The Red Dusk

by Barony

Chapter 16 - Receiver

A bright, brilliant Sun bore down on the Equestrian Grasslands, heating everything up, only for the temperatures to be slightly cooled by blowing winds.

In particular, the lands around the small, cozy town of Ponyville had a sort of golden glow. Farmers, including the Apple Family, went out to work in the seventy eight degree heat.

For the farmers, this meant spring was finally beginning to subside. Summer was on its way.

However, for Twilight, who was waiting outside the door of Fluttershy, trying to think of what to say to her, this meant a high electric bill from the power company for AC costs.

The unicorn's hoof pops up infront of her face, wiping off a bead of sweat. There are two ways Fluttershy could react.

One, and most likely, Fluttershy will become a puddle of herself or do some other thing signifying she is not up for it.

Two, and most unlikely, is that Fluttershy will be, at best, nervous but happy to be given such a duty. She hopes its number two, because Twilight has no need for Red in her library.

She once again gets her hoof, sighing before knocking on the door three times.

"Coming!" a quiet voice can be heard, followed by petite hoofstep noises. Twilight breathes in through her nose, she is ready for it.

The door opens to reveal a butter colored pegasus with a flowing, pink mane. Fluttershy, a petite, shy pony, stood with a smile on her face as she looked at Twilight.

"Oh, good morning, Twilight! What are you doing here?" the pegasus inquires, Twilight rubbing her leg with a hoof.

"We need to talk." The unicorn says in a serious voice, and the impact was visible on Fluttershy. She frowned, sidestepping to allow Twilight to march in.

The door closes behind Twilight, and immediately, Twilight lays out whats going on in a simple, blunt statement.

"Red Dusk is coming to town and Princess Celestia wants you to let him live with you." Fluttershy freezes, halfway to the couch. She steps back.

"W-wha? To P-p-p---"

"Ponyville, yes. Infact, here." Twilight slips over the same letter from Celestia, the parchment flies right up to Fluttershy's face, who recoils back, flustered.

She reads it, visibly shaking as she gets to the end.

"Princess Celestia expects a response from us within the week. I have given typewritten letters to the girls."

"W-why not a meeting? Why are you talking to just me?" Fluttershy's ears pin to the sides of her head, she was feeling the pressure.

"Because I think that this will simplify things instead of potentially arguing over who will get Red to live with who." Twilight says, staying absolutely still as Fluttershy rubs her mane, a nervous face on.

"Are you okay with this?" Fluttershy asks Twilight, who looks to the side, out a window. She contemplatively sighs.

"Yes, but I'm just as nervous as you. I dont know what will happen, neither one of us will, but I think it is for the best that we do this." Fluttershy thinks for a second, before slowly nodding, her head slowly tilting down.

"I guess..." The shy pegasus whispers, her friend walking over to pat her on the back.

"It'll be fine, Fluttershy. Just, ready yourself. I need to go back to the library to clean it up." The butter colored pony looks up, and at this point, at the corner of her eye, Twilight spies a rather pissed Angel in the back, tapping his foot against the floor he stood on. Twilight only chuckles nervously, grinning sheepishly.

"I thought the library was clean?"

"We haven't cleaned in a while. Soooo, there are a little bit of dust bunnies floating around." Twilight responds, still with her sheepish grin. Fluttershy takes it, giving a cute smile, which Twilight takes as her cue to get out.

"Well, I guess its time I leave now. Bye, Fluttershy!" Twilight waves, Flutters waving back before the unicorn wheels around, heading out the door.

It opens with a small creak, coasting closed as the lavender unicorn walks past it. It closes with a click.

Fluttershy hangs her head dejectedly. The next two months are going to be long, she thought as she walks towards her kitchen to prepare herself and her animals lunch.

---

A day after, in Canterlot, ponies were busy, out doing their work for the day.

One of these ponies was a focused Red, feeling the heat.

Red was hard at work maintaining his suit of armor, which sat on an armor stand on the small room he commandeered days before.

His job was to finally put some straps on his helmet. He had to pay a few bits and they were cheap, but they should do. Right beside him lay a small furnace that he managed to get for a few bits.

It was cracked and was falling apart but it was better than nothing. He could use it to temper his plates and treat them for desired properties.

He fumbled with the straps, putting them through the loop in side the large helmet, before a voice came into his mind.

