The Red Dusk

by Barony

Chapter 4 - Clouded Intrigue

"Twilight?"

"Yes Spike?"

"Letter from the Princess." Twilight puts down the book she was reading on her bed, turning her head to the purple baby dragon that held a rolled up parchment in his tiny claws on the stairs.

The letter had the official stamp of Celestia on the ribbon keeping it rolled up. It was just like all the other letters in its appearance, but it just seemed odd that a letter would come now. Nothing special was happening now, right?

Twilight pushed her book a few inches more away from her using her magic, rolling off her bed onto her hooves to walk to Spike. The dragon held his claw up for Twilight to take the letter using her magic.

With some concentration, a swift movement of magic unwinds the ribbon keeping the letter in a roll, making the letter spring out and show its contents for all to see. In an instant, Twilight's magical aura was surrounding the two curls on either side of the letter, keeping it open as she read to herself.

---

Dear Twilight Sparkle, My Faithful Student

I have dire news that requires your knowledge of the situation due to its relevance to the Gala. About two days ago, on Wednesday afternoon, a group of ponies went to a part of the crystal caverns. They found something that I should have known would have been found. They found Red Dusk, trapped in crystal, which I was responsible for.

The area was secured, and I did release him as an act of mercy. Although things are going sort of well, I feel that I must inform you this because of its importance and that nopony apart from castle guards, the castle nobles, and a few staff knows of him. Anything said about him could start a panic and the press will feast on this like vultures for ages. What we need to do is reveal him in an organized fashion, ergo, we changed up the schedule of the Gala to fit in his revealing and the entire hall has plans drawn out for guards to block the doors.

I recommend coming up to Canterlot to meet him yourself. He is, if not, quite nice and rather reserved. I will tell you more if you come up here, for I cannot fit everything in this single letter. Just, keep this letter for these tips. Be careful around him when talking about Princess Luna, Nightmare Moon, or anything pertaining to his former... services. Although I would like to write more, I have run out of room in this letter and bid you good travels if you choose to come up here.

From, Princess Celestia

---

Twilight's body was a marble statue, standing there stiff legged, mouth agape. Her eyes were a mixture of shock and interest. The letter seemed to shake as Twilight's magic began to quiver from Celestia's letter's effect on the mind of Twilight.

"Twilight?" Spike asked, the unicorn slowly moving her head to look at Spike with a worried face. Spike wore a concerned face aswell, Twilight wheeling around and putting the letter on her bed and getting a paper weight.

Putting the paper weight on top of the parchment, she walks past Spike.

"Spike, stay here, I am getting the girls." Twilight looks at Spike sternly, opening the door of the library with her magic, stopping halfway.

She backs out and closes the door so noone could hear.

"And keep that letter in your sight!" she snaps, Spike stiffening like a stick as the unicorn once again opens the door, only to exit for good this time.

The dragon looks curiously at the letter, then back at the door. He then begins to walk towards the bed, his curiosity pushing him forward.

---

"So Twilight, darling, why are we here?"

Rarity asks her purple friend, who turned her head to look at Spike behind her. He was cradling the letter, albeit with a skeptical face. She slides the letter from her little dragon's arms and right into a position infront of her eyes. She breeze over it one more time, and then floated it over to Rarity.

Rarity was in the middle of the 4 other element bearers, Applejack and Fluttershy to her two sides. Almost immediately, the line sort of dissipated as the ponies got around Rarity, trying to get a view of the writing on the parchment.

As Rarity held it in her magic and read it for a few seconds, she looks from behind the letter.

"She could not be joking! Could she?" Twilight shakes her head, Rarity digging her face back into the letter, reading the rest of it.

The faces of the others all turn to shock and disgust at the thought of this. Red Dusk had embedded himself into legend and while some ponies very much denied his existence, the greater majority believed he was real due to the simple fact that all over Equestria, there were remnants of his "activities".

Rarity puts down the letter, looking at Twilight with a confused face. Applejack and Fluttershy just look at eachother from across their sides of Rarity, while Rainbow Dash and Pinkie sit there, thinking.

