From the Outside In

by DarkParable

Chapter Twenty-Four: What it is ain't exactly clear...

Red Wyne blinked himself awake slowly, wincing and letting out a hiss as the pain of his injuries came to him in full force once again. The side of his face felt like one giant throbbing mass of fiery stinging nettles. It felt as if he'd fallen into a patch of the stuff. not a pleasant experience to say the least. Once the pain faded back to a dull sickening ache he managed to take another look around his little prison... Cave... Thing.

He found nothing new really, though in the silvery glow of his staff he could make out a distinct lack of anything truly keeping him there. Wincing and letting out a soft groan he hauled his carcass to it's hooves and put it in motion. Every step send a soft twinge of protest along his abused sides, forcing him to lean heavily upon his staff. Despite this, he knew without a doubt that he needed to get back to Ponyville and warn everypony that there was something with weird eyes and rather heavy fists out and about. Something with seemingly no problem in punching the lights out of anypony who caught sight of it... Least he thought he was punched, despite having some vague curiosity as to the number of the bus that floored him.

In his distracted state he failed to notice the dark walls of the cave slowly giving way to a flat grey color as he neared the surface... Or the pair of red beady little eyes watching him in the darkness. He most certainly didn't notice the scrape of scale and feather against the stone either.

---

In Red's home, the impostor was steadily working his way through his new belongings, taking mental notes, and learning anything he could to supplement his understanding of his pilfered life's personality. So far he could only say that he'd taken the life of a spartan mythology buff who apparently needed some serious flight lessons if he still had those novice flight manuals. That and apparently he had a thing for a pink pony if he had a shower curtain with a pink pony on it who was always watching.... The false Red just found it to be shudder inducing.

He had his nose buried in the kitchen cabinets when there sounded a knock at the door, a knock that caused the doppelganger to curse as he found himself sporting a new bump on his brain case. Muttering obscenities he made his way to the door and ripped it open with a frustrated little growl.

"What?!" he groused, glaring at the startled lavender colored unicorn standing there with her jaw slack.

"I... Uhh... Red, are you ok? I've never heard you yell before, ever..." Twilight said after a few seconds spent attempting to find her voice in the wake of her shock. To say she was shocked at seeing her special somepony yelling at anypony, let alone her, was an understatement. If she hadn't been so concerned that something was wrong with him she'd likely have scuttled off as quick as she could manage. It wasn't so much the yelling as it was the way his eyes showed a depth of rage at everything around him, rage directed in her direction at the moment.

Even as she watched that rage bled away, replaced by a certain kind of horror, at what she could only assume was yelling at the mare he cared for. Her thoughts seemed confirmed by the way he hung his head and heaved a heavy sigh before apologizing to her.

"I... I'm sorry... I'm ok, it's just been a rather bad morning. Just... If you want to come back later after I get a nap or something I'll be feeling more personable then I bet..." He flashed her a faint smile, playing the "Pity me a bit" card A winning card if the accepting look on Twi's face was any indication.

Leaning foreward she nuzzled him softly and kissed his cheek. "Alright, I hope you feel better soon... If there's anything I can do you'l come get me won't you?" Her question was voiced softly, filled with concern for the stallion she loved... or at least was pretty sure she loved.

The only response she got was a nod before the door closed in her face a great deal more gently than it opened.

---

Luna sat lay upon her bed, unable to sleep and unable to shake the feeling of something wrong going on in the world. She had no real clue as to what it could be. Celestia had told her that nothing threatening had freed itself from tartarus since she'd been banished to the moon. Twilight and her friends had just removed Sombra, and even if he hadn't been destroyed , it'd take longer than a couple days to reform himself. She knew for a fact that nopony had decided to run out of any ingredients for cake... If they had the castle would be rather hot until someone got her royal sun butt something baked and iced, preferably in a Germane chocolate variety.

Sighing a bit she rolled over and contented herself with the thought that at least if anything went down near Ponyville, she'd know right away... That staff she'd given Red would certainly serve to signal her once used... That is if she'd remembered to give the instructions to Red... Oh well, she was sure her little pony could figure it out.

Author's Note:

Well, I'd been planning for a large chapter this time around, but then finals happened. So, this is more or less a bit of stage setting and suspense building. The next update for this story will indeed be a resolution to these problems currently bounding about. Red will be forced to make a choice though, one that will lead to the title making a bit of sense to those who don't really get it yet... I hope. I'll be taking a month to get that chapter right, so look forward to it my dear readers.

Also, while I work on that I'll be doing a friend of mine a little service and getting his wonderful story on youtube, read aloud by your's truly. So, everypony give Scipio Smith a thunderous round of applause, he deserves it for his hard work in producing a great story and for being a wonderful friend to a rather odd pegasus such as myself.

My hat's off to you all, so do stay pony everyone!
-Parable

Comments

[Changeling-Drone]

What is a 'granger?

[DarkParable]

3264637

Auto correct hit me I see... Though I'd disabled that. The word was meant to be "Ganger" which is a short hand phrase for doppelganger.

[Changeling-Drone]

3264858 oh that makes more sense

XURSE YOU AUTO CORRECT

[DarkParable]

3264894 lol

[Scipio Smith]

Holy crap there's two of them?

Watch out Red, if the second one turns out to be the first one's mama you will be in trouble.

I doubt we'll see it, but watching the ganger try to hit on Pinkie Pie would be fun. For us, anyway.

And I'm sure Red appreciates Luna's diligence.

It may only be stage setting and suspence but it's good stage setting and suspense and that's what counts.

Good luck with your finals. It's an attention-demanding period as I recall.

[DarkParable]

3266529

Thanks :3 Finals are over though, They went pretty well, mostly what one would expect from tests and such. As always I'm glad you enjoy what I write and hope I can keep you hooked and waiting for more