunting, and my other fics. While I've been able to crank out a few chapters of MotW and most recently FFaMN this is because I'd already had the events of those chapters planned out and roughed. What was published were the edited (by me so sorry if they're not perfect) and "finished" versions. As always, any mistakes you catch that I didn't will be fixed once I'm made aware of them. Those who do point out things like that are always appreciated and I can't thank you enough for helping me to keep my writing worth reading.

To all my readers I tip my hat.

Your devoted and slightly crazy teller of tales
-Dark Parable.

[Snowfyre]

few wrong words, only saw two,

melenia isnt a word, and i think you were trying for millennial
muscle instead of mussel, mussel is a type of clam

looking forward to the next chapter, though i may end up rereading this if you have another large break

[DarkParable]

3103573

Thanks, fixing those now then. I swear thats the second time I've used muscle... I guess I'm craving seafood

[Scipio Smith]

A big test...crystal empire? It's been a while so I can't exactly remember when this is set, but it would be interesting if the arrival of the new villain were to disrupt season 3. Just so long as he doesn't ruin Scootaloo's camping trip.

Anyway, glad to see Red's dark side making a return, you really don't like diamond dogs do you?

Are the mane six going to get back in time to witness some of his inner turmoil, or will he manage to sort everything out before they get back?

[DarkParable]

3119445

No, no I am not a fan of D-dogs. Simple reason is I don't like slave based culture, I find it to be completely abhorrent. Robbing someone of basic freedoms just... Well it bout makes me wanna pull a pissed of Twi and burst into flames. As for the timeline of this story, I never truly set it befor this chapter, but yes it is indeed now moving into the events of S3.

Will Red work things out? Hmm... You'll have to wait and see like everyone else my friend Though I suppose I can offer a little hint... It won't be the Red that everyone knows and cares for that they come home to.