> From the Outside In
>  by DarkParable
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> Chapter one: In which we see a case of human cruelty
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	The sun shone brightly down over the world that day and the sky seemed all the bluer for it. There was nary a cloud in sight, and despite the warmth of the day, it was a pleasent one. The birds were winging, the children laughing, and the world seemed perfect. Perfect that is to everyone but the young man who was too busy having the shit beat outta him by those same laughing children. 


Crevan was his name, Crevan Daran. And Crevan was most often found at the bottom of his school’s social totem pole, and more often than not under the shoes of his fellow students simply because he was open about his interest in what the others, save the very youngest children at his school, saw as something only for babies and retards. Crevan was a Brony,and a rather devoted one. He spent hours after school, watching, rewatching, and rewatching again, reruns of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.One could almost go so far as to say that he was obsessed with the show.


Today was no different for him than any other day, right up until this particular beating. He’d been minding his own business, simply doodling a small picture of Derpy and Time Turner all snuggled up, when one of his more... Aggressive tormentors decided that he’d not done enough to ruin someone else’s day. “Hey there faggot, what cha drawing? More of that gay pony shit?” asked the older boy with a sneer that would have been more at home on a movie villain. Crevan was given no chance to answer before his notebook was snatched from his hands and he was startled from his music and art induced stupor. As he looked up, icy blue eyes a bit watery from the brightness of the sun, he caught sight of his bully ripping the note book in two. Sighing he wondered just how he’d explain this one to his mother.


He wasn’t really given much time to think either as a steel toed boot was sudden in rather forceful contact with his face. Crevan cried out in surprise and pain, his face feeling as if it had just exploded. His mouth was open when the second kick came, and it caught him right in the mouth, shattering several teeth and knocking more than a few down his throat. Choking, blinded with pain, and bleeding badly he tried to struggle to his feet.He never got there, though he was introduced to the dirt in a much more intimate fashion that he’d ever wished to be. By this point several of this cruel, sadistic, young man’s friends had gathered ‘round and were laughing their heads off at the pathetic struggles of the boy in the dirt. He was scarcely recognizable any more, his face was a ruined mess, crusted with dirt. Nose crushed flat, and teeth either broken jagged or just gone. Crevan could only whimper and cry softly, in so much pain he couldn’t see straight, let alone know just where the next blow would come from. And come they did, falling like rain upon him from seemingly everywhere. By the time they stopped Crevan could no longer move, and no longer wanted to at all. Everything hurt, simply everything. He thought he’d felt human cruelty before, but it was nothing compared to this, nothing at all.Wondering what he ever did to deserve this, he watched through his one still functioning eye as a cloud drifted over the sun, hiding it from view. He couldn’t help but feel that it was as if the sun itself couldn’t bare to see this any longer.


Crevan awoke some time later, and immediately wished he had not. His entire world consisted of naught but blinding pain. Pain that was slowly proving to be just a memory as he became more fully aware of his surroundings. He found himself in a hospital bed, both arms and legs in casts, the entire left side of his head wrapped in bandages, and an IV feeding a steady drip of something into him. Even if that mind numbing agony was gone his entire body was still one giant Crevan shaped bruise. 

He didn't have to wait long to find out just what had happened to him either, for no sooner had he began to get antsy a nurse came in to check on him. "Thank god kid... you gave everyone one hell of a scare." said the woman, who's name tag proclaimed her name to be Grace. Crevan tried to open his mouth to speak but found that impossible, and trying to do so only brought tears of pain to his eyes. Seeing his efforts Grace gently shushed him and smiled sadly. "Don't try and talk, we had to wire your jaw shut." The surprised and rather hurt look in his eyes was enough to make the woman sigh and pull up a small stool to sit at his bedside. "Just blink once for yes, and twice for no. Do you want me to tell you what all's wrong and how you got here?" He paused for a few moments before he blinked once, hesitantly. "Alright..."  she began "To begin with, there's the jaw. We'll start from the head and go down. Your left eye's fine, but there damage to the orbit. That's going to take a long time to heal. Your skull was fractured, but not too badly thankfully. You've got at least five spinal fractures, but nothing's severed so you should still have full motor function, but PT is going to be hell on earth for you. Your ribs are one and all cracked, both arms broken in about three places, your left hand was crushed completely. Honestly the only thing on you that wasn't broken much was your legs, just a few fractures here and there." 

Crevan could only stare. dumbfounded that this woman would tell him something like this in such a flat voice, as if it didn't bother her at all, He let out a long slow breath and waited for her to continue. "Your principal found you kiddo, Lucky he did. You died twice on the way here. Nearly lost you a third time on the table. Kid, you've got one hell of a guardian angel on your shoulder. Your parents should be here tomorrow, we had to send them home tonight. Sadly we can't allow over-nighters here, too small of a hospital. Seriously kid... You're lucky... All this happened a few months ago. Kind of surprised you even woke up" That broke Crevan then and there. That casual comment of time passing. Not only had he nearly been killed, no he had been... Twice, but months of his life were gone and he had a feeling that would turn into years. years spent in some hospital bed. and more in physical therapy. Crying quietly he turned his eye to the window, and through bleary eyes, watched as the moon rose, just bright enough for him to see it against all the light pollution of a city. He cried for hours, just watching the moon untill he fell asleep, and knew no more.
> Chapter two: In which there is a change
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	That night, as the broken and battered boy slept, his fate was decided by two who had watched him for some time. Twin goddesses, one light the other dark. The sun and the moon, Luna and Celestia looked on with sadness as, unaware of his watchers, Crevan slept on. Luna sighed heavily, the moon reflecting her sadness in the human world and dimming a bit. "Tia... Look at him, look at what his own kind did to him simply for his love of our world."

Her sister shook her head, refusing to look for a few moments before she relented to her little sister's words. "Luna... There's nothing we can do for him. Watching him like this is just going to break your heart... Even I couldn't stand to watch as they beat him and you know well what I've seen you do as Nightmare Moon." Celestia said, her voice quiet and remorseful. Despite her words she too wished that she could at least ease the boy's suffering. Luna drew in a long breath before letting it hiss slowly between her clenched teeth. "Tia... We could do something for him and you know it... We could take him with us... Bring him some place safe... No colt deserves that, human or not."

The two spoke at length while below them the world of human's did what it was wont to do, turn on and on. By the time a decision had been reached Crevan was so beaten down by the way his life had been stolen from him, and the fact that no one seemed to care at all, that he spent most of his time staring out the window at night. It had been nearly six weeks and still his parents had not come to see him after that one night when he lay unconscious and unaware, hanging to life by a thread. To Luna, whom the boy unknowingly looked upon every night, this only added to her desire to do this poor boy some kindness. 

One night, not too long after his head bandages had been removed and his full vision returned to him he watched the moon as usual and sighed quietly to himself. "...I don't know if anyone or anything is out there... But please... if you can... Take me away from here... I don't want to hurt any more." he thought, wished rather, as strongly as he could. He was soon asleep, a few tears rolling down his cheeks as he wept for what he'd come to accept was a lost cause, namely his recovery.

That was the straw that broke the ponies back. Luna smiled softly as he horn began to glow, the dark blue Alicorn slowly taking shape at the foot of his bed. She spread her wings wide for a moment stretching as she continued to prepare for the massive undertaking that was to be this bit of magic.Her sister soon joined her, her horn glowing like the sun. As one they inclined their heads until their horns touched, white and dusky blue pointed tip to tip and their magics mingling. They turned their readied spell on the boy who slept on and settled back to watch as their magic did its work.

The first noticeable effect was the slow rise of the broken body off the hospital bed, Crevan's useless limbs surrounded in a gently glowing cornea of light. Slowly the casts and bandages began to deteriorate, slowly crumbling to a fine powder that drifted off lazily. Underneath the now nonexistent casts his limbs righted themselves becoming whole and unbroken once more.The magic however did not stop at simply repairing him, it began to alter him as well. Slowly he turned over, hanging with his arms and legs dangling twords the floor and back straight. His hands and feet curled up, slowly becoming hooves as the length of his limbs evened out and his spine lengthened slightly. Frowning the sisters bent more of their will to the magic, completing the rest of the changes in an eye blink. When they were done they lowered the sleeping pony to the bed once more and looked over their handy work.

He'd made a rather handsome pony, his coloration dark but it suited him nicely. His coat was a deep deep crimson color and his mane and tail a rather striking shade of black. His flank was blank however so no cutie mark interrupted this coloration. The sisters gave him another little gift, a pair of wings, wings that lay half unfurled in his sleep. Tiredly the two sisters looked to one another and nodded, and all three ponies vanished from the world of humans as if they'd never been there at all.
> Chapter three: In which we come to find that there is adjustment to change.
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		Crevan had dreamed of some seriously strange things... Stranger than fiction one might say. He'd been dreaming of what life would have been like if the world was populated not by people, but by machines. Needless to say he had to conclude that things would have been a bit too logical for any sane human mind to handle, after all the logical conclusion is that a world run by logic alone would be illogical in and of itself, Say what you will, but it was a rather sound argument, or so his dream told him in any case. Shaking off those clinging thoughts and dreamy cob webs the boy turned colt sat up and scrubbed at his eyes, blinking the sleep from his eyes.

There's something to be said for his state of mind that he did not immediately notice that he was not only some place different, but some THING else entirely. He felt good, which was a bit of a surprise to him considering that he'd felt like someone had been pounding on his limbs every night for the last month or so. The fact that he wasn't in pain put a smile on his face. A smile that quickly turned into a puzzled, if pleasantly surprised, expression upon realizing he was not only free of pain, but that he'd rubbed his face. He could move his arms... Move them normally at that. Snapped awake by this sudden clarity he looked down at himself, expecting to see his hands whole and unbroken. He wasn't expecting to find his arms ending in hooves, or that most of his vision when he simply looked down was taken up by his nose... Well this couldn't be right... Couldn't be right in the least. "Must be dreaming." he muttered to himself as he rolled out of bed and flopped to his belly as his hooves slipped on the floor. "Ompf!" was all he had to say on the subject of what it feels like to belly flop marble tile. 


Somethings could only be seen to be believed and the fact that one has gone and turned into a pony was one of those things. The gentle pain was enough to ensure that Crevan no longer thought all this a dream. Instead he thought it kind of annoying trying to get to his hooves.  He felt he must have looked something like Bambi for that old Disney movie, all legs and awkward  because of it. In truth he wasn't far off as he basically tap danced himself upright. It took a good five minutes of clattering around and making a surprisingly rhythmic amount of clattering noises for him to finally get the knock of standing as a pony. When he tried taking a step however he slipped again and wound up catching himself with his wings. He'd flapped on pure instinct when he felt himself slip and had wound up on the bed again, confused as to just how he'd gone and done that.

Sighing softly he gave up on moving for the time being and paused to actually take stock of things. Okay so he was a pony... A pegasus to be exact... Almost a dream come true, but for his inability to walk right. He turned his attention away from his blood red self and to the room around him. His jaw dropped. He'd never seen something so splendid as this. The walls and floor were pure white marble, the eye-stinging brightness of that broken here and there by large banners hung here and there that depicted various things. Ponies farming here, unicorns working some great spell there, some pegasi working the weather over yonder. The bed on which he lay was no less grand than the vaulted room, Four posted, king sized, and silken sheets that left his new found fur tingling pleasantly as he sprawled out in a  more comfortable position.

That feeling was what snapped his attention back to himself. How in the nine hells had he turned into a pony, and where in Gaia's name was he. He didn't have to wait too long for answers once again, and that in turn made him wonder if the universe had some cosmic sense of comedy, always answering questions promptly when it knew it would be slightly annoying. "Finally awake I see..." came a soft voice from the door set into the far wall. There, standing framed by the large dark wood grained door, was Luna. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped again, drawing an amused smile from the princess of the moon. "Careful... You might swallow a parasprite if you keep your mouth agape as such." she said, prompting Crevan to immediately snap his mouth shut. It didn't stay that way for long as he caught sight of Celestia walking past behind her sister, apparently sneaking off a piece of cake. "Uh... wh- wha- whe-.... HOW!?" exclaimed the rather shocked pegasi.

Luna smiled softly at him, stepping inside and shutting the door behind her with a little whisper of magic. "Calm yourself Crevan, all will be explained as soon as Tia is done stuffing her face... Or sooner if you'd prefer." she said, chuckling quietly at the fact that he nodded his affirmative to her statement. "We decided you deserved something special for everything you'd been through, and it wasn't a decision made in haste so don't think this was done on a whim." she spoke calmly, plainly, more like Crevan remembered from the show, and that did a great deal to calm him down. He figured he was either totally nuts now, or this was actually happening. "We've watched you for awhile now, watched how you would go out of your way to be kind despite how you were treated for being who you are. Your fellow humans breaking you was what broke our hearts little one, and we could not allow you to suffer for being different any longer... So we brought you some place more suited to somepony like yourself." Crevan remained silent for a long while, not quite sure what to say. When he did finally speak it was heavy with unasked questions, but heartfelt all the same. "I... Don't think I can thank you enough..." he said, his eyes twinkling with barely contained emotion. As Luna looked into them she noted something odd. Crevan's eyes, had changed slightly. Sure they looked enough like anypony's. but the oddness came in the form of color. His right was the same icy blue it had always been, the other was nearly as dark a red as his fur. The princess mentally shrugged it off, chalking it up to one of those quirks that comes with such complex magic.

