The Red Dusk

by Barony

Chapter 22 - Brownie

Apple Bloom walked through the central market plaza of Ponyville, a small saddlebag on her back.

She had a nice, small smile on as she trotted forth through the now increasingly thickening groups of ponies at vendors. Vendors who sold things that ranged from cherry tomatoes, cherries, to purple cabbage.

The air was alive with the sound of many ponies conversing between eachother, every pony trying to get a deal, especially at the other side of the market that sold pottery and other, miscellaneous items that were valuable in some way shape or form.

She squeezed through a small group of arguing ponies right beside a glassware stand. The vendor seemed pretty steamed about something, but the filly did not care.

For today, she has money.

More money than usual, infact. Despite her young age, she proved adept at being able to help with a garden with a stallion near the farmhouse.

She was paid around sixty bits for four months of looking over his garden while he went away on tour in the east of Equestria - He was a guard that was sent to the Equestrian-Griffon border due to minor border disputes.

He came back to find that his garden AND his dogs were cared for, albeit with some stains in the rug. However, he discounted that and proceeded to shell out the bits anyway.

After getting through the market, everything was ten times easier for the filly as she galloped towards Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie's place!

She slowed down immediately as she got close, a mare jumping back and looking at her walk to the doors.

"Sorry!" the filly says with a smile at the mare, who shakes her head, smiling at her and walking away.

She looks back infront of her to see where she was going, bounding up the steps to the door.

Pushing it open, she walks inside, going around a stallion who ate a brownie at one of the tables by the door. Looking around, the place was surprisingly not as packed as she initially thought.

She expected for there to be more ponies going about inside, but she just took it at face value: She won't have to wait in line for as long. She bounded over to the counter, a smiling Pinkie manning it from behind.

"Oh, hiya Applebloom! How are you doin'?" she said in her usual enthusiastic voice.

"Ah'm doin' just fine, Pinkie! Can Ah get a brownie, please?" she says with a smile, the party pony's face brightening up as she gasps.

"Wow! A brownie! Who would have known that we just made a new batch!Abso-loopy-lutely, one brownie coming right up!" The pink pony bounced away, leaving Applebloom to rub her mane. That wasn't the best scene of the throw in of another word into some other word unnecessarily but there is more likely worse times.

Pinkie came back relatively quick, laying a small brownie right there on a small slice of wax paper. Applebloom strains herself to reach it, putting it down somewhere low enough for her, a small stool, while giving Pinkie some bits.

With a giggle, Pinkie takes the money and tosses it into the Cakes' old cash register.

"Have a fabulous day, Applebloom! See you soon!" Pinkie says as Applebloom leaves with the brownie in her mouth, not yet 'properly' bitten and chewed. She waves back, before going out the door.

She could already feel the chocolaty taste attacking her tastebuds, she could feel the sensation!

The sensation of...!

"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

Her eyes burst wide open to see a light blue stallion and a big crowd of ponies clearing out of a street. The stallion sprints towards the door with tears out of his eyes.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" he screams, Applebloom dashing back inside only to let him and a few others in. They pant, some looking out the windows paranoid while the customers already in the shop look at them, confused.

"Whats going on, Corporal Cabochon?" Applebloom overhears a conversation, looking over to see a guard with a terrified expression being talked to by a creme mare. He looks up at her, his ears splayed out over the sides of his head.

"Red...Dusk... Is in Ponyville..." she and some others gasp, including Pinkie, but in her usual happy way.

"HE'S HERE?! Amazing! I can throw a---"

"NO!" the entire crowd says to her, the pink pony crashing into the floor in the middle of a sentence. Another stallion comes up to the counter, the pink mare slightly confused as he looks at her with slightly crazed eyes.

"What's so bad about him? Its not like he's going to do anything to us, he's a nice pony!" her head recoils back away from the stallion as he comes closer, the mare trying to reason. However, he was having none of it.

"No, he isn't, Pinkie! He's a murderer, and a ton of other horrible things. I knew that there would be an early apocalypse, but not this early! Heck, even the guards are scared! You can't deal with this guy, he's a big, bloodthirsty beluga. Look at his past, Pinkie!" he pleaded, the party pony shaking her head.

"No, no... You don't understand!" she said, the stallion about to say something back before the sound of hoofsteps behind her attracts his attention.

"Where did you see him?" a voice comes from behind Pinkie. It was Mr. Cake, and soon after, the sound of shutters being shut and doors being locked in the back could be heard.

"Over in Abbey Street, from the apple orchard! He's following Applejack and that one unicorn from the library, I forget her name..." the stallion, formerly talking to Pinkie, says, his hoof jittering in the air as he tries to think of her name.

"Twilight?" another mare in the crowd suggests, the stallion looking back and nodding.

"Yeah, Twilight. I was just talking with some friends and there he was. I swear to the Sun, he's as big as Celestia and makes me look like a twig! I wouldn't be able to touch him with a ten foot pole even if I imagined it. He's also got this fang thing going on."

The crowd begins to murmur and talk amongst eachother, leaving Applebloom sitting there on her haunches, speechless.

Applejack with Red Dusk. Red Dusk was a big thing when it came to fairy tales. They told of him eating fillies and colt up for dinner. They told of him being a general rude ass. In comparison, Nightmare Moon was albeit rather 'polite' in how she did things, before she went demonic on you in any fairy tale.

