Black and Blue

by autobot

Trouble in the Moonlight - Chapter 4

The walk from the café to the apartment was a quiet one, after the mini brawl the two siblings had made a quick retreat back into the centre of town, Red leading the way as he had the address to the apartment he had found on the notice board. Not a word had been spoken between the two after the fight over the pie, they were not exactly angry at each other, just mildly annoyed.

“That was your fault, you know that, right?” Red eventually spoke up, his voice more a growl than actual speech. He flashed his sister a look of disapproval, she merely stared daggers right back at him, her pink snake-like eyes would pierce the soul of any other pony, but not Red.

“Yeah well,” Soul began, a smug look growing on her face, “I still ate your pie!” She retorted with a laugh. Red after a moment of seriousness could not help but join in as the silence was finally broken between the two. They trotted on towards the apartment which had turned out to be on the edge of the town centre, which pleased both ponies enough to go for it. They soon came to the address, a small two story building with a thatched roof and simple looking doors and windows. It was pretty much your average Ponyville structure. Red knocked on the door, after a few seconds waiting the door was opened by a mint green unicorn; she jumped slightly at the two frightening looking ponies at the door but soon recovered and adopted the typical Ponyville attitude.

“Hello, can I help you two?” The unicorn asked politely, ending with a smile. Red nodded and asked about the free apartment, showing the mint green pony the flier. She nodded and smiled, inviting the two into the hallway, Soul closed the door behind her as they entered the small room. They quickly learned the unicorn names was Lyra Heartstrings and she lived on the bottom floor with her roommate Bon Bon. The apartment upstairs had been empty for a while so the two had decided to buy it and rent it out to other ponies, but no pony had showed interest since they had bought it… until now. After introductions were over, Lyra took the two ponies upstairs and showed them round the small apartment. There were two small bedrooms on the far side of the apartment from the door, with a bathroom separating them; the rest was large open space consisting of the kitchen, dining room and living room, complete with everything anypony would need for simple living. After a quick look around, the siblings looked at each other and nodded, this was just what they needed, cheap and simple, so Red took the bag of bit out of his pocket and worked out a price with Lyra. After a monthly rent was agreed, Lyra went downstairs with Soul to sort out paper work and keys, Soul having to do this as she was the ‘adult’ of the two.

While Soul was downstairs, Red finally had chance to have something to eat, after checking the two bedrooms, he went for the one on the left, his large window facing out towards the mountains. He slung his jacket onto the bed and turned to go, he didn’t get far however as a clanging sound made him turn back around. He looked over at his jacket, on the floor just beside the bed lay a shiny metal object he instantly recognised to be his custom made dagger. Red sighed and proceeded to pick up the blade in his mouth and place it on the bedside table, the straight thick blade shining brightly in the afternoon sunshine shining through the window. After a moment of staring at his only prized possession, he once again picked up the blade with his mouth and went back into the kitchen area, tossing and twirling the blade with his muzzle as he trotted through the apartment. He reached into Souls big saddle bag and pulled out a dozen shiny red apples, putting his dagger down on the worktop he casually began eating away at the fruits, a contented smile on his face.

Soul soon returned, smiling happily as she swung the key around her horn, she was relieved to be able to show her Alicorn form instead of constantly having to check her hair to hide her horn. She shut the door and locked it, flinging the keys onto the table with her magic and flopping down onto the sofa with a sigh. Red tossed her an apple and sat down next to her, the weight of the day finally pressing down on him.