"Sssooo... What are you going to do at Ponyville?" a curious Nightmare Moon asks, just as an ember flies from the fire and lands in Red's mane. He extinguishes it with a hoof.

"I have not planned on doing anything as of yet, Your Excellency." he whispers, getting the strap through the loop finally. It had a pair of rings on the end of it, and it will serve to be fastened, through magic, to another strap that he will have to put on using magic, since it would be out of reach of his hooves.

"I would advise planning now." The Nightmare says, some mist physically coming out of his ear, a chilling feeling, and floating right infront of his eyes, shielding what he was doing from them. The mist materializes an area of it, the head, into the head of Nightmare Moon.

"I am busy. Would you appreciate it if my armor fell off during battle, should there ever be a situation?" he asks in a serious tone.

"Ofcourse not!" The mist smiles, the 'tail' of it extending to smoothly trail down Red's cheek and off his chin. He shudders, the feeling like cold, humid air.

"I just dont want US to be left without a plan when we get there!" The mist only bares her teeth, the knight looking to the side sadly.

"I cannot formulate a plan without adequate knowledge of the area. I do know that the one I may be assigned to lives directly next to the Everfree forest." The mist jerks in place, a newly materialized hoof stretching from the main clump and rubbing her chin. It flies off her chin a second later.

" Eureka! You find a poison and when you finally perfect it, when you go back here in Canterlot and poison Celestia's tea. Just make sure to flavor it correctly and you'll be golden." Red Dusk puckers out his lip, as the mist moves out of his way finally and he see's his work. It was finished.

Right next to it was a band of copper plating that ran along the contours of the helmet, all the way to a large, square plate at the flat top of the helmet, where it surrounded his horn hole. Conducted additional magical energy from a place in the armor suit to his horn, which was connected to the helmet by ways of connectable, copper wire. All magically treated to do this task, ofcourse.

"Still however, we are not sure what we shall face down there, what obstacles we will encounter. Aswell as the fact that Celestia is a resilient mare. At best, alot of the basic poisons that have easy to access ingredients that I know of will barely phase her, at best just make her sick to the stomach." Red whispers, noticing some rather badly scratched and tarnished copper at the edge of the helmet.

He must of forgot to replace that tile with a new one. So, he looked around to see some copper. He takes a small, tiny bar of it, hanging it over the fire to wait for it to melt.

" True... " Nightmare Moon acknowledged, nodding.

He pulls it out ten minutes later, to see that in his grasp, which was now akin to a bowl, was glowing liquid. He looks at the fire, nodding. Very hot fire, which is a good fire. How he has not effectively noticed is beyond anyone, but he's oblivious that way, sometimes.

He gets a tile mold made out of molded sand and pours a little bit of molten copper on there. It hisses, smoke blowing across his face as he pours the tiny bit needed on there.

Next, he looks over to his helmet, ripping off the rogue piece of copper. He tosses it to the side, to be melted down later like the others.

Nightmare Moon retreats back into her home, Red's head, as he waits for the copper to solidify, which takes thirty minutes.

He sighs, looking out the window to see a guard passing by. The guard trades a glance with him, and stops.

Red just keeps looking, blinking. Before the guard begins to look left and right.

Then the pegasus waves a little, nodding at a surprised Red who watched the guard quickly begin moving again, out of the vision of his small window.

He retreats further back into his room. He looks at the mold, the copper still red hot. Still not solidified, he thinks, sitting down on his haunches on a cushion.

That one night he had with Luna, he could not believe he literally just passed out asoon as Luna looked away. But he could not keep it up, he was too tired.

But what was odd was that shortly after, he woke up to see Luna had left. But he did feel a weird feeling spot on his cheek. It was slightly damp, and felt oddly tingly when he rubbed it.

He could not compute what it was, but as he was deep in thought, a slipping noise could be heard from the door. He turns his head over to see it was a letter.

Grabbing the letter, Red brings it up to look at it.

It had the stamp of the sun, a five cent stamp. He rolls his eyes, really tired of the blatant, constant promotion of the sun. Why not the moon instead? Its a beautiful celestial body, right?

The letter, first off, had a really weird address. At the top left, it read "Fluttershy; Everfree Edge; Ponyville; Canterlot Federal State."