"Twilight, Ah'm not one to question the Princess's decisions, but Ah think its official that Celestia has gone off her rocker... big time." Applejack speaks, breaking the silence. Twilight puts a hoof behind her neck to rub her mane, looking to the side as she nodded slowly.

"Thats the same feeling I had. Its a strange feeling to have when you realize that the ruler of a nation, who is thousands of years old coupled with thousands year old wisdom, releases a former or even still current evil back into the world." Twilight explains her feelings, walking over to a window that gave a slight glimpse of Canterlot in the distance on the side of the mountain.

"I guess that is one way of putting it, Twilight. I would imagine he probably looks like a brute for an alicorn." Rarity interjects, puffing her hair with a her magic. Twilight floats the letter back towards her, reading it again.

"Well, the Princess does say he is rather nice and reserved. Although I am quite frankly creeped out and shocked at this, I have a feeling we should give him a chance, meet him maybe." Twilight said from behind the letter. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie both look from their places at Twilight.

"I agree with Twilight. All ponies should have a second chance!" Pinkie excitedly says, having a smile and looking completely oblivious to the situation at hand. Afterall, she was the only one who did not show a face of real sadness or disappointment, just a split second of her face going blank.

Applejack and Rarity look at eachother, both turning their heads to the pink party planner who was grinning and nodding.

"Ah would believe he's already had hundreds of chances and that he's bucked them all up, considering his track record." Applejack criticizes, Rarity nodding her head in agreement. The pink earth pony just looks at them with a discouraged, rather disappointed face.

"Comeon! You never know, he may have not been given chances when he was doing his stuff." Pinkie's face then turned to one that seemed like how a casual criticizer's face would look, her hoof making small gestures as she spoke.

"Sure, he may have done extremely violent things to ponies in his time and became a scourge of civilization, but maybe he wasnt given another chance to turn his life around. Maybe he was blackmailed by Nightmare Moon or under the influence of some weird things." Pinkie continues to explain, putting her hoof down and looking at her two friends with the same concerned expression.

Both the unicorn and farmer mare look at eachother, than back to Pinkie. The planner tilts her head, her ears flopping in their place as she waits for an answer. Finally, she sighs in frustration that the two aren't saying anything at all.

"We should just give him a second chance." she says blankly, while Rainbow Dash comes up from behind Fluttershy to Pinkies side, while the two skeptics of the group nod and shift their focus to Rainbow Dash, who now wheels around and sits down with Pinkie.

"Im with Pinkie on this one. Red Dusk could be pretty cool and judging from the Princess's impressions on him right now, I think this could work!" Rainbow Dash excitedly defended her pink, flamboyant friend in the small arguement. Fluttershy, through the extent of this discussion, slowly backed up away from the discussion itself. She settled herself down by the door to the library itself, looking on.

"I think we should do a vote, myself excluded." Twilight calls from her place, the heads of her friends turning to look at her.

"Why dont you want to vote?" Rarity asks, Twilight shaking her head.

"I feel this is for you girls to decide, and I hold views from both sides, so Im basically neutral." Twilight explains as she eyes the group, looking all around at her friends. The four mares who opposed eachothers views all looked at their opposition then at Twilight.

"Vote to go to Canterlot?" Rarity and Applejack keep their hooves down, eliciting some looks from Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash.

"Wouldn't you want to go to Canterlot, Rarity?" asks Rainbow Dash, the fashionista shaking her head.

"Not for that brute!" Rarity lashes out, blushing after her little outburst as both Pinkie and Rainbow Dash are taken aback by her annoyance.

"But if the majority wins, I guess I might aswell take advantage of it. " Rarity mumbled, only Applejack hearing and understanding her.

"Vote not to go to Canterlot?" the farmer mare and the seamstress shot their hooves into the air. It was a tie, but there was only one pony left, a tie breaker.

"Fluttershy?" Twilight calls out, the mare barely surprised to have been picked, she knew it was inevitable.

The butter colored pegasus rubbed a leg with her hoof. She looked to Rarity and Applejack, who, asoon as they noticed her looking at them, began doing rapid, shallow nods with grins. She turns her head to look at Rainbow Dash and Pinkie, Rainbow Dash having her eyes closed as she made a 'majestic' pose and pointed at her heart.