Several hours later saw Crevan out and about, the princess having show him the proper way to move with four legs instead of two. He had been properly introduced to Celestia, and found her to be just as amazing as the cartoon had made her out to be. She had however set the ground rules for him. He wasn't to tell anypony that he'd been human once, after all humans were a myth here, not to mention that he'd likely be labeled a loony. Secondly he'd been made to change his name. They'd eventually settled, Luna, Celestia, and himself, on the name Red Wyne. He rather liked it actually... Certainly suited him better than Crevan ever did. The third rule was the simplest, enjoy himself. He was told he'd be sent to Ponyville once he'd gotten the hang of being a pony. Cre- no, he corrected himself, Red smiled as he thought of just what this would mean for him. A new start at life and a bright one at that. The pegasi smiled smiled softly as he half listened to some old guard explain to him how his wings worked, totally spaced out as he was he at least got the gist of it.
> Chapter four: In which the finer points of feathers are discussed.
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	"No no no, good grief, I'm beginning to think you're incapable of flight..." said the stern voice of Dark Wing, Red's flight instructor. "Come on, thirty more wing push-ups then you go gliding again." Red could only groan softly and do as he was told, despite the sore wing joints. He'd been at this for about three days, mostly flying by night just to avoid the embarrassment of tumbling down into a crowd of ponies face first. As it was he'd given a fairly nice could a bit of a scare when he'd crashed through their roof. There were a lot of red faces that night, and a nice little new born on down the road because of his dropping in uninvited.

Red sighed softly and looked over at Dark with a bit of an annoyed expression. He had to admit the fella knew what he was talking about, despite all the pain and such that he was being put through at Dark's direction. The other pegasi was aptly named, for the only spots of color on him were his cutie mark, mane, and tail. Otherwise his coat was an unbroken inky black, quite impressive at that. His mane and tail were a bit at odds with that, various shades of blue ranging from light to dark, while his cutie mark was a winged crescent moon of pale yellow. Funnily enough Red found him good company when he wasn't being taught by him, the guy treated him like a military recruit during lessons.

Despite all the problems Red was indeed getting better at making use of his wings, he could even manage to hover in place a bit before gravity said "Nope!" and dropped him right back down to earth. His record for hang time so far was about five seconds. He'd just set that one too, which had earned him the thirty push-ups as opposed to the usual fifty. The moment he'd finished, further adding to the ache in his wings, Dark sat him down with a sigh. "Never mind the gliding practice tonight, You'll just go scaring more nice young couples... again." he said, to which Red could only sigh with relief and sprawl out. "Kid... Anypony ever explain just how flight works to you?" asked Dark, head cocked a bit. "Because I think it high time someone did."

Red was kind of lost in thoughts of his bed and a couple Icy-Hot patches, if they even existed here that was, so he simply nodded not listening too closely. Dark was no spring chicken and cuffed him over the head. "Pay attention you. The fact that somepony your age doesn't have a cutie mark and can't fly is just a disgrace." The older pegasi sat himself down at Red's side, lifted one of his wings and pointed to the primary feathers. "You're not making use of your wings properly colt. You should feel the air over these," he touched one of Red's primaries lightly, "like a current in a stream... In fact Go stand on that ledge over yonder and keep your wings out straight. Just feel the wind."

It took a good deal of prodding to get Red to do just that, but he did eventually, though with a good deal of complaint. That said however the point was well made by Dark. He'd never taken the time to simply sit and feel the air as it passed over his wings. Never stopped to appreciate just how lovely it felt to simply feel the sensation of air passing over his feathers. He let his eyes drift closed and simply relaxed in the sensation. He relaxed just a bit too much however and was completely unprepared for the shove that Dark gave him, sending him right over the edge. Red yelped, immediately flailing his limbs around and flapping like a startled chicken before he got the point and locked his wings out wide, turning his fall into a steep decent. He altered the angle of his wings ever so slightly and smiled as he pulled out of the dive and leveled off, coating on the faint thermals of the city below. He sighed softly, his smile faltering as he asked the obvious question to nopony in particular. "Ok.... So when were you going to teach me to land?"
> Chapter five: Of landings and moving.
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	The sounds of skidding hooves and and fluttering wings rung out through the night as Red tried and, partially, succeed in his attempted landing. It only cost him a few hot hooves. "Ow ow ow ow" he said, dancing from hoof to hoof as he tried to cool them off. "That kinda hurt... Not the worst I've felt, but ow." He chuckled, giving his hooves one last shake before turning his attention to his mentor. Dark Wing  gave him an amused sort of look and shook his head, motioning for Red to try again. "Oh alright..." muttered the boy turned pony, earning a disapproving glare from his mentor. "For that my little red flyer... Do it another twenty times." Red could only groan. I really gotta stop opening my mouth... Just gets me in trouble he thought to himself as he took off once again.

Twenty landings later Red found he could at least not go skidding for a good twenty feet... He'd shaved it down to five. "Alright kid... Rest of the day's your's... Hate to admit it, but you're a pretty quick study for a blankflank your age." Dark Wing said to him, earning a bit of a huff from his student. Still, Red had to admit that a chance, his first really, to go and explore Canterlot was too good to pass up. It was with a wide smile, and still slightly stinging hooves, that he trotted off to poke his muzzle into things he'd always wondered about.

His first stop happened to be the market square, and he was rather saddened that he didn't have any bits. The sights and sounds brought to mind the outings with his family to flea markets, simply to get out of the house and enjoy the day. He spent a good long while just poking about, watching a few street performers, and wondering why it was he hadn't slipped away to explore before now. He was turning to head off when he found himself nose to nose with a rather regal looking unicorn whose coat was so white it kind of hurt his eyes. Red blinked in instant recognition and a small hint of distaste. "Ugh... Do move you vagabond you, I say you've gone and stained my coat with the dirt clinging to you." grated the rather annoying voice of Prince Blue-blood. Red Wyne sighed softly, doing his best not to respond with anything acidic in tone. "Excuse me Blue-blood sir..." he managed to say after a moment and stepped to the side. The prat, red couldn't think of anything else that fit the distastefully vain unicorn, harrumphed and continued on. "Dandysprat..." muttered Red, wishing he had fingers for a moment just so he could shoot a rather obscene gesture at the slowly departing prince.

With the good mood he'd had ruined Red decided now would be a good time to try something he'd always wanted to. With a rather large gust of wind due to his wing span he shot himself skyward and alighted atop the first cloud he found. He more or less just let himself drop onto it and was surprised to find that he stayed atop it. He knew pegasi could walk about and control clouds to some degree, but he'd always figured it to be something that they learned to do, not an innate ability. His thoughts were interrupted by another thought that immediately grabbed his attention and beat him about the face with the facts before him. Clouds. Are. Freaking. SOFT! Not to mention quite possibly the most comfortable thing he'd ever put his weight down on. Sighing softly he sprawled out atop the cloud, a blissed out grin on his face. "Beats the hell out of any bed ever..." He chuckled softly to himself, settling down for a bit of a nap.

He awoke a few hours later feeling almost as good as he had the morning he'd first awoken in Equestria. "Going to have to sleep on clouds more often..." he muttered softly, chuckling as he realized what he was saying would have been a pipe dream not so long ago. Sighing he stretched out, gave his wings a flap, and found himself falling suddenly. "Oh... HORSE FEATHERS!" he yelled as he righted himself and glided back down to earth. "Going to have to learn NOT to do that..." he muttered softly, glancing back at the wisps that were slowly drifting apart. All that remained of his short lived napping spot. Shrugging slightly he turned his attention back to the slowly approaching ground and tucked his wings. He fell like a stone, but his lessons hadn't been ignored. After a few moments he snapped his wings open once more and flapped, powerful mussels arresting his fall and allowing him to land with only a light thump. "The one time I land without skidding and Dark Wing's nowhere to see..." he said with a chuckle as he trotted off for his room in the castle. He was met at his door by a small buzz of activity, the few possessions he had, namely a few books on flight and such, were being packed away in neat little piles. "Uhh... What's going on?" he asked, and the immediate answer came from his mentor, coupled with a pair of goggles. "Help pack up your things kid... Moving day tomorrow, I get to dump you on someone else." the dark pegasus said with a chuckle. "And you're moving to Ponyville, one of the weather team there moved to Prace, you're taking his place. Give  RD my regards would ya?" Red blinked, wondering what he'd have to do with Rainbow Das-OH!... Weather team... Right. He could only hope he didn't balls this up on the first day. That would be just his luck.
> Chapter six: A new home and a memory
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	"Soooooo not cool!" rang out the whining voice of Rainbow Dash, the cyan mare had taken one look at Red Wyne and immediately found him to be lacking by her standards. He was kinda goofy looking in her opinion, and that wing span of his made him look like he had aspirations  of being a griffon. Not to mention the fact that he was quiet, the last thing Dashie wanted was another shy one like Fluttershy. She sighed shaking her head and turning her attention back to Dark Wing. "How come I gotta teach him? Seriously... How can he be this old and not know how to bust clouds or have a cutie mark?!" This got a rather sheepish look at of Red, who scuffed one of his foot hooves over the earth, trying not to look ashamed of that fact.

Running about in his blood colored head was a similar thought. How come he didn't have a cutie mark? It wasn't as if he had no talents, or hadn't done something meaningful... Though he supposed that former lives didn't count for a thing really. It wasn't as if he was ungrateful for what had been done for him, but he knew there'd be a bit of trouble because he was almost sixteen and his flank was blank. "I... Work hard enough I suppose... And I learn fast." he said quietly, interrupting RD in the middle of her tirade. She blinked at him and sighed. "Fine... You screw up though and I swear I'm going to have you doing soooo many push ups your wings fall off!" Red nodded slowly, shifting from hoof to hoof as he finished up his unpacking.

He'd been set up in a small shack on the outskirts of Ponyville, and to say it was a shack was doing his new home a small disservice. It wasn't as if he'd been stuck in a hovel or anything, it was just a bit too small to truly be called a house. It consisted of three rooms, bedroom, combination kitchen and sitting room, and a small bathroom. Not much really, but it felt nice to call it his. His meager possessions barely gave the place a homey touch. He hadn't been given anything other than a few parting gifts from Luna and Celestia, his flight manuals, and a few start up supplies. He chuckled softly to himself as he put away the last of his canned goods. "Who woulda thought there was a pony version of chef Boiardie..." he shook his head, more than a bit amused by the cans marked with a smiling pony with a rather amusing 'stash and chef hat. "This is kinda zany..." he muttered, closing his cabinets and heading for his bedroom. He figured he may as well catch some Z's before things got going tomorrow, Dashie wanted him up at the crack of dawn anyways. He had to mentally slap himself at using that name, after all he wasn't her friend just yet. A bit of metal rephrasing later and he settled himself down to sleep for a bit, sighing softly. As he drifted off he caught sight of the moon through his window and smiled softly.



His dreams brought him back to Canterlot, to the throne room, and to the princesses. "Well then Crevan, seems you'll be leaving us tomorrow." Celestia had said, "We'll be sorry to see you go. You've made for a rather entertaining show during your flight lessons..." Red blushed and was quite glad no one would notice with his fur color. Celestia and her sister seemed to though and they shared a soft giggle at his expense, they were after all only teasing him. "Glad someo- err... Somepony got a laugh out of me getting introduced face first to those fruit stands. The vendors certainly weren't amused." he replied with a soft little laugh of his own. They'd spent some time after that, going over the rules for him and a bit of pony history, before Celestia called things short. "Before you go we both have something for you..." she'd said, her horn glowing softly as she brought those "somethings" up from behind her throne. Celestia's gift was something that brought tears to his eyes. Something he thought he'd lost that day on the playground. Suspended in the glow of her telekinetic grip was a small medallion on an old leather throng. The flat disk of metal was adorned with the intricate pattern of a massively complex Celtic circle. That particular bit of old silver had been a gift from his grandmother, one he always wore close to his heart. Celestia slipped in over his head and smiled warmly at him. "Thought you might want that back my newest little pony."

Luna's gift was something just as special, if not something from his old life. She gifted him with the one book in his collection, if one could call five books total a collection, that wasn't something to do with teaching him to fly properly. What she'd given him was a collection of myths and legends, the tale of Nightmare Moon included of course. For somepony who'd always loved reading such things it was a wonderful gift. For someone like Crevan, or Red Wyne as he was now known, it was a bit more than that. It was something that showed that these two neigh goddesses did indeed care for him far better than anyone other than his grandmother ever had. The realization that these two had gone out of their way not only to bring him here but to give him a far better life than he'd ever expected gave him the warmest of the warm fuzzies. He'd thanked them both to excess, he'd even hugged them (with their permission of course). That memory was what danced though his dreams. Feeling loved and accepted with no strings attached.



He awoke a little before dawn, yawning softly and stretching fit to grow a few inches. He sighed quietly, rolled himself out of bed, snagged a muffin (blue berry for the win) and headed out to face the day... And hopefully not bugger anything up by RD's standards. He took to the air, eating on the way and was there before his soon to be mentor. He settled down in an open field to wait, sighing quietly.
> Chapter seven: A chance meeting and a hoof full of mud.
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	Red had been stuck waiting for awhile, and was bored as one would expect of someone told dawn and then left to wait until nearly noon. Sighing he hummed along to himself in an attempt to relieve the boredom, an effort that was quickly falling short. With little else to really do he sung to himself.

A somber sky above my head, a lonely path below.
And hand on heart I cannot see a light to guide me home.
And so it is the end of our days, so walk with me till morning breaks...
And so it is the end of our days, so walk with me till morning breaks...

We travel down this trodden path...

That was about as far as he got into the rather somber sounding song before he was blind sided by a blur of pink. "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshsomeponynew!" his rather... huggy... attacker said, some how managing to string all eleven words together in a single mishmash of sound that was completely intelligible. "Hiya! You're new and I'm Pinkie Pie, and you're new! I've never seen you before today so I guess you're that new pony that just moved in! I'm using too many exclamation marks here aren't I...? Oh well, I blame the wri- My overly exuberant nature." rambled Pinkie, who was busy trying to look at her mouth and figure out just why it was she'd changed sentences right in the middle of a word. Red was still busy counting his ribs, a few felt as if they'd been squished together from the force of the sudden and unexpected hug. "I'm Red Wyne..." he managed to say after a moment or so.