“Sweet Celestia, what a day!” The Alicorn groaned, slumping into the soft sofa and eating away at the apple, the black Pegasus following suit and the two soon shared a joint power nap on the sofa, ending up snuggled against each other as they always did when they slept alone. Old sibling habits were hard to break after all. They awoke hours afterward to an apartment bathed in Luna’s moonlight, Red quickly got up and starting stretching himself out and shaking himself awake. Soul slowly got up from her comfy spot and made her way over to the other bedroom, then taking a look inside, she decided it was adequate and dragged her saddle bag inside to begin the ‘process’. Red wasn’t going to stick around for all the squealing and screaming; instead he went back to his own bedroom and put on his red jacket, sliding his dagger back into its sheath on the inside. He then proceeded to open his window as far as it would go; he looked out into the night sky and took a lung full of evening air. The black Pegasus climbed out of his window and let himself drop to the floor, slowing his fall with his wings. He looked up at star filled sky and smiled, glad to be out in the cold night air once more, he stretched out his wings and with a few powerful flaps, shot off towards the moon. Nopony would be able to notice Red Eye up in the night sky, only as a shadow or spectre floating through Luna’s night, nopony that is, except Luna herself.

Red soared high in the sky, gliding along silently with a small grin on his face, enjoying his time alone with his thoughts. He flew higher still as his wings caught a night time thermal, and took a deep breath as the high altitude made breathing slightly more difficult. He looked down on the moonlit town of Ponyville, the town he could call home, for now. He looked at the various buildings and shops that he would need to know and explore, the many ponies he’d need to know and the many paths leading to various other part of Equestria he would need to understand. He let this thought roll over in his mind for some time, until his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar feeling. The fur on his neck stood on end and his ears began to twitch and shake… somepony was behind him. Red flew on regardless, he was sure he was being followed, but he wasn’t going to let his follower know that, he began flying a circular pattern over the apartment, trying to regain as much height as he slowly brought his head down to his jacket and silently took his dagger from it, gripping it tightly in his mouth. He calmed his nerves and then took a lung full of air through his nose. He suddenly pulled up sharply, a gasp emanated from somewhere behind him as he looped the looped over his follower and was now right above them, without second glance he dived into the pony and placed the dagger to their neck. The black pony froze solid, apart from the constant beat of its wings. Red and the mystery follower were now hovering high in the sky; one now had a rather sharp dagger to their throat too.

“It is never wise to sneak up on a pony like that,” growled Red Eye, still not looking up at the pony he had caught. “Now, who are you and what do you want?” he ordered, he didn’t get the answer he had prepared for, however.

“My name,” the pony replied with an accent only one pony in the entirety of Equestria had, Reds eyes widened as he looked up with increasing horror, “Is Princess Luna of the night and what I want, is for to take your hooves off me, right this instant!” The royal Camelot voice cut through Red like a knife through butter. He knew he had screwed up big time here and the best idea was to run… now! He took a breath and snapped shut his wings, causing him to plummet towards the ground at an ever increasing speed. As he fell, he put away his dagger and focused on building up as much momentum as possible, but as silently as he could. He could hear the beating of wings behind him as the princess had seemed to have given chase; Red cursed himself as he rocketed downwards, smashing through layers of cloud. Soon the ground started to come into view and Red readied his wings for what was going to be a rather scary manoeuvre.

“This is how you do it sis” he muttered to himself as he reached rooftop level, with all of the muscle power he had he threw open his wings to their full extent, catapulting him forward mere centimetres off the ground. The sound of flapping wings soon disappeared and Red made a B-line for the apartment, arriving quickly back through his open window and slamming it shut. After taking a couple of sharp breaths, he collapsed onto his bed, only having the energy to fling off his jacket and glasses. He lay there panting; eventually laughing at his own misfortune. Soul soon poked her head round the door of his bedroom. She looked at her little brother, laying there laughing like a madpony, and stepped inside to look over him with a bemused expression.

“Rough night?” she asked simply, poking the black Pegasus in the side which caused him to come out of his maddened state. He turned to her and nodded meekly.

“Yeah you could say that…” he replied, his eyes suddenly becoming very hard to keep open.

“Well I’m sure you’ll tell me all about it in the morning,” she said softly, and in a moment of loving that Soul did not show often, she tucked her little brother into his bed and kissed him lightly on the forehead, sending him to sleep almost instantly. She silently left the room, shutting the door with a quiet click and returned to her own room, to head to bed after a long, LONG day.