Pinkie on the other hoof had somehow acquired a red, white and blue top hat* with star at the bottom of the stripes on the hat. She also got a convenient white moustache and a seemingly patriotic song was playing with the whole thing, a song she couldnt recognize. She was albeit disturbed by this, but also found it alittle funny, giggling.

Her face went back to a blank one as she thought. From what she knows, the stallion was strong, tall, scary and imposing. She knows about a good number of the horrible things he did but it just stung at the back of her mind: What if he had no choice? Probably his first 'mission' was the thing that sealed it for him and forced him down that route forever, or maybe it was something else or those two combined.

She looked to Twilight for guidance, the unicorn shrugging as their eyes met, eliciting a squeak of nervousness as it set in. The pressure was building, she would have to pick now.

"I think we should go to Canterlot..." the pegasus meekly says, much to the visible disappointment of Rarity and Applejack. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie, on the other hand, were excited about it, the stunt pegasus pumping her hoof and Pinkie, now without her little hat, had a smile that touched her ears.

Twilight looked at Spike as she rolled the letter back up.

"Spike, care to take a letter?" Spike nods as he runs off to get a parchment and a pen.

---

It was the evening, stars shining above the two alicorns sitting in the palace courtyard. One was peacefully drinking from a tiny cup of tea while the other, one of interest, was dutifully working on the plates of his armor, the other plates and the chainmail splayed out infront of him, including his helmet, which sat out to the side.

That is, what Luna saw. She watched the two from the observation tower, particularly interested on Red Dusk.

She couldnt get her mind off him. Her summoning of him caused a great deal of destruction in Equestria and his streak was not bloodless either, yet here he was, sitting in the courtyard of the palace, polishing his armor and ridding the set of a film of dust that set in on it over the years.

It was rather quiet save the sounds of wind and the thunder cracks of the incoming storm. The storm was prepared by pegasi to pass over Ponyville, but it was reported to be in a course to go over Canterlot. Judging from the time that it took to hear thunder after seeing the lightning and the distance of the clouds, she predicted it would come within thirty minutes.

She looked back down to look at her sister and Red only to see that Celestia had a letter in her magic. Red was looking over her shoulder as Celestia seemed to mouth what she was reading, which Luna could only presume was from Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's student in Ponyville. She looks at the reaction of Red, his body leaning back to its straight up position of sitting on his haunches as he goes away from Celestia's shoulder.

The two ponies began talking to eachother, Red nodding and actually smiling, barely seen by Luna, due to whatever news that she was ignorant about.

Red goes back to cleaning his armor while Celestia gets up and walks away, waving goodbye at Red with a hoof, going off to disappear from Luna's view as she reached a door leading outside of the courtyard into the palace hallways.

Red Dusk was the only one there, enjoying the air while doing his work. Luna did remember this habit of his back on the moon. He would clean up his armor outside of the castle on a platform meant for another turret, watching the earth while doing it for reasons unknown.

He was quite the weird pony. She remembered times when he spaced out, acting out whatever was on his mind. She sometimes wondered if he was actually mentally stable, but she usually dismissed it.

There was no doubt in Luna's mind, however, that the stallion had mental issues stemming from his missions on the ground. His loyalty to her was put first, putting his own health on the back burner for the sake of the mission and pleasing her.

To him, she was an almighty, omnipresent and all wise god, and back then, the only 'real' and 'legitimate' one.

He would die for her, believing it would be for the greater good.

The clouds were way closer than before, and the crack of lightning nearby seems to arouse the attention of Red. The alicorn swifty picks up the chainmail and plates with his magic, the items floating by him as he walks to the side of the courtyard. He opens the door, letting the parts of the armor float in before himself.

It had begun to pour, rain coming down in buckets. Luna herself was about to leave, before she noticed that the alicorn was now looking at her.

Intently, he stared at her, before walking into the palace hallway.

Author's Note:

Errrrkkk Im not too proud of these chapters.

*Bad election joke, for those who didnt get it.