'Brush! Don't be a Dusk!' was a popular poster for dentists who were those kinds of ponies to put creepy things on their walls. The poster would usually have this exaggerated silhouette of a grinning Red with yellow teeth and all sorts of holes there.

They absolutely bastardized him, the filly thought, but it's probably true. Celestia is really out of her mind on this one, how does one hope to convert a fanatic?

She grinds her teeth against eachother, before taking a deep breath and eating a piece of the brownie. Still though, she had a frown. Her sister was being forced to deal with this clown. Infact, she wanted to see him for herself.

She ran up to a stool next to a window, scrambling up onto it and putting her hooves on the window sill to look out. Another stallion looked with her, giving her space to see.

The streets were empty. Carts were left out there, fruits and wares of all kinds spilled about. There was even a cart full of paper bags of sugar where one of the bags seemed to have burst after hitting the ground hard.

She scanned the window at different angles to try to see them, but to no avail, the earth pony becoming rather aggravated as time went on. She wanted to know, she was quite anxious.

With the thought of leaving, the moment came around as Twilight's head was seen on the left of Applebloom's vision, along with Applejack. Where was he? Applebloom asked herself that question, before seeing him walk by with him in tow.

As soon as she saw him, an aura blasts her, one of intimidation. The stallion behind her yelps and falls back as he comes into his vision.

He was huge, a giant by all means. His teeth looked just like many posters wanted ponies to believe,with big sharp, apart from the yellow teeth and gum diseases.

His eyes were empty it seemed, or atleast it looked like it. He looked around with some rather unamused eyes. The statue in the square seemed to be a focal point of where he was looking.

The sound of hooves walking over to the window Applebloom was at attracted her attention, the filly looking back to see some mares and stallions clamoring to get a look.

"Look, thats him!"

"Holy Toledo, he's huge!"

"Stand back away from the windows, he'll see you all."

Meanwhile, Red seemed to be talking to the mares up ahead. Applebloom tilted herself in a way to look at the mares, and saw that he was talking to Applejack. However, the sound from the ponies inside of the building and the fact they were inside of a building made it impossible for her to hear what they were saying.

The two mares leave Red, who stood there, looking about. He finally begins to move again, walking over to a cart with a bunch of broken furniture thrown about - it was probably for Rusty Nails, the carpenter down the street.

He picks up a chair, one of the legs dangling as he effortlessly lifts it into the air. He wiggles it, letting the leg wiggle aswell, a smile on his face.

"He's smiling." one of the mares comment, another wave of talking ensuing before it went back to quiet murmurs.

For a few seconds, he played with the faulty chair leg before throwing it behind him, the faulty nail finally letting the leg go and the leg hitting the street. He looks at the leg with slightly surprised eyes, shrugging as he walks away, all dignified like.

He continues to walk about, looking at some stalls that lined the street. One of them, a beer stall, was one of them that was in Red's interest.

He picked up one of the beer bottles, swishing it about, before blankly staring at it for a few seconds. He blinks, looking over at a wall and seeming to throw the bottle.

"Don't you dare. That's my stand!"

"Sweet Celestia!"

He stays still for a second, before wincing like he got pinched. He quickly puts the bottle back, walking away from the stand. He goes back to looking around.

He goes up to another stall, celery stalks piled up in a box, with its neighbors being some tomatoes and yams. He takes a yam, inspecting it, before putting it down.

He wheels around again, proceeding to walk away with nothing to do or see here...

Except Sugar Cube Corner.

He looks over to his right, directly at the window. The filly almost pressing her face recoils back, scrambling to cover while the other ponies do aswell.

His gaze was nothing short of looking down the barrel of a cannon. But a rather un-amused cannon, like he had already dealt with this before. Applebloom noticed this as he wheeled about and walked away to where the two mares were going when they left him behind.

The filly scrambled to watch him more, but by the time she got an orientation to see what he was doing, she only saw a tiny piece of his tail.

She sat there on her haunches, her brownie still nearby to eat, as she contemplated what this meant.

Everyone in Ponyville will probably be at ease because of him, the rascal, and just imagine what else kinds of things that will go on with him around.

She had to get some info on this, she thought to herself as she slapped a cuffed hoof into the other.

It was clear, she was not happy with his presence, what was their to like about him? Unless ofcourse Celestia saw something in there which she doesn't, she was more than incensed that he was here.

She looked over to her brownie, quickly swiping it up and taking a bite, looking out the window tensely, thinking.

Author's Note:

READ

I really apologize.

It was really awkward trying to make this chapter, do mind that it will be edited in the future. I was completely at a loss for ideas for a scene featuring Ponyvillians being scared at Red's appearance,despite how simple it sounds, I wanted it to be special.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Does Red Dusk have a brown coat, and a red mane and eyes?

[Barony]

7999655
Nay, burgundy coat.

[Barony]

8010687 Thanks! I appreciate the feedback!

[Barony]

To everyone reading, I encourage you to comment. It always brings a smile to my face when I see comments, and it also I beneficial to the story itself, feedback helps identify problems that I can iron out.

Thank you for your time!

[Barony]

8045479
"Your PAST sins FORBID you of the right to use the MERCY button"

Or something. On another note, how do you like the story so far?