To say the least he'd been startled by the sudden appearance of one Pinkiamena Diane Pie, Or Pinkie as she was more commonly known (providing one hasn't read Cupcakes). Satisfied he was intact he settled down, watching as Pinkie bounced around with all the exuberance he remembered from the show. "Nice to meet'cha mister Wyne, so is that whine like what little fillies do when they want a cookie, or wine as in the stuff made from grapes, or maybe-" she was interrupted by Red's hoof suddenly covering her mouth. "No, its spelled differently than either of those. Its not got any meaning other than my name. And I prefer just Red thanks. Nice to meet you too Pinkie." he said, removing his hoof from the mare with a soft chuckle. He'd been expecting a bit more randomness from Pinkie. That was one of the reasons he always liked her from the sh- How in the heck was she walking around upside down like that?! Shaking his head he settled back down to wait.

"Sooo.... You know Dashie's not coming right Red?" asked Pinkie, trotting back into view. Red cocked his head, raising an eyebrow and waiting for more of an explanation. "Yep yep yep, she's napping." Red sighed, facehoofing. "She told me to be here at dawn... And wait how did you know I was waiting on Rainbow Dash? ...Pinkie sense?" he asked, catching his mistake a bit too late to stop it. He probably shouldn't know about the whole precognition thing. "Yep! So whats it like having fingers? Oh wait... Never mind I have to go start putting together your welcome party!" and with that the most chaotic thing since Loki disappeared in a blur of pink mane and tail that left Red spinning on the spot, caught up in the wake of her running at mach gallop past him.

The now dizzied stallion wobbled on his hooves and shrugged slightly, shaking his head so hard his ears flapped a bit. Once he got the world to stop spinning he took wing and went looking for the mare who was supposed to be teaching him to control the weather. Well, least his morning had had a rather nice bit of randomness and a meeting with his favorite pony... Aside from Derpy that is. After another hour's searching he found Dash out by the lake, the cyan pegasus was sprawled out on a beach chair and dozing with a Daring Do book over her face. Well the universe hardly ever hands somepony such an easy mark for a prank, and while he wasn't one for such things this was just too good to pass up.He landed near by and trotted up silently, taking her book and setting it aside. A bit of mud on Dash's hoof and a feather brushed over her nose later and he was rolling with laughter as Dash was awakened by slapping herself in the face, splattering herself with mud. Shaving cream be damned, that worked just as well and it was far more satisfying. "What was that for?!" asked his would be teacher. "Leaving me to wait all day. Seriously, I was sitting in that field since a bit before dawn... Like you TOLD me to be." Dash had the decency to blush and fidget a bit. "Well then you should come and found me sooner... Nice prank though, got me good... Guess you're alright for a pegasi who can't fly worth their feathers. Yeah, Dark told me about that crash landing into that bed room." Red could only sputter at that, and it was apparently his turn to fidget uncomfortably. "Truce then... And we get to the lessons?" he asked, holding out a fore hoof. Dash met it with her own. "Truce for now... I'm still going to get you later." She flashed him a wicked grin and proceeded to make the rest of his day a rather hectic flurry of activity.

That evening a rather sore Red Wyne landed outside of Sugarcube  Corner, grateful for the chance to rest his wings for awhile. RD had told him to be here when they were done after he'd mentioned running into Pinkie Pie, and he had been a bit too busy trying not to accidentally shock himself as he dealt with a storm cloud dash had gotten together for him to practice on. He chuckled, remembering how his mane had stood on end when he'd accidentally set of a lightning strike and the residual static had gotten to him. Shaking himself and bringing his attention back to the present he went inside and was immediately assulted by several voices all screaming at once "WELCOME!!!!" After he'd been pried off the ceiling he had to admit... It was the best party he'd ever been to. He went to bed that night tired, sore, and full of cake, but with a huge grin on his face. He couldn't wait to see what tomorrow would bring.
> Chapter eight: The after effects of a darn good party
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"HURK!" was all Red had to say the next morning. If I ever eat another cupcake.... he thought to himself as he tried to quell the rebellion in his stomach. The night before he'd been egged on, roped into a bit of an eating contest with Pinkie... He'd gone to bed feeling fine, if so stuffed it wasn't funny, This morning though... Poor fella. At least he'd almost won.

Not feeling up to doing much he trotted outside, curled up on his porch and watched the sky slowly grow brighter as the sun came up. He smiled softly, noting that technicolor was a wonderful way to watch the sun rise. It gave everything a rather vibrant feel that sunrises back home just never seemed to match. A soft little sigh escaped him, drawing a stretch along with it. "Ugh..." he muttered as his motions pressed his queasy stomach against the hard wood he lay on. "Yep... Never touching cupcakes again..." he muttered, getting up and rushing off for the bushes.

He emerged some time later, feeling a bit better and a great deal emptier. The bush however felt a bit violated and disgusted. Red was oblivious, he didn't speak plant after all.

As the thought of food turned his stomach, Red took wing, headed out for the field where he was supposed to be meeting Dash again today. This time around he wasn't left waiting, instead he was startled by a sudden loud pop right behind his head. With a yelp fit for a small dog he shot a good fifty feet into the air and hung there, looking like someone had just show him his worst nightmare. Rainbow Dash was busy laughing her head off at that, quite literally rolling on the ground and laughing out loud. "Oh sweet Celestia, I've never seen anyone jump that badly from a paper bag popping!" she exclaimed, ghasping for breath between fits of uproarious laughter.

A rather sheepish landing later and Red was laughing right along with his new mentor. He had to admit she'd gotten him good with that little balancing of the scales. "Surprised you're up and about though Red. If I ate that much in one go I'd probably not get off my cloud for the rest of the week, I mean really, fifty-nine cupcakes, two slices of pie, and a bunch of soda... You're not related to Pinkie are you?" asked Dash with a rather amused smile. "Nope... I'm not, heck I'm not even from anywhere near here. The princesses took me in not too long ago and set me up here. Gotta say, I couldn't ask for a better place to live so far." Red replied with an equally wide grin.

They spent a few more minutes talking about the highlights of last night. DJ PON3's awesome wubs, that ill advised eating contest, a game of pin the tail on the pony that resulted in some poor pony getting a nice new beard... It had been a great night, one that Red would certainly treasure for years to come. It was nice to be welcomed like that.

"Uhh... Anyways, shall we pick up where we left off?" he asked with a shake of his head, clearing the mental cobwebs of nostalgia... If nostalgia could apply to the events of only five or six hours before. He wasn't quite sure which it was, he just knew he'd fallen into bed at a little after one. "Nah. If yesterday showed me anything its that I was kinda wrong about ya. You've got a good set of wings on you, but... Well... Storm clouds are not your thing." said Dash with a chuckle. "Instead I thought we'd set you up with some normal cloud clearing. You can kick up one heck of a gust mister walking feather duster."

"Normal cloud clearing" as it turned out wasn't quite that normal. It involved a whole lot more flapping than he would have thought, though dash did have a point about the whole gust thing. A few strong wing beats and he'd set one cloud pin-balling into a cluster of others, scattering them and single hoofedly inventing the sport of cloud bowling. Dash thought it was kind of awesome, Red just felt like a certain pokemon... Red Wyne used gust, its super effective.

Cloud busting on the other hoof, was rather easy for him. He'd found that out the hard way when he'd taken a sky born nap in Canterlot. He supposed that every pegasi found it this easy too, but be that as it may a light tap and "Bomph!" no more cloud. It was kind of annoying when he tried landing on one for a bit of rest and it burst apart, leaving him to hover in place of crash land on the library. "Well, I think that's enough for one day." called Dash, shaking her head and trying not to laugh at the ridiculous sigh of Red clinging to a tiny cloud that was slowly revolving, taking him with it. He waved his acceptance of her words and kept hold of his cloud, trying his hardest not to get too dizzy from constantly being flipped tail over tea kettle. He finally got things under control and left himself draped over the small cloud with a wide grin on his face. Dash had already flown off for her regularly scheduled nap, leaving hi to his own devices.

Probably not the greatest idea...

He'd gone exploring and found himself stuck in a tree, a rather comical sight considering his hooves stuck out of the foliage, looking like oddly shaped apples considering their color. A rather strong buck to his unwanted perch dislodged him sending him tumbling down into a basket only to wind up covered in apples. "What in tarnation!?"

Oh dear... Seems he'd found his way right into the apple baskets of a certain farmpony. A certain farmpony who wasn't too keen on anypony messing with her apple trees. "Uhh hi." he replied, feeling a bit like an overturned turtle in his current position. "Sorry... Wasn't watching where I was going and got myself stuck up there... Thanks for getting me down AJ." he rambled, squirming as he tried to get himself out from under the apples and out of the basket. Sighing Applejack pulled him up and began collecting the now loose apples, checking for bruises and putting the rejects in a neat pile at the base of the tree. 

A bit of a confused look graced the face of the Farm pony. How'd this fella know her name, she'd never introduced herself. "Ah reckon there ain't no harm done... Say ain't ya that new weather pony from Canterlot? Saw ya last night, and man... You and Pinkie would give a buffet a heart attack." Oh yeah... That new fella she thought to herself. Red blushed a bit, though his fur hid it. A fact he was still quite thankful for. "Well, since ya done fell outa the sky and landed in mah basket, I suppose ya owe me a few hour's work. Ya can help finish this orchard up. Only got a few more trees." Red nodded, it did seem fair considering the fact that he'd probably just cost her a good amount of bits if the pile of half crushed apples was anything to go by.
> Chapter nine: Apples... and Gravity
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"KLONK!"

"BOP!"

"POINK!"

"Well... Ah can honestly say that was one of the funniest thangs I e'er did see." said Applejack, stifling a giggle with a well placed hoof. "Even if ya did just ruin a few more apples." Red was wobbling on his hooves, eyes slightly crossed and a slowly forming knot atop his head. "Well... If old mister Newton ever got hit that hard... I can see why folks say Gravity is one mean mother..." muttered Red, shaking his head clear. AJ caught a few words and just brushed it off as another quirk in this odd pegasus.

She wasn't much given to judging folks based on appearance, but even she'd been taken aback and Red's lack of a cutie mark. Her family were late bloomers, but this was a bit ridiculous to say the least. Almost sixteen from the look of him and still a blank flank. Still, he worked hard, if one ignored a few mishaps like gravity... and a bit of nervousness. He seemed to be trying to watch what he said most of the time. She didn't mind that too much, but it made her kinda curious as to just what he could be hiding. "So then Red... Where'd ya say yall was from?" she asked, stifling another giggle as she watched Red dodge another falling apple with a smug look on his face.

"Well... Suffice it to say a long way off. The Princesses took me in not too long ago, set me up with a good flight instructor, let me stay in the castle... Heck they were even nice enough to give me some seriously awesome going away presents when I moved here. Luna gave me a great book and Celestia found something dear to me and returned it." he tapped a hoof against the bit of metal hanging around his neck with those words, drawing attention to it.

AJ trotted over and gave it a look, cocking an eyebrow. Jewelry wasn't something she cared for, but that was her. Still, this little medallion was plain enough to fit into her view of acceptable fashion. The small metal disk was adorned with a rather eyebendingly complex set of intertwined lines that left her wondering just what they could mean. Shrugging she straightened up with a warm smile. "Looks nice... But what is it?" she asked him. His answer was kind of enigmatic. "Something precious to me."

With the conversation lulled like it was the two returned to work, finishing quickly enough. A slightly bruised and sore Red Wyne stretched, fluttering his wings a bit and smiling softly at the now bare trees. "Thanks for getting me to help you Applejack. I had fun.. and never mind the knocks to the head, I've had way worse. Trust me on that one." Despite the soft chuckle there was something about the way he said those words that made AJ immediately want to do something nice for him. "Well... I did kinda tie your hooves ta'gather, so I can't let cha go without feedin' ya." she said, grasping on to the first thing that came to mind. What pony could turn down a free home cooked meal after all? Well apparently not this one.

"Thank you very much!" said Red with a rather heart felt grin on his face. AJ could only chuckle at the way his eyes lit up. What kinda life had this pony lived if a simple offer of dinner got this kind of reaction from him? Shrugging a bit she led him to her family's home, passing the short trip all the faster with a bit of family history along the way. Pushing the door open she let him inside and hollered out. "Ah'm home! And ah brought us a dinner guest. Come 'an meet him!" The first one to make her appearance was Applebloom, who went from zero to leg leech in the blink of an eye. "Hi thar! Ah'm Applebloom! What's your name?" Red blinked down at the little filly, chuckling softly. "Red Wyne. Pleased to meet you." he said, thinking to himself how she certainly matched up with the show. A little bundle of overly friendly energy. Applebloom's next words caught him off guard however. "How come your eyes are two different colors?"

He had no clue how to explain that one, mostly because he himself had no clue just why. "Well..." he began, fishing for something plausible. "I was born that way." In essence he was right, he'd been RE-born that way after all. Shrugging slightly he gently pried the filly off his leg and sat her side just in time to look up and catch sight of a certain very old mare giving him a once over. "'Bout time ya brought a fella home AJ.. Ah want some great grand-foals eventually." said Granny Smith, laughing to herself at the blush that crept over AJ's face. "Eeyup..." rang out the deep voice of Big Macintosh as he came plodding inside himself. "Ah'm just kiddin' you two... Come on, dinner's waitin'" said the old timer with another good natured laugh. Exchanging a rather relieved glance Aj and Red followed along behind the others, glad that had only been a joke. That would have been a rather awkward conversation had it not been.

Dinner was a grand spread of apple related dishes, everything from apple dumplings to biscuits with apple butter. Despite the rather large amount of food present the obvious care put into the preparation of everything was what struck Red the most, that and the mouth watering aroma of fresh baked goods. Conversation was put of in favor of face stuffing, and it was glorious. Everything was almost as delicious as it smelled, and Red could honestly say that he'd never had an apple pie that tasted that good. Stuffed, he settled back on his haunches and sighed contentedly. At least this time he hadn't gone over board with food so it was a good sort of stuffed.