Second off, the paper felt quite old, yet in a good way. He rubbed the topside of his hoof against the letter to get a nice, natural, textile feeling. He also felt some kind of a solid object in there.

Curious to see what it was, he opens it up with a flick of his magic, overcoming the adhesive with barely any effort. He pulls out the letter, and also takes out a strange, rounded object that was mainly white and had red veins coming from the edge. He presumes it is food, and proceeds to throw it into his mouth.

Instantly, he realizes its a rather hard food, with a minty flavor. He begins to suck on it, as he opens up the folded letter, and begins to read.

---

Dear Red Dusk

My name is Fluttershy, and Im happy to meet you soon this week. I had gotten news from Twilight and although I was nervous, I took the position, because its the right thing to do, right?

We already met at Canterlot, but I don't think you know much about me, do you? I am a pegasus, the bearer of the Element of Kindness, an animal caretaker, and very shy... and is also the pony who made all those animals trample you...

I am really pushing myself to write this letter, I really hope that you are reading this the day after today. I take care of many animals in my cabin at the edge of the Everfree woods, all and any kinds of animals. I think you will like it here, and I hope you come soon.

See you in Ponyville!

Best Wishes, Fluttershy.

P.S: I hope you like peppermint. I slipped it in as a gift. c:

---

Red puts down the letter, spitting out his hard candy to hold it in his magic. He looks at it, blinking, then throws it back in.

There was scribbling in the midde paragraph that he could not effectively read or decipher, but it was probably something insignificant. It seemed to be a very awkward letter for her to write, he could only imagine, but she seemed to have mustered the courage to do such a thing.

He looks over at the mold, and sees that it has cooled. Quickly, he takes out the copper tile...

Which still carries a glob of molten copper that drips down onto the tip of Red's hoof. He screeches, waving his hoof about with a thin trail of smoke coming from his now horribly burned hoof. The glob of copper falls out onto the floor, to be quickly smooshed by Red's magic.

In the moment, he felt anger, for letting his guard down, and at that same moment, a small chuckle from inside his head is heard. He clenches his teeth, primarily on the 'peppermint', which breaks apart under the pressure of his jawline.

He falls onto his haunches for a second, blowing on his hoof. He really needs to get some protection, he thinks to himself, swinging his hoof about. He stops to inspect it closely.

The entire area there was burned, full of soot and it had revealed some bone marrow, which was bleeding and completely burned out. He puts his hoof down on the ground, to feel a ping of pain race through his body.

He's dealt with stuff worse than this, he thinks as he gets up, awkwardly with the pain still in his hoof.

Breathing in through his nose and sighing, the alicorn focuses as he bends the small tile on the bend of where the rejected one used to be. With very little effort, it conforms, and he quickly uses his magic to laser weld the tile onto the steel, which melt and fuses with it.

He also fuses the tile to the others, squinting as the light pierces into his eyes.

He finishes with his welds, and after they dry, he inspects his handiwork, and as he does, he thinks.

Will he be able to maintain his armor or even bring it to Ponyville at all? Celestia would not dare deny him of his armor, it'd be asinine on her part. What will he do over there for two months? Is there truly something over there that he can use in his mission?

He nods to himself after accepting the rather okay, flawed welding job that he did. He gingerly puts the helmet back on the armor rack, to shine in the light from the fire.

"Ofcourse there will be something to do." he reminds himself, sitting back down on his haunches on the cushion and wiping his face with his uninjured hoof. He reminded himself that he had to stay optimistic, if he could, about the next two months.

The Everfree contains many things that may be of use to him in the long run. If he does not find what he is looking for, then he has the worst luck of any pony in the world. One can find almost anything that is organic and deadly within the Everfree Forest should you look long and hard enough.

Hopefully, he will find what he needs over in Ponyville. But time could only tell, he could like it over there, and may develop a nice relationship with the ponies of Ponyville, and have a foothold in establishing relationships with the populace.

Maybe... He looks over at the letter on the work table.

He slips it infront of him with his magic, looking it over again. Behind the letter lay the fire, still burning.

The alicorn only smiles, hopeful.

Author's Note:

You can tell I had a hard time with the title of this chapter.

Also, this week, if I can, I will be dancing around, editting Chapter Two and beginning on Chapter Seventeen.

Incase noone has noticed, I am doing alot of time skips since its obvious that in the story, the plot is going to be stretched between months. I hope you can understand.