After dinner, and Red insisting he helped clean up, everypony settled down to rest for a bit. "So the Red, why don't ya tell us a bit about yourself?" said AJ, giving her newest friend a soft nudge. He grunted, chuckling and glancing around. It was nice to have people wanting to hear what he had to say for a change, though he felt a bit awkward being the center of attention like that. "Well... To begin with I'm not exactly from Equestria. I come from a long long way off, a place where we're all grounded and nopony has a cutie mark." The shocked looks on the other's faces made him fidget a bit. "Wasn't all bad, there were always stories about this place, and my grandmother... Those kept me going when things just got depressing. Let me make a long story short here and just say that the princesses showed me an act of kindness at a very low point in my life and gave me a home here, away from all the bad stuff." He smiled warmly at them all, fidgeting slightly at the silence left in the wake of his words.

"Welp... I done heard enough. Glad to have ya here in Ponyville Red. You're welcome here anytime sugarcube." said Aj. Her words were met with a resounding "Eeyup!" from Big Mac and the other two. Hugs were had by all and Red left for his own home that evening feeling as if he'd just won the lottery. He couldn't think of any way this day could have gotten better. He'd leaned a bit more about flying and controlling the weather, got to know Applejack and Rainbow Dash a bit better, and he'd been given one of the best meals he'd ever eaten. Sighing contentedly he snuggled into bed. Rolling over he found himself nose to nose with Pinkie Pie. "HIYA!" startled beyond belief he jumped and wound up clinging to the ceiling. "Hehehe, guess what! Its my turn tomorrow! Mister Parable's going to let me play with you ALL DAY!"

Ahem... Pinkie... Shhh, that's for next chapter.

"OKAY!" exclaimed the pink mare, yelling at the wall. Red watched in confusion as she zipped right out the window, leaving a piece of candy on the sill as she left. "...I swear I'll never get used to that..." Red said to himself as he settled back into bed, shaking his head and chuckling as he drifted off to sleep. Off in the distance Pinkie sat having a conversation with a rock, debating on something about spoilers or something along those lines.
> Chapter ten: Sugarcoating Somepony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

		Red floated on a peaceful cloud of dreams, a faint smile on his face as his mind sent him dancing amongst the clear skys of his dreamscape. His dream was shattered by a sudden, and very real, weight on his chest. He snapped awake with a loud "Oomph!" to which his attacker let out a giggle. "Mornin'!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, who, in Red's opinion, was up way too early for a day off. It was Saturday, and according to the weather schedule it was a clear day, meaning he didn't have to work today. He was fine with that as long as he got to sleep in... No such luck apparently.

"Ugh.. Pinkie its too early... Its not even noon yet." he groused, blinking up at her. She giggled, bouncing excitably in a way that made him more than a bit uncomfortable. "Aww come on, get up sleepy head, roll on outa bed. Day's a wastin' with the pace that you're a settin'." she said in a singsong voice. Red could only groan softly in response Sighing he gently pushed her off and rolled himself out of bed, staggering off to his bathroom. Pinkie had enough sense to wait in his kitchen, busying herself making breakfast for them both. Some time later Red emerged looking less grumpy and more hungry. Somehow, in the span of the ten minutes or so he'd spent in there, Pinkie had thrown together a four course meal of breakfast foods. His jaw dropped at the sight of his small kitchen table piled up with biscuits, toast, cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, and several other things.

"Umm... Pinkie, how in... Where did... Know what... Thank you for cooking for us." he said, shaking his head and just accepting it. He'd often theorized that Pinkie Pie was some sort of pony goddess of madness and random shenanigans when he was human. Faced with her now he sort of felt his theory was fairly sound, after all how else could someone explain the fact that she was currently arguing with an egg that it had come second... And was actually winning the argument.

The two of them sat down to eat, and Red moaned softly in appreciation of the taste. "Hehehe, glad you like the food." said Pinkie, still mostly wrapped up in arguing with that egg. Eventually she gave it up and joined him in the destruction of the spread before them both. Some time later, when the dishes had been done and the left overs put away Pinkie grabbed hold of Red and went bounding off with him in tow.

Red was slightly perturbed at the pace at which things were moving. Pounced on, fed, and now dragged off to do who knew what with a mare as wild as her mane. Yeah... Definitely time to slow down just a little bit. "Pinkie, chill for a sec please. Mind telling me just what it is you've got planned for today?" he asked, skidding to a halt. "Weeeellllllll... I was gonna go show you some really neat stuff I found, but SOMEPONY," she looked up at the sky with a bit of an exasperated look with those words. "Said I'd better take things slow. SO! You and I are going to spend the day baking for the cakes. Won't that be fun?" Red wasn't quite sure who Pinkie was referring to with the "somepony" comment, but he chalked that up to another of her many eccentricities. With a shrug that caused his wings to flutter slightly he motioned her on ahead. A day of baking with the queen of party treats sounded good to him.

Traveling amount of space behind Pinkie Pie was an interesting experience to say the least. When she didn't have any set time to be some place or somepony else to follow she seemed rather prone to rambling off the beaten path. In this case however she darted from interesting thing to interesting thing, and Red could only chuckle at her antics. "More time you dally Pinkie, less time we have to bake you know." he called after her, watching as she ambushed some poor pony and gave him a cupcake she'd produced from nowhere... How was it still fresh anyways? All in all the trip between his home and Sugarcube Corner was both short and eventful. He didn't think he'd ever seen something move that fast when it came to doing something random to get a laugh.

When they did get there Pinkie immediately ushered Red into the kitchen, plopped a chef hat onto his head, tied and apron round him and stood him up against a wall on his hind legs holding a spatula. He was blinded by a camera flash, whisked off to another section of the kitchen and handed a mixing bowl. "Couldn't resist!" said Pinkie by way of explanation. Red just shrugged and awaited some instructions. "So what is it we're baking? I can do biscuits, but that's all I ever really made on my own baking wise..." he said, cocking his head slightly at the look Pinkie gave him. He couldn't quite decide if it was one of those "omgwhyareyousayingsomethingthatweird?!" looks or a "I swear I'm going to pound (cake) some knowledge into your head if it kills me" kind of look. He hoped it wasn't either one though.

"Well..." began Pinkie, accompanied by a sudden burst of music. Red just tuned her out as she sang that one song about cupcakes and how to make them. Even so when she'd finished he found himself watching a tray full of the little beasties that had made his morning yesterday so... Uncomfortable. How did... When... Ugh I swear I'll never understand Pinkie or her strange random bursts of neigh on godly powers. I don't even remember making these... Red thought to himself, frowning a bit at the fact that he was covered in flower and as far as he knew he hadn't been baking. Pinkie on the other hoof was pristine as could be and smiling that cutely manic grin of her's. "See, baking treats is such a cinch." Red just groaned, he felt another musical number coming on.

He was glad he was wrong though, because aside from the fact that Pinkie had somehow gotten him to not only make, but eat a few cupcakes, the day was going rather well. He found this sort of thing pleasant, making the dough for cookies and breads, kneading and rolling it out. Heck, beat home ec any day of the week. Especially Mondays. What he didn't like however was when he went to say good by for the evening. Pinkie apparently had a nice little parting gift for him...

"SURPRISE!" shrieked out a myriad of voices that whisked him up to the ceiling once again. Why did everypony insist on startling him so badly? Either way he found himself on the receiving end of another one of Pinkie's parties, this time around it was simply a "Thanks for baking with me!" party, or so the banners proclaimed. It took some coaxing and an assurance that nopony wanted to beat the ever living shit out of him (again) to get Red down from his perch on one of the rafters, but down he did get and was immediately devoured by the party. Cake, punch, games, ponies, good lord he felt kind of crowded and a bit uncomfortable to be under so much attention when covered in flower and such, but it was still quite nice to once again find himself welcomed with open arms into a loving community like this. To top the evening off he finally got to make the acquaintance of the other three of Pinkie's best friends. "Ah, so you must be the new flyer that Rainbow has drolled on about ad nauseum. I must say, you don't look at all as goofy as she said you could be. Such a wonderful coloration too, and those eyes... You simply must let me make something for you to wear, I rarely get the chance to design for stallions after all." said Rarity, some how making those compliments a bit backhanded, or was that back-hoofed? The white unicorn smiled charmingly at him, batting her eyelashes in a way that made Red feel guilty for even considering saying no. "A-alright... No harm in it after all. Is tomorrow alright?" he asked, to which he received a resounding yes and a promise of something that would bring out his blue eye.

Fluttershy, being who she was, was far to shy to say hello herself. She did however catch Red's attention when she tried her best to hide behind the punch bowl, making her face seem a few times bigger when seen through the glass. "Hello... Why're you hiding?" Red asked her, pausing as he passed her a small glass of the rather delicious pu- Oh good grief there's an alligator int he bowl! The punch forgone in favor of something non-reptile flavored he mannaged to get a few squeaks in answer out of Flutters, and nearly melted on the spot from the concentrated cuteness that was the yellow pegasus. Letting her alone so as not to make her any more uncomfortable and to avoid a rather unmanly squee he felt coming on he turned away to bump face first into Twilight Sparkle.

"Sorry." he said, rubbing a hoof over his muzzle slowly. His nose rather hurt from that, and he was pretty sure from the blush spreading over her cheeks they'd just accidentally kissed or something similar. "Umm... I... You... Its fine." stammered the lavender mare, fidgeting slightly as she tried to find her words. My first kiss was an accident! she lamented internally.  She was a highly logical mind to be sure, not much given to emotional outbursts or thought, but she'd always thought that her first kiss would have been shared with her special somepony, not thrust upon her because she hadn't been watching where she was going and had bumped lip to lip with somepony she didn't even know directly. Red's mind was running along a similar track, though his was wondering if he was going to get smacked, or turned into an orange.

Neither of these things happened however, Twi merely stammered out her own apology and left him be, trotting off to go find some place to figure out if what had just happened mattered at all. Red took the opportunity to slip away into the night and head home for a shower and bed.

Twilight, meanwhile, had found her corner and sat down, licking at her suddenly dry lips and coming up with the taste of sugar.
> Chapter eleven: New Threads and New Problems
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"OW!" squeaked out Red Wyne as he felt the bite of yet another needle. That was the fifth one in as many minutes, and he knew he was only going to get more little pokes the more he struggled. It wasn't as if he could really help it, after all Rarity had insisted that he play live manikin (or was that ponykin?) due to not having one that fit his dimensions well enough for her needs. The feeling of rich cloth running over his fur was something he still wasn't used to and it made him squirm a bit... It tickled, and you shouldn't judge the ticklish for their inability to hold still some times.

No one ever told Rarity that.

"Red, darling, hold still please before I decide to truss you up. I would hate to, mostly because it would get in the way, but I will if I must." said the white unicorn, an amused sort of exhaustion evident in her voice. They'd been at this for the last three hours, and while having such a handsome stallion in her boutique amused her greatly, she'd have liked one who wasn't so shy and... Wriggly. She wouldn't say as much to him, but she couldn't keep the thought out of her head.

For his part Re had been impressed by the ordered chaos of the place, for while it was messy and cluttered, there was an obvious system in place within the walls of Rarity's business. (Be it oh so humble as it was). That system had soon given way to an amusing sort of frantic activity the moment the mare got to working on him. Aside from the few pricks and the tickle of the silk she insisted on using, he was enjoying himself quite a bit. Rarity had never been his favorite pony, her putting on airs reminded him too much of a certain Mrs. Bucket. (Bouquet!) As it turned out she made for pleasant enough company. "Enough" being the operative word. She had a tendency to ramble on about fashion that Red found a bit droll.

"Oh dear... " her silken voice interrupted his internal monologue most boorishly. Gah! she was getting to him. "I appear to have run out of gems... I had such a lovely ruby and onyx tie ready to make as well. Would have gone perfectly with this tail coat and dress shirt too." the unicorn bemoaned, drawing a soft sigh from Red.

"Well... I can go help look for more gemstones if you'd like miss Rarity. Rainbow said I wasn't going to be needed today, something about scheduled sunshine till tonight, then we prep a light rain for tomorrow... Anyways... I'm free if you want to go prospecting." He made his offer in earnest, hating to see a woman, or mare in this case, in distress when he could do something about it. Rarity was quick enough to agree, especially since Spike had called off their last trip due to having to help Twilight with something big. Within minutes Red had been stripped of cloth, saddled with a cart, shovel, Rarity's bags, his own saddle bags, and a small thing of sandwiches for them to share when they needed a break.

Packed up and loaded down as he was, Red couldn't help but hate his big mouth and chivalrous nature. Still, it was worth it to see a smile on this mare's face when there'd been a soul crushing look of professional unhappiness on it not five minutes before. In a way he had to guess that Rarity's mood were akin to Pinkie's normality. Subject to frequent change.





The mid-afternoon sun beat down on the tired pegasus with a malicious sort of glee. Five hours of digging around in the dirt had been lucrative to be sure, as the slowly increasing weight of the gem laden cart indicated, but it was hard work. He paused in his digging for a moment, fanning himself with his wings a bit and kicking up a little dust in the process. "Ugh... Careful please, I'd rather not go home looking like I just lost a fight with a dust devil." groused Rarity, giving him a rather agitated look.

The rocky plane outside of Ponyville, red, dusty, and dry, was a fairly rich source of gems and it was to this place Rarity had brought Red to do the job he'd offered to do. Cracking open geodes, digging up deposits of raw stones, and generally just doing the physical labor hadn't bothered Red. What bothered him was the faint nagging memory that this place was home to things unsavory that liked making slaves of anything they caught to mine gems for them. Diamond Dogs, if his memory served, were a nasty lot.

Oh well, they'd been out here awhile and the worst that had happened had been a geode that had nothing but useless crystal within. If anything bad was going to happen it would have already, right? Well...

"Unhand me you ruffians!" called the distraught voice of Rarity from behind a large rock formation she'd gone to investigate as Red had finished loading up some gems. Abandoning the cart, but keeping the heavy bladed shovel in hoof, Red came a running to see what was up. Three large canines with blue-ish coats and sinister smiles had the mare ringed in against the rocks and were pawing at her in a taunting manner. That is, right up until Rarity bit one of them who didn't move his paw quick enough after giving her a slap. A yelp and an exchange of blood thirsty looks later and they three pounced on the unicorn with intent to kill. Red could only watch in shock.

Oh dear Gaia...

No... This can't be happening...

SNAP!

The first diamond dog had no clue what hit it, but it was beyond caring the moment the blow connected. It crumpled in a heap and its fellows turned to see just what had dropped their pack mate. Rarity lay sobbing in quiet pain behind them, hurt but not seriously so.

At first the dogs couldn't believe their eyes, couldn't believe them at all. A pony had just killed, yes killed, one of them with a single blow. They looked between the pegasi and their fallen comrade for a few heart beats before they growled and bum-rushed the foolish pony who'd dared swing a shovel in such a manner. 

The first of the two never saw the blow coming, it simply knew it was charging a blood red chew toy one moment, and the next it had a stinging pain on the back of its head and a face full of dirt. The other had enough time to think to itself "Something not right with thi-" before it howled in pain. A livid and ragged gash ran across its muzzle, bleeding in a torrent. It never saw the second blow coming, the one that ended its pain in an instant, snapping its neck even as it cut its throat.

Whimpering softly the stunned dog climbed to its paws and looked up into the eyes of a demon. Blood red fel orbs of murderous intent watched it calmly from the face of a pegasus pony with a coat to match the eye color. Slowly it raised the shovel it held in its hooves and regarded the dog with a look of contempt that sent chills down the dog's spine. In a brief moment of clarity the dog saw this pony was standing easily on its hind legs, and had time to marvel at that before the bloody shovel came down on its skull. It yelped again, falling back to the earth and squeezing its eyes shut tightly. It took five more heavy blows to crush the dog's skull, and another five before Red came to his senses and let the shovel fall from his grip. What had he done?!
> Chapter twelve: Aftermath and Afterthoughts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rarity's sobbing snapped Red out of his stupor. The sight of her threatened to knock him right back into one however, and as it was he had to spend a moment staring in shock. Her pristine coat had been mussed something awful, the normal snowy whiteness replaced with a dust smeared and blood splattered mess. She wept into her forelegs, shaking with pain and fear. Gently as he could Red laid a hoof on her shoulder, hoping to offer some comfort as he checked her over for injuries.

Red himself wasn't in the best of shapes, his blood red coat stained a few shades darker with the life's blood of his kills, but he didn't notice. He only had eyes for the mare whom he'd just committed murder to keep safe. She'd cringed slightly at his touch, but soon allowed him to draw her into a gentle hug, weeping into the fur of his shoulder. He held her tightly, tears flowing down his own face freely.

In his own mind he was now no better than every cruel twisted figure who'd done him some harm. In many ways he was worse, so very much worse. They'd beaten him, made his life hell, but they'd never robbed him of it. Never once robbed anything of life that he knew of, but he had. No matter the reason, no matter if good came of it, he'd killed three living creatures and he'd done it so very easily. In the clarity that only comes after the fact he realized that he'd not only killed them, he'd done it in a horrid manner. All murder was horrid sure, but to beat someone to death with a shovel? Gods below... He didn't deserve to be in such a peaceful place as Equestria. He didn't deserve to be given such a great gift. He didn't de-

"Thank you..." whispered a soft voice in his ear. "If you hadn't been here, I don't think I would be..."

Red blinked, distracted from his dark thoughts by those simple and heartfelt words, and the fact that they'd been spoken by somepony who'd been nothing but kind to him in the first place hit him like a freight train. The feeling of the mare who's life he'd saved by taking three other lives hugging him tightly and pressing her lips softly to his bloody cheek floored him. She was thanking him for doing something so violent? He couldn't believe it, not at all. It was so against what he knew of pony sensibilities.Still... She was right, he'd saved her life even at so great a cost, and that ment at least some good had come from his actions.

Gems forgotten he gathered her up, holding her tightly, and took wing. He flew automatically, concern for his new found and injured friend occupying his mind. At some point he simply black out, and knew no more, overwhelmed by his thoughts and feelings and unable to cope.





He awoke to find himself floating in a star-filled expanse of darkness, alone and afraid. Where was he, why was he here, and what had happened to Rarity were the only questions on his mind. The only questions until a soft and familiar voice spoke behind him.

"Crevan... You're alright, relax and talk to me for awhile please." said Celestia, walking calmly towards him across the Astral plane. She wore a soft comforting smile, her eyes touched with sadness and her bearing a bit subdued as if by a great weight pressing down on her normally regal frame. Slowly she sat down near him, extended her wings, and wraped the confused and scared pegasi in a warm embrace. "Everything will be ok Crevan, or Red if you prefer that name now." she whispered in his ear.

"How can it?" he replied with a hint of pain and bitterness tinting his words. "I... I killed three living, breathing, THINKING, beings. I don't deserve to be here, even if I did save a life. Nothing can excuse murder, nothing." He broke into sobs at his own words, clinging to the princess like a drowning man to a piece of flotsam. He wept for the lives he'd taken, for the lack of remorse he'd felt while wielding that shovel, and for the fact that he'd not even given them a chance in his blind fury.

Celestia remind silent for a few moments, letting him cry himself out. Gently she kissed the top of his head and pushed him away enough to look him in the eye. "My little pony," he cringed at that, "That's exactly why you do deserve what you've been given. Nothing excuses violence and murder, that is true. However, you don't have to excuse it in this case. You fought in defense of another's life and your own. My dear boy, you're a hero to Rarity and her friends, to Ponyville, and to my sister and I. Rarity and the others for obvious reasons, you saved her life and got her to a hospital at great risk to yourself. For me and my sister you are a hero not because you saved a life, but because even after taking three you weep for them. You shed not a single tear for yourself, but for the lives you were forced to take."

Red Wyne sat and listened to all this quietly, sniffling every now and again. It offered him little comfort, but he knew she was right. He'd saved Rarity, had gotten her medical care, and he'd do it again if he had to... But he'd try and avoid taking lives if he could have. The princess' admission that he couldn't have avoided doing so brought fresh tears to his eyes and he hugged her tightly once more. In the back of his mind a little hissing voice whispered They deserved worse...

He ignored it, falling asleep in the wings of the princess who'd not only played a part in giving him a new home, but had just comforted him when he needed it. Celestia smiled softly down at him, and let him drift back to the Prime Material plane, safe in the knowledge that he would be safe and whole when next he awoke. She cared for her little ponies, even those who hadn't always been her's. "Sleep well..." she whispered to him.

Red awoke some time later to find himself in a hospital bed, six mares standing around his bed, mounds of flowers and get well cards piled up on every viable space, and the warm glow of grateful friends showering him like a blessing from the heavens. He smiled softly, drawing attention to his being awake, and was immediately wrapped in a six way hug that he could honestly say he didn't mind, despite the rib cracking force of it. It just made him feel all the more grateful to have been placed here.
> Chapter thirteen: A Visit from a Goddess
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A couple days had passed since the... Incident... And Red found that life had turned rather disconcertingly hectic. First there was the entire mane six asking him to various engagements, lunches, outings, and other such things and he couldn't bring it upon himself to decline at all. He could honestly say that he'd never wanted to get away from a woman, let alone six of them, so badly. Still... It was nice to be so aggressively wanted in a platonic manner.

At the moment however Red was glad to be home alone and enjoying some time curled up with Luna's parting gift. He'd been engrossed in the book all morning, and he was quite surprised at the fact that she'd thoughtfully given him a copy in English as opposed to Equestrian. It wasn't that he couldn't read it, but this was another tie to something familiar and he appreciated the gesture. If he didn't know better he'd have to say that the Princess of the Night cared for him as if he were her foal. Nah... That was just too far fetched. That, however, paled in comparison to the old legend he'd just finished reading. Kitsune... He couldn't believe that Equestria had their own legends and myths about the mischievous little fox spirits.

He'd loved reading the world's mythology when he'd been human, and one of his favorite bits of lore happened to be Kitsune. Little nine tailed balls of mischief, pranks, and unshakable honor. Messenger spirits for a goddess named Inari, who's domain was rice and the harvest if his memory served properly.

Here in Equestria however they were something far simpler, they were free roaming immortal beings who made trouble in harmless ways wherever they could. The book's few bits about them said that, much like their Earth counterparts, they had  a strong sense of honor and went out of their way to cause the most trouble to those who did wrong to others. In another random bit of similarity they had the appearance of nine tailed fox-like creatures the size of a filly.

Chuckling to himself Red sat the book aside and shimmied himself out of his bed with a reluctant slowness that one can only get when comfortable, warm, and lost in a haze of wonderful literature. The blood colored pegasus stretched slowly, spine popping like a zipper, as he worked out a few kinks and cramps from a long morning spent in bed. Long, but pleasant in a simple manner.

Limbered up a bit he staggered his way to the bathroom, flipped on the light, and jumped in surprise at the sight before him. "I swear to Gaia I'm going to shove a cupcake in Pinkie's ear... Or something." he muttered to himself as he poked at the shower curtain that had been somehow printed with a rather large picture of Pinkie's smiling face and the words "Pinkie is always watching!"

...Yeah that one came down quick and he just settled on a relaxing bath. He still found bathing with hooves and what was basically four legs to be a novality even after the time he'd spent as a pony. Sighing softly he allowed himself to sink into the warm water and rested his head against the edge of the tub. A soft little sound of pleasure escaped him. "Why did I ever stop taking actual baths in favor of showers...?" he asked himself, mumbling slightly as he melted into the tub. He drifted slowly off, lulled by the warm water lapping at his body like soft fingers. Tension he'd not known he was carrying eased away in simple relaxation.

He opened his eyes slowly and found himself not in his tub, but laying upon a large, and rather comfortable, bed. The midnight blue sheets of satin left his fur a-tingle as he sat up slowly, blinking and looking about in confusion. A quiet giggle sounded behind him an instant before he found himself hugged back against a warm body, feathers covering his face.

"Hello Red Wyne." purred the voice of Luna in his ear as the feathered were pulled away. He looked up, blushing bright enough to darken his face even against his blood red fur. The sight of which drew yet another soft sound of mirth from the alicorn. "I am glad to see you whole and hale once more."

He blinked slowly, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to find a few words and come to terms with the fact that she still hadn't released him. In fact she hugged him a bit tighter, or so it seemed to him. He finally found his voice and the only sound to escape him was a simple "Meep."

Laughing, Luna gently let him go and backed up just a bit. The stricken human turned pegasus seemed more than a bit  flustered by the rather sudden glomp and snuggle he'd just been subjected to, a fact that she found amusingly cute. Still, she knew he'd bounce back quickly enough and that made the tease all the more fun. By my moon and stars... That's adorable. she thought to herself as she watched him cover his face with his hooves and lower his ears.

A few moments passed before Red got his act together and managed to speak properly once again. "He-hello Princess... Umm... I'm dreaming aren't I?" he asked, peeking at her over the edge of one of his hooves. His icy blue eye holding a depth of embarrassment that only Fluttershy could have ever matched... Or a certain lavender colored mare after a particular accidental kiss...

Luna couldn't help the soft little "D'aww" that escaped her at that sight. "Yes Red, this is a dream... And for future reference, falling asleep in the bathtub is not a good idea. Still, I suppose I cannot fault you for it. I've let warm water lull me into a nap a time or two... Now then, as to why I brought your astral self here... I wanted to check in on one of the few who hold my night sacred and who pays homage to my moon, especial when that somepony in question is one who we gave a new life." she said, a faint smile on her muzzle.

Red blinked slowly, sitting up at a languid pace and giving her a bit of a confused look. "You mean you... Oh horse feathers, should have guessed you'd know about that." he said with a small nervous smile of his own. "Umm... It wasn't inappropriate was it...? My religion I mean. I mean I know there's not a lot humans who actively practice what's seen as a pagan religion in today's world... Heck, my grand mother was the only other one I knew directly and that's because she taught me what I know... Wait a second... Are Druids common here in Equestria?"

Luna let out a quiet little laugh at his ramblings and gently shushed him with a hoof over his mouth. "In order, No it's quite flattering. That is sadly true but I do not begrudge your people for their break from their old ways. Finally, no religion is not something most practice here in this land, though shrines to our mother, Faust, are common enough. I cannot help but wonder if you would have had an affinity for natural magics had we graced you with a horn instead of wings... However, the freedom of flight seemed more fitting and if the way you seem to enjoy it is any indication I'd say it was the right choice." Luna smiled softly at him, lifting her hoof and settling down at his side. In a manner fit for a mother she drew the pegasus closer, letting her wing rest gently over him.

Red sighed softly, leaning against her and gently nuzzling her shoulder. "Honestly... I don't think I can ever thank you for bringing me here, not even if I had an eternity to spend saying 'thanks' over and over again..." he said quietly, letting out a soft little sigh once more. The unabashed sincerity in his words brought a smile to the lunar goddess' face, a smile of one who is genuinely touched on a deep emotional level by the words of another.

"Crevan, you deserved this and more. If you'd not earned a place here in peace before your defense of another certainly cemented it. Do not thank me, my sister, or any other. It is we who should thank you for showing your kind are not a completely lost cause." Luna said, gently hugging the stallion at her side. "Now it is time for you to wake before you catch cold in that tub of your's... Go on you... And expect a small reward for your heroism, something from me to you my little pony."

Red awoke with a sneeze, getting a nose full of water for his troubles. "Pleasant dream that.." he muttered as he shook the water from his face and slowly climbed out of the tub and shook himself, both to return some feeling to his icy limbs and to shed a bit of water. Wrapping himself in a towel he dried off as quickly as he could, headed for his kitchen, and prepared to face the rest of the day, armed with a nice toasted bagel slathered in cream cheese that is.
> Chapter fourteen: Paw Prints on Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was a wonderful afternoon, the sun was shining brightly, ponies were bustling about and chatting as only a close community can, and Twilight Sparkle was annoyed beyond belief. Despite the beautiful scene before her, despite the way Ponyville was wonderful in most every way, there was something on her mind...

And on her head....

Tap dancing...

And singing at the top of its lungs.

Hello my baby, hello my honey
Hello my ragtime gal!
Send me a kiss by wire, baby my heart's on fire
If ya refuse me, baby you'll lose me and you'll be left alone
Oh darling telephone and tell me I'm your own!

"Would you get OFF!" Screamed Twilight, tossing her head to dislodge the... whatever it was. Her actions availed her now however, as the little headache on paws clung to her like a fly on a glue trap. "UGH! I swear when Spike gets back I'm going to have him torch those tails of your's..." she muttered darkly. Her mood went further south as the thing atop her head  curled one of those tails loosely under her chin, tickling her slightly.

"Aww, is the ickle pony-kinz all annoyed with little ole me?" asked the petulant voice of the thing atop her head. Laughed followed quickly on the heels of its words, laughter that was surprisingly good natured and musical in quality. Using her horn as a spring board the thing jumped off her head, turning a neat little flip, and landed lightly on four paws facing her.

It resembled a fox, though it was the size of a squirrel at the moment, though comparing it to your common vulpine would have probably made for the easiest 'spot the difference' game ever. For one its fur was a brilliant snowy white, and Twilight knew from close contact that it was as silky as it was white. Secondly it was adorned with some rather odd markings of a brilliant scarlet on its shoulders and forehead. Finally it had nine tails, each one tipped in the same brilliant red as its odd markings. The eyes of this little thing were bright, intelligent, and the color of old jade. As Twilight looked on with an expression that screamed 'I'm going to trample you' the little creature get to something the size of a foal, simply increasing in size for a few moments until it was its proper size once again.

"Well... I hope you've enjoyed our time together, my little redecorating job on the library, and the paw prints in awkward places... But I've got more fun things to do I bet." said the creature with a wink, a wink that brought a bit of a blush to the mare's face coupled with his words and the black ink all over her flank. Laughing in a manic fashion it spun smartly on a hind paw and vanished in a flare of azure flames.

Twilight's scream of complete and utter frustration echoed out over Ponyville, drawing the attention of everypony from there to Tin-bucked-ewe. One pony in particular happened to have been flying over head, and in true cartoon logic, was startled into crash landing on the balcony of Twilight's library.

Red groaned softly, picking himself up and shaking himself neatly to clear off a few twigs embedded in his mane. Spitting leaves he turned his attention to the fuming mare who was giving him a look somewhere between confused, amused, and pissed off. "Umm... Hi." he said lamely, fidgeting from hoof to hoof.

They'd not spoken much since that accidental smooch, despite the fact that she'd been right there with her friends after he'd saved Rarity. Be that as it may, Red hadn't seen much of her at all and he wasn't quite sure how to approach her anyways. Now however, it seemed her was going to be tip-hoofing on egg shells so as not to set off that particular landmine.

Twilight sighed slowly, visibly shaking as she reigned in her emotions for a few minutes. "Hello Red... Now isn't a good time... I've got a library to clean, a shower to take, and a whole lot of research to do about strange nine tailed fox things." she said, turning to go do just that and giving Red a great view of the paw printed plot.

"Wait... Nine tailed foxes? You've got a kitsune in town? COOL!" he exclaimed, his wings snapping to attention and a look of open wonder on his face.

"Kits soon?! Ponies don't have kits... What in the world are you talking about?" came Twi's reply as she rounded on him, mouth hanging open and a confused look on her face.

"No no no, Kitsune, as in me." came a third voice as the fox critter popped into being atop Red's back, looking rather smug. "And its nice to see someone knows my kind around this place... Makes things more fun for me when I turn things upside down." With those words the kitsune slowly turned upside down, apparently free of such little things as gravity. It padded across empty air, walking normally enough, to hover between the two of them, that smug little expression still on its face.

Twilight and Red could only stare, one in annoyance, the other in wonder, at the apparently not so mythical being before them.

"You there, yes you, the one what has wings... Have yourself a moustashe for knowing what I am." said the kitsune with a flick of one of its tails. A rather large and impressive bit of lip fuzz burst forth from Red's face, much to his amusement. "And you, grape colored one... You can have one too, we'll make it a foo man chu." another flick and yet another instance of folicalular manipulation and twilight was further annoyed and apparently some form of wise old master.

"My work here is done... Back to lurking in mail boxes with a mouse trap!" exclaimed the fur ball as it vanished once more, this time in a shower of cherry blossoms.

Red and Twilight exchanged a look, sighed, and nodded in agreement. It was going to be a long afternoon... And there was much shaving to be done.
> Chapter fifteen: There was a hole here... Its gone now
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Pinkie was PISSED, and that was putting it mildly. For the second time in her life she found herself muted in the most annoying way possible, her mouth was gone. She glared mutely at the cause of her distress, some strange little nine-tailed fur ball who seemed to be taking great delight in juggling several cupcakes and taunting her with them. She scraped her hoof over the floor of Sugar Cube Corner's kitchen and prepared to charge. With a loud "MURMPH!" of sheer rage she darted forward...

And...

Hugged the little Kitsune, doing her best to laugh despite the lack of an oral orifice. Needless to say the little trouble maker was surprised enough to let go of its grip on the magic keeping Pinkie muted.

"Ohmyghosh! You... Are... AWESOME! I was totally gonna throw you a 'Welcome strange foxy critter' party, but now Imma make it a 'Welcome totally epic ball of weird magic that juggles things party!'" exclaimed the cotton candy colored earth pony as she danced around with the Kitsune between her forehooves.

Needless to say this was a bit too much for the little fellow and he promptly blew a raspberry at Pinkie, licked her nose, and vanished in a puff of illlogic.

Somewhere a Vulcan shuddered, knowing somehow that something highly illogical had occurred.





Elsewhere in Ponyville Rainbow Dash was showing off for a little orange filly, one who had a poor taste in role models. Aerial acrobatics were on display the likes of which were on par with the wonderbolts... When they were little. Still, there was no denying that RD had some skillz, much to the delight of Scootaloo. The little filly sighed softly as she watched Dashie show off a bit, wishing she could join her with all her might. 

Well... Wish granted in the way only a Kitsune can. Though Djinn were known to take things along a similar twisting path.

Before Scoots even knew what was up, she was quite high up there, slowly floating skyward like a balloon. Rainbow had thankfully taken time to bask in the praise she was no doubt receiving, and was just in time to notice the fact that her audience of one was now one short... But slowly getting larger on the vertical scale. Acting quickly RD caught the apparent weather balloon of a filly and brought her back to earth as gently as she could.

"Umm... Scoots, whats up, aside from you that is?" asked the cyan pegasus with genuine concern in her voice.

Scootaloo began to answer only to be interrupted by a burst of laughter from the bushes and a very sudden, and fluffy, hat with nine tails. Dash's new head piece leaned down and smiled a grin full of needle teeth. "Howdy there my little paint pallet. Enjoying the balloon buddy?" It asked, winking before it vanished, leaving the two ponies confused,a bit startled, and one of them very buoyant.





Red heaved a sigh as he went about helping clean things up, though cleaning up was a mild term. A better one would have been damage control. While the books were relatively untouched by the ravishing of Kitsune mischief, the rest of the library was not so lucky.To Red it looked as if various video games had shoved their world altering selves into a small space. Here and there lay bits of rusted corrugated metal and chain link, across one wall was painted the words "There was a hole here, its gone now" in place of the window that used to occupy that particular wall. In other spots green letters and numbers were packed so densely they seemed to form solid objects. Another part of the library had gone dark and foggy, strange shapes moving about in the depths of the dense vapors. All in all, t'was a mess. A mess that had Twilight sobbing against Red's shoulder and clinging to him.

"Twi, its ok... We'll catch that fox and get him to fix this... Till then, lets stay outa the horror section... I don't like the look of that figure lying there." said Red softly. Twilight just clung to him tighter, doing her best not to stare at the mess that was all the remained of her perfectly ordered library. She was near hysterics, prompting Red to gently, but firmly, drag her back upstairs and plop her onto her bed. "Calm down Twi... Please? You're the smartest mare I know, so use that head of your's for something other than a hat rack." Twilight said nothing, she just shot him a look that said 'Shaddap'.

Red opened his mouth to say something else when he was pounced on from behind and sent barreling into Twilight. They landed in an awkward tangle, a rather intimately awkward tangle that left their lips pressed gently together.  Twilight and Red both were stunned, shocked into stillness and unable to pull away for a few moments. Red's mind was a bit too shell shocked to question why his wings felt so stiff, or the fact that there was a slight weight dancing along his spine.

"Aww, look at the love birds... Miss me you two?" asked the little match maker who was currently scrunching up Red's back into something more comfortable for it to use as a resting place. "Well don't mind me, just gonna catch a nice little nap... You two have fun, I'm not about to let my mattresses go anywhere until I wake up." That said the Kitsune dropped itself down, curled up, and refused to move at all.

Red made every effort to get off Twilight, but he may as well have tried to raise the moon for all the good it did him. For something that felt light against his back, that damned fox was apparently as good as his word. They weren't going anywhere anytime soon. "Umm... Twi care to give teleporting us a shot?" he asked, still squirming about, much to Twilight's embarrassment. Her horn glowed brightly for a moment before it fizzled out, spitting a few sparks. "Well then... Buck me over a barrel..." muttered Red to himself, consigning himself to being a bed for awhile.. Least he had some reluctant company.
> Interlude: Parable's Hat.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"...And thusly they remained there for awhile, trapped benieth a mischievous ball of fur." said a bone white pegasus to the assembled crowd before him. The stallion in question reached over and took hold of a glass of water, bringing it to his lips he tilted it back to quench his slightly parched throat when he was interrupted by a highly curious filly.

"Wait a second, you can't end it there mister Parable! Please keep telling the story... Please?" these words were coupled with enough weaponized cuteness to call world peace five times over, and still level the city of Paris. Needless to say Parable's heart melted and came dribbling out his pores.

"Little ones, my voice needs a rest. Give me a little while to do just that and I promise there will be more to the story. After all, Twilight and Red Wyne being stuck in bed is not a good place to end a story entirely, now is it little ones?" he replied, finaly getting that drink of water he needed.

Dark Parable smiled warmly at the assembled crowd and sighed softly, sweeping his wide brimmed hat off his head and reaching into it. In an odd twist his forelimb sank in right up to his shoulder as he fished about inside it. The same little filly watched with wide eyes, wondering just how it was that a normal looking feathered hat could be so deep. Her expression went from puzzled to open wonder as Parable came up with a small crystal ball and plopped the hat back atop his head.

"Now then, as I'd like to not speak for a few moments, I'd like to entertain you in a different manner." Standing on his hind legs he began to toy with that orb, rolling it over his hoof in ever widening circles before he sent it rolling down his forelimb, across his chest, and down his other limb, letting it come to rest on his other hoof. He slowly added in more and more complex movements, each one seemingly more impossible than the last without the aid of magic. Being a pegasus, he of course had none.

Dark Parable smiled warmly out at his audience, watching their reactions with the pride of a long time entertainer. He cut a striking figure, bone white coat, black mane, crimson eyes, and his cutie mark all combined to make him stand out in a crowd. The cutie mark especially, for it was unique in a way that most marks fell short of matching. His mark was a black book flanked by two lit candles of black in golden holders. The book's cover was adorned with a grinning pony skull. Not the most friendly looking of cutie marks, but it went well with what he did.

Parable was a story teller, he traveled from place to place, spreading stories and feats of stage magic that left his audiences  clamoring for more. He mostly specialized in the dark and horrific, hence the cutie mark. Still, he prided himself on being able to pander to any crowd, and in this case he felt that the tale he was telling suited a bunch of younger ponies just fine.

"Well then little ones, I'l continue on the morrow, so please show no sorrow. The story will continue, or by my bone and sinew, you can run me right from town. So come now little ones, do not frown, do not look so down, my word is my bond and to it I will stick." With those words he flicked his little ball skyward and winked at the filly as it came down, not as a ball but a small bag of bits. He passed it to her and sent them running off.

"Ahem... Now then all those who've been listening to this story, or rather reading it there on your computer screens the same goes for you. There shall be another chapter tomorrow. For now however, enjoy this little look into what I do for fun." He looked directly at the reader for this, winked, and flared his wings before he vanished in a burst of black feather coupled with the harsh caw of a raven.
> Chapter sixteen: Red Tinted Tales
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Red and Twilight heaved a simultaneous sigh and glanced awkwardly away from one another, not quite sure just what they were to do about their current situation. They'd been stuck in an impromptu pile that left Twilight Sparkle slightly squished, Red feeling more than a bit embarrassed about where his appendages happened to be, and a certain fox like being with a pair of unwilling mattresses. Needless to say the Kitsune was probably getting the most out of the deal there, though in his opinion he was actually being nice and giving these two a nice little moment as a forced couple.

The silence reigned without question in the library, broken only occasionally by a soft squeak from the sleeping spirit atop Red's back and the quiet creaking of the building moving a bit in the light breeze... It was a tree after all, and swaying in the breeze was kind of in its job description, building or no. Red fidgeted a little as he tried to get a bit more comfortable, drawing an soft little sound of embarrassed pleasure from Twilight. A sound the made him go still once again so quickly one would think he got into a staring contest with a cockatrice. Blushing badly enough to darken his already sanguine coat a few shades he opened his mouth to apologize to his fellow pony-mattress, but all that escaped him with a quiet little squeak of shame.

Twilight looked up at him for a moment and sighed. "Its fine... Nothing we can do here... Wish my magic was working, that way I could get us out of here and wipe my memory of this debacle." she said, though with the look on Red's face she immediately regretted her choice of words. He looked almost as if she'd slapped him.

"Look... I know we're not exactly comfortable with one another after our little run in at that first party..." began Red, "But I would at least like to be your friend as much as I am the others'. You mares are wonderful ponies to know, and I'm sad to say I don't know you as well as I know the others... Can we call a truce or something as long as we never talk about... This...?"

A truce was indeed drafted up in a purely mental sense just then, the unspoken terms set, the accord reached, and a cease fire called. Peace between their two kingdoms, much rejoicing, and Sir Robbin's Minstrels mysteriously disappearing during a freak snowstorm in a mountain pass... Best kind of peace that.

Following their mutual agreement silence once more returned to the library for a little while, only to be broken by Twilight as she gave Red a soft poke in the ribs. "So... I'm sure my friends have told you about me..." she said, fishing for a good way to put her thoughts into words without sounding offensive. "But... Well... They didn't tell me much about you, just that you're from some place far away and that the Princesses brought you here for some reason. So... Umm... Can you maybe tell me about your homeland and yourself?"

Red blinked, cocking his head a bit before he shrugged and nodded. "Well aside from giving Fluttershy a run for her shyness just then Twilight, I suppose I can... Give me a minute." he replied after a few moments, then fell into thought as he considered how best to explain just how different Earth was Equestria. He nodded to himself and finally settled on a good explanation.

"Well... For starters my homeland is not a place you can get to easily, so don't go looking for it. The land itself is close enough to Equestria in some places, lots of farm land and small towns that are pretty close nit. I sadly didn't grow up in an area like that. I lived in a city, and cities there are not the shining places they are here. No cities where I'm from are jumbled, sprawling, beasts that just eat up the surrounding land and fill the skies with smog and such. Sure we've got parks and the like, but its not the same."

"Wait wait wait... What do you mean by smog? Pollution and the like should be a non issue with unicorns about..." Twilight interrupted, frowning in scholarly curiosity.

Red sighed a bit before he continued. "Twilight, we don't have unicorns. Its all earth ponies over there basically. Sure there's a few ponies like myself, but we're grounded. The only one's allowed to fly have to go to a school for it and have to have a licence, even then they can only fly when they're told to unless they want to pay for the privilege of private flight... We rely mostly on technology, things that make life easier for ponies. In my opinion though it takes us away from what's really important. After all, when one can pop a premade meal into a microwave oven, who cares at all for working the land to get your own food. Mother Gaia was meant to provide for us, but my people squander her gifts... Oh sorry... That's a tangent there."

Anyways, that's enough about that... Not sure that Celestia... Pardon me, Princess Celestia wants me to talk about this anyways. The ponies where I'm from aren't the nicest sort to those who differ from social norm. I'm a case and point. The main reason the Princesses brought me here was to save me. I was hospitalized because of some ponies deciding they didn't like me too much and voicing their displeasure in a violent physical manner."

Twilight blinked up at him, not quite sure how to respond to all that. She did the only thing she could think to do really and gave him a soft nuzzle before motioning for him to go on. He smiled sadly in response and nodded.

"As for telling you about me... There's not much to tell. I was always quiet, kept mostly to myself, and tried hard not to be noticed. Sadly its the one's who try hard not to be seen that get noticed right off, so I was a pretty constant target for bullies. Main reasons... I was tall, stuck out in a crowd, and I liked some things that other ponies considered for little foals. My family never really cared much, just so long as I wasn't causing trouble for them I was more than welcome to do what I liked. My grandmother was really the only friend I had, she taught me about Gaia and the Circle, as well as herblore, some things about the spirits, and other things. When she passed I turned instead to what she'd taught me and to art... Got to be a decent artist, but I'm not sure I could do that now... Have trouble holding a quill steady enough to draw, let alone write."

At this point Twilight placed a hoof over his mouth and shook her head. She'd heard enough, and for once she didn't want to know any more. She wasn't a foal, she knew he wasn't telling her quite a few things, but that didn't bother her so much. What did bother her was they almost nonchalant way he spoke of his past, almost as if he'd cut his ties with most of it. She supposed that he would have had to really if he could never go home. Not that he wanted to apparently.

Gently pushing her hoof from his lips he sighed and rolled his eyes a bit. "Look... I can understand not wanting to hear it, but I don't need to know what your hoof tastes like" he said with a chuckle and a bit of a shrug. Honestly he was relived she'd stopped him... He had a sense that he was rambling more than was healthy.

It was at this point that they noticed something funny, namely that they weren't on the bed anymore. They were instead atop a cloud and their positions were reversed. "Ok... Look you two," said a voice, one they recognized as the Kitsune's. "I was trying to sleep, so you two could have kept it down, but nooooo, lets keep the kitsune awake. Here you two go, chat all ya want and Imma go make a bed outa that weird pink one. She at least smelled less like a monkey than you there bloody bird horse."

They looked over just in time see the kitsune manage to make a rather obscene gesture at them and disappear suddenly. They were quite alone now, atop some cloud, and the only thing keeping them up there was Red holding tightly to Twilight, who was in turn half strangling him in sudden fear of falling. Damn... What a day.
> Chapter Seventeen: The Moon's Gift... And Further Furry Antics
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Falling, never really a pleasant experience for some. There's a complete and total lack of control as gravity decides that you are, incontestably, it's plaything. For others there's a feeling of utter exhilaration as the wind rushes past you, as the world rushes up to greet you there's a feeling of defying death. In really long falls, like say from about the height of a hundred story building (or equivalently elevated cloud) there's a sort of slowing to time that allowed all this to roll through the mind of one Twilight Sparkle.

Red however, wasn't falling. He was simply taking a more direct route to the ground with his mare sized lavender flight vest clinging to him like a particularly persistent leech. About fifty feet off the ground he pulled out of his dive and skimmed the earth close enough to allow the grass to tickle Twilight's back, an act that finally snapped the shell shocked unicorn out of her blank faced, mind racing, nigh catatonic... Well, it brought her back to reality with a loud cry of "SWEET CELESTIA THAT WAS AWESOME!... Do that again and I swear I'll turn you into an orange."

It wasn't as if Red had intended to scare the living daylights out of her, but it had certainly been amusing. "Sorry Twi... Can you let go now? I'm kinda having trouble breathing when you're compressing my rib cage like this." he said, wheezing slightly from the effort of drawing breath... and of course his little aerial stunt that left both their manes windswept in a rather stylish manner.

It took a crow bar, or at least a magical construct in the shape of one, to pry the two of them apart, but when Twilight dropped off Red drew in a great gulp of air and fell over, rolling onto his back. Twilight simply lay where she'd landed with an "oof" and stared up at the sky. They lay that way for a few minutes before looking at one another and smiling broadly.

"Well... Later on, after we sort out the mess that little fox is causing, I guess you're going to want to learn more about where I'm from yeah?" asked Red, his smile faltering ever so slightly. Still, he felt the offer was implicit in his question, he just kinda hoped she'd miss it in the wake of the thrill ride he'd just given her.

Well, she didn't miss it, but she didn't comment on the slight flicker in his expression either. She simply smiled a bit more warmly and rolled to her hooves before she answered. "Maybe, but I think that can wait... Maybe over dinner or something." With that, and a blush she did her best to cover, she trotted off in the general direction of Ponyville. Red wasn't far behind, though he was far ahead in terms of hiding the red color her words had brought to his face.





Rarity was utterly poleaxed by the sight before her. Never in all her life had she seen something so absolutely beautiful, so stunning, so... So... Her words fell far short of describing the sight of the kimono that hovered in the air before her. She'd been quite wrapped up in her work, somepony had anonymously ordered a rather elaborate design that had taken her a long while just to get all the materials prepped. Let alone even begin cutting for the pattern she'd been provided with.

She'd allowed herself a few moments to look up at the clock when a flutter of movement caught her eye, drawing her attention away from her work by virtue of curiosity... She'd been alone when she began working hadn't she? Well yes she had, but when the movement turned out to be the fluttering of cloth she'd been enraptured by the sight before her.

She'd never seen silk so fine, nor so black as what hovered before her. Her practiced eyes told her that this was far beyond ever the silks produced in Neighpon, which was commonly accepted as the country that produced the best silks much as Prance made the best perfumes and so on. At first she'd taken the garment to be plain unbroken black, but then she noted the faint grey embroidery on the garment.

Her eyes followed the pattern woven by this expertly done needle work, the grey lighten by so many subtle degrees to show a faint flame pattern here and there. The flames mostly seemed to dance along the hem line and the ends of the sleeves. Suddenly the garment turned and she gasped in wonder at what adorned the back. More of that wonderfully subtle work though far more complex then the flame patterns that almost seemed to move and dance on their own.

This was mindbogglingly complex to look upon, and as such she spent a good ten minutes staring at it, trying to find some meaning in what her eyes showed her. When she finally did she drowned. It was the head of a fox, surrounded by the words "Look up" repeated over and over again in multiple languages. It had taken her so long to figure this out due to much of it being done in a manner that seamlessly blended positive and negative space. She blinked slightly and did as directed.

"Well... That's... Odd." was all she had time to say before she found herself wrapped up like a meal for a large spider by every bit of thread in her shop. Upon the ceiling sat the arachnid in question, though he was a vulpine not an arachnid. The kitsune chuckled softly and left her there, struggling a bit and looking rather disgruntled by suddenly finding herself having to do the worm to move anywhere. Least she could breath easily.





Fluttershy smiled broadly at the sight before her. Never before had she seen a critter like this, beautiful white and red fur, nine oh so fluffy tails, and sparkling intelligent eyes. Not to mention the fact that it was SOOOOOO cuddly. She'd been surprised when she came across the little dear, especially when one considered it had been about to plant her like a bonsai tree, but she could honestly say that she wouldn't have minded that.

The kitsune sighed softly, quite content to allow himself to be petted at the moment. He'd fully intended to make a tree of the pegasus who was currently scratching behind his ears in a manner that sent shivers of pleasure running up and down his spine, but one look at those eyes and that plan had died a sudden and painless death. She was far too cute for him to do anything to... Not that he'd ever admit that aloud, he did have his pride.

Fluttershy had a new little animal friend, and all it had cost was a loss of dignity on the part of the kitsune... If any other spirits say this he'd never live it down. Then again, who cared? "Slightly to the left please..." he murmured, murring as the gentle hooves slowly melting him into a puddle of pleased fox did as asked. Yeah... Time to go before he got too into the impromptu massage. He vanished in a puff a sweetly scented smoke, replaced by an all day pass to the local spa. Hey, he got a free massage, why not give her one?





MEANWHILE: SOMEWHERE ON THE ROAD TO PONYVILLE

Red sighed softly, Twilight had teleported herself back to Ponyville the moment he'd mentioned that the kitsune was probably still causing some pretty odd havoc in the small town. He shoulda seen that one coming, after all that was her home, and all her friends were there at the rather mischievous mercy of the fox spirit. To be honest if she'd asked him, he would've told her to just go for it. He could understand wanting to protect the things you loved after all.

He was content to walk along for now, one instance of death defying flight had been enough for today, and being speedy often led to him smacking into solid objects fast enough to embed himself in them. There was a certain couple in Canterlot that could attest to this after all.

So, not willing to risk any more such incidents (or that he'd probably strained a wing) he walked... It was only five miles after all if he was any judge of distance from the bird's eye view he'd gotten as he and Twi had made for the ground. It was pleasant really, just to trod along and admire how beatific the world of Equestria was first hand. Beat the hell outa the parks that was for sure.

Suddenly something plummeted from the sky to land with a gentle "THUNK!" right atop his head. Well, gentle is too soft a word for getting a length of wood dropped on your head from princesses knew where, so it was no surprise that he went as wall eyed as a muffin loving mare for a few moments. Shaking his head he got unsteadily to his hooves and took a look at what hit him.

The first thing he noted was the tag, after all it was kinda glowing a bit. Picking it up he gave it a once over and had to suppress a small chuckle. There was a cartoonish drawing of Luna blowing a raspberry at him and the words "For you, oh most noble knight of shovels." Enough time had passed that even he could laugh at the fact that he'd actually faced down some diamond dogs with a shovel of all things. Smiling a bit he turned his full attention to what could only be that gift Luna had mentioned. It was a staff, and no simple one either. Silvered wood as hard as iron, smooth as silk yet he knew somehow this wouldn't come slipping from his hooves despite that. This was something he could honestly say he hadn't been expecting in the least. Shrugging a bit he gathered it up, tucked it under a wing, and got back to walking, the comforting weight of the Luna-blessed staff putting a small smile on his face. Suddenly, dealing with that kitsune didn't seem like it would be so hard to get rid of.
> Non story, skip if you wish: Basic Kitsune Lore, and their relation to Equestria
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


What follows is extremely basic lore for Kitsune, some of it is overly simplified or amended to make it easy to understand. This is not realy a part of this story and is put up only to provide a bit of insight into what a Kitsune is.


Kitsune are the servants of the goddess of rice, Inari. Most of them anyway. There are two types of kitsune. The Myoubi who serve Inari, and the Nogetsune who have forsaken Inari's rules and gone rogue. All kitsune have the same basic abilities, those being the ability to change their shape at will (though weaker kitsune require a small ritual spell involving a leaf to do so) and using foxfire. Foxfires are bright little balls of fire that vary in color, but they're not harmful to anything mundane beyond being blindingly bright in the dark. Furthermore they are one and all accomplished illusionists. As spirits they are capable of taking the laws of reality and flouting them as they see fit... Or at least seeming to.

Kitsune are accomplished tricksters and enjoy playing pranks on people who travel through their area. Most commonly kitsune are thought to have nine tails, however only the most powerful kitsune have nine tails. The number of tails directly reflects the level of power the kitsune possess. Kitsune have a strong sense of honor, they will uphold any deals they make to the letter, just as long as nothing happens to make them see the deal as sour. For instance, one could hire a kitsune to steal whatever they were told to. If one then told this kitsune to go and steal from small children, and the kitsune found this repugnant, it would consider the deal null and void, freeing it from its contractual obligations. If one saves the life of a kitsune then the kitsune in question will usually swear itself into the service of the one who saved it.

Kitsune grow a new tail for every hundred years of age, kind of making the statement “Knowledge is power” a bit true, for as anyone ages they gather knowledge. Kitsune are seen to have only one tail by mortals without the second sight, thus are often times thought only to be a normal fox, just an oddly colored one. All kitsune live an indefinite amount of time, they can however be slain as easily as any normal creature. If a kitsune remains in an area for a significant amount of time it eventually takes a hefty toll on that area, draining life from the land to sustain its own, this is what gives them their reputation as demons.

Kitsune are NOT to be confused with Kyuubi. A Kyuubi is a nine tailed fox demon. They have no real ties to Inari or the kitsune which they resemble as far as I am aware. Be that as it may Kitsune and Kyuubi have similar abilities, but only Kitsune are unbound by such things as physics.


Kitsune of Equestria


Much remains unchanged, Kitsune, fully grown ones at any rate, are immensely powerful beings who often flaunt the rules of reality to amuse themselves. Often times they were seen in the service of Discord, finding the Dragonequis' antics to be amusing beyond belief. That said, Kitsune are by no means truly cruel. They simply operate on a different mindset than ponies. They found Discords acts funny, and as such assumed that ponies did as well.

There are very few adult kitsune left in Equestria, as most have simply departed the world looking for something more entertaining. Those that have yet to leave content themselves with minor bits of mischief every now and again, quite happy to turn the unsuspecting mare's mane a seaweed green color. When not doing such things they set themselves up as guardians for the wild places of Equestria, meaning the Everfree. They keep such places free of the hum-drum boring drull that is harmonious order and make it a point to frighten unwanted ponies out of their home without doing direct harm.

Every now and again a kitsune will leave the forest in search of entertainment, resulting in a string of random and completely odd events. Tap dancing frogs, heckling flowers, and killer carrots among the most obvious of these... events.

Much like their mythological counterparts, Equestria Kitsune have a strong sense of honor, going out of their way to balance the scales when they need to. When a Kitsune owes a dept it will always be repaid in a way that benefits the one to whom the debt is owed. When owed a debt the Kitsune is one of the fairest dealer in history. You pay what you owe however you can pay it and the deal is considered complete. Give a Kitsune an apple to sate it's hunger, it will feed you a meal fit for a Princess in return and call it even. If a Kitsune gives you an apple, it will happily accept the seeds in return, after all one apple in exchange for an apple tree it can force into maturity in a matter of moments is a fair trade.
> Chapter eighteen: Apples to Oranges
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	AN: Ok folks, this entire chapter is dedicated to AJ and what she's been dealing with at the paws of the Kitsune, As such don't expect any real conflict resolution in this chapter.... Well maybe a little, anything to get Pinkie to quit blowing that damn horn in my ears. I swear I wish I'd never pulled that thing outa my hat and given it to her.





The morning had been a typical one for the Apple family, which is to say everypony was up early and getting right on with being a productive member of the farming family. Everypony save for Apple Bloom that is, her and her friends had all slept in for a bit, agreeing to meet up and watch Rainbow do some tricks later on.

Still, even down a pony Big Mac and AJ were more than enough to handle everything that needed to be done. Ever since Twilight had suggested rotating the fields it had become much less costly and a whole lot less work to keep the farm running smoothly. Sure, all of Sweet Apple Acres was still covered in trees, but they worked it in sections now, as opposed to doing everything at once. Today's section was the famous Red Gala apples that they often used for cider and pies, tomorrow was the Yellow Delicious, and the day after that was the... Oranges?!

"What th'a hay?" asked AJ as she scratched at the back of her head, one eyebrow cocked and a look of utter bewilderment on her face. She had no problem with oranges, they were good enough and some of her kin helped grow some of the best dang citrus fruits there ever was, her aunt and uncle Orange excluded (funnily enough it was the Papaya branch of the family that did the orange growing). That being said never in all her life could she remember having a single orange tree on the farm. That would just be silly, they were an apple orchard after all.

That said, staring her right in the face, was a whole field of em, laden down with the pebbly skinned fruits named aptly enough for their color. Frowning she trotted up to one of the trees and gave it a well practiced bump with a hip. Sure enough one lone orange came a-tumblin' down to land in her outstretched hoof with a gentle plop sound. Her frown deepened when she began to peel it.

Under the orange rind was a plum. Now she'd seen her fair share of strange things when Discord was out and about, but this took the blue ribbon by a huge margin. To say that she'd let her jaw drop in puzzlement would not be amiss at all. Nor would it be a stretch to say that she let the thing drop when it suddenly sprouted eight fuzzy legs, six eyes. and a pair of mandibles before scuttling about atop her arm.

The fruit turned arachnid scurried off quick as ya please, and quickly enough to please the now shuddering farm pony. That was just creepy as could be. She didn't even like plums, let alone ones that were also apparently spiders. For that matter, who the heck liked spiders?!

Her day only got weirder from then on out. The strange trees prompted her to go about and check over the entirety of her family's land. What she found bothered her quite deeply. For one, only one of her orchards remained a stately strand of apple trees, the rest... Well oranges were not the strangest thing she found that day.

Bananas, coconuts, peaches, pairs, plums, apricots, dates, figs, and pretty much everything else one could think of had gone and replaced her beloved apples. Eeyup... Time to go find Twilight and see what the hay was going on round here.




It had taken her till just about noon to make her rounds and get back to the farm house, and boy did she have a lot to tell Granny Smith and Big Mac, though that could wait in the face of what occurred once she was in sight of home. Her hat, a beloved heirloom from her father, was swept off her head with what she could have sworn was a giggling breeze.

Frowning fit to give herself worry lines prematurely (something only Rarity would concern herself with really) she gave chase with a call of "Get back here ya darned hat!" Being a hat with very little brain, it apparently completely misunderstood her words for it alighted high atop a tree with an honest to Celestia "DING!" That brought AJ up short and made her blink in surprise. Since when did trees and hats make bell sounds?

"Well, since I decided they should of course, when else?" asked a voice that could only belong to the sudden weight atop her head. She looked up into the jade colored eyes of some lil' critter with a very lax definition of personal space... Or aspirations of being a hat itself, either or really.

"Uhh... Wha' do ya think yer doin' up on mah head like this ya lil' varmit?" asked Aj with all of her confusion laid bare in the tone of her voice. Not every day one wakes up to find that their farm has apparently become a large scale botanical study and has a talking fox decide their head makes a decent perch now is it? She sure as sugar didn't think so.

"Why, keeping it warm of course, after all I did just deposit your usual head gear in a tree did I not?" asked the Kitsune as he ducked a rather clumsy attempt at brushing him off from the mare whom he'd claimed as a seat. "Oh do calm down, I'm doing you a favor you know. I coulda just let your head get cold after all, but who wants a chilled scalp? ...Wait a moment, we've both got fur here, and when one stops to consider that a scalp is the skin from which hair grows, and fur is just a sort of hair, wouldn't that make every bit of skin on the two of us scalp?" The Kitsune paused it's sudden rambling for a moment to give Aj a light poke before it continued, "And if that's the case I can't go about letting your scalp freeze after I stole your hat... I know! PARKAS!"

There was a loud bang (and a few now naked Eskimo ponies somewhere in the far north of the world) and AJ suddenly found herself bundled up to well she couldn't move. Good lords above she looked like a marshmallow all wrapped up in a massively puffy white coat that covered her from the tip of her nose to her tail. She had one thing to say to all this of course, and that was "MURMPH MURRMRMPH MURRGH!!!!!"

Roughly translated from muffle-ese to proper equine, "What in tarnation?!"





That had been an hour or so ago, and since then AJ hadn't been able to move too well, though she had managed to get her head outa of the oppressive coat and give the world a disapproving glare. Who's bright idea had it been to set summat like that little critter loose in the first place? She sincerely hoped they got hog tied for it... Though to be honest she didn't figure that would be quite fair... Maybe only hog tie the critter and toss it at whoever sent it... That'd work.

For now though the stay puffed marshmallow mare sighed and slumped a bit where she stood under a tree. Least it was shady here and she wasn't roasting in the forced winter gear. Her folks were in similar straights if the fact that she could make out a couple more white blobs of vague pony shape on the porch was any indication. Nothing to do but what about really, unless she wanted to waddle about and she really didn't if truth be told. Too hot, too much effort.

Meanwhile Twilight had found the rest of her friends and they were all making their way to find Apple Jack, all in various states of annoyance at their treatment at the paws of the Kitsune. Rarity was the most vocal, declaring that she'd dress it in a tartan skirt and make it dance to vaudeville given half a chance. Fluttershy just wanted to pet it some more.

Red was still plodding along, fluttering a bit every now and again in an effort to speed up his trip. His new staff presented a minor problem to carry if he wanted to fly. It didn't taste too good so he was reluctant to carry it in his mouth. Hooves aren't exactly made to hold things either, despite the fact that they apparently could... He had no clue how that worked still, and he couldn't get it to work for the staff when he was thinking about it either. Oh well, he'd get there eventually.

Watching over this all sat the Kitsune, humming a merry little tune as he munched on a bowl of caramel corn. "Well, this is getting good." he said, grabbing hold of a remote and changing the channel. He'd come back to the show he had a large part to play in later... For now he wanted to see what was on AMC.
> Chapter Nineteen: ...With a bit of a stick
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Red blinked at the sight of what went streaking by him on the way to Sweet Apple Acres. Of all the completely random and nonsensical things he'd seen this Kitsune do, of all the random memes he was sure he'd missed at some point in and among the actions of the nine-tailed nuisance... This one had him the most ready to laugh his head off.

One Prince Blueblood, dyed pink and being chased by most of the population of Ponyville from the looks of things. Confused by all this he stopped one of the slower members of the apparent mob and politely inquired as to just "What in the hay was up with this?!"

The response was as simple as it was confusingly vague and completely weird. "Muffin Button." said the pony whom Red didn't know in the least. He was about to question that statement when Blueblood ran right back by and bowled him over without so much as a howdy-do.

Red wound up pinned in much the same manner that Twilight had been not too long ago, though he found it FAR more uncomfortable considering the pony atop him was both large, squirming, and dog piled not long after. It was then that Red noted something quite peculiar, Blueblood's horn had been replaced by a large red button. Curiosity getting the better of him he reached up and pressed it with the one free hoof he had. 

There was a soft whirring sound and a loud pop before a fresh, and quite warm, blueberry muffin dropped out of nowhere to land right next to Red's head. "Oh so THAT'S what he meant..." he muttered, watching as the little mob dragged the prince turned baked good dispenser was dragged off, forehead being bopped every few feet by a grey walleyed mare whom Red could only smile at. Yeah... Shoulda seen that one coming.

Freed from beneath the burden of the public peripheral vision as it were Red collected his staff and turned to go, coming face to face with another pony he didn't know. Though in this case, face to face was the operative word as, per usual, he wound up locking lips with what turned out to be a unicorn mare. He flipped out instantly, backing away and face hoofing hard enough to be heard in canterlot.

"Oh for the love of all, I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going and I didn-... Are you alright there?" he asked, waving a wing in front of her face. He got absolutely no reaction what so ever, though it did give him time to look her over. She was, he had to admit, quite pretty with the way her golden coat caught the light of the slowly setting sun, casting back soft reddish patches and giving her the appearance of being a mare made from living red gold. That image was aided by the way her green eyes seemed to be as deep and strikingly emerald colored as the precious stone of the same name. Her mane fluttered softly in a gentle breeze, the red and white strands bringing half remembered maypole dances to Red's mind. 

Overall he set enraptured by the beauty of this mare, blinking stupidly for a few moments before a soft shock emanating from his staff snapped him out of it. He blinked owlishly at the gift from the Princess of the Night, cocking his head and frowning slightly. What had caused THAT he wondered, perplexed by the was it seemed to grow warm against his side, tucked under his wing as it was. Shrugging he turned his attention back to that mare he'd bumped into and his eye was caught by a piece of paper taped over one of her cutie marks. Standing out in stark contrast the clean white sheet of paper covered the proud rising sun on this mare's flank, the thickly inked words upon it were a bit confusing though.

"Hello there, if you're reading this it means you were either lucky enough to come up behind me, or something else. Heres a bit of a story, and a warning for you. The other day I ran into this annoying little fox thing. After some... Trouble, lets call it, it got in trouble and I helped it out just because I'm nice like that. In exchange the little... thing... gave me my heart's fondest desire, according to it anyways. Word of warning, apparently my heart's desire is for all to look at me and to lose themselves in my beauty and wonder... I'd thought I wanted to be the element of magic, after all that was supposed to be my destiny... I guess I was wrong, I just wanted to be the lime-light. Twilight, for what its worth I'm sorry I hated you for taking what I thought was mine, My position as Celestia's student. Signed, Breaking Dawn, former unicorn, current show piece."

Well... That was honestly the cruelest thing he'd ever heard of a Kitsune doing, and he couldn't help but feel a bit of pity for this mare. No one really deserved to be a living statue now did they? Sighing softly he turned to go, not knowing if stopping that little fur ball would help, but unable to come up with any other solution.

As he left the butt end of his staff brushed softly against one of Dawn's legs. Red saw nothing as the mare vanished with the last rays of the setting sun and a softly whispered "thanks you" that was carried away by the wind. Oh she wasn't killed, or even harmed, simply given her freedom in a manner of speaking, flung into the aethers to a world more befitting one such as her... She didn't quite belong here after all.





By the time Red got to Sweet Apple Acres the moon was high in the sky and things there had gotten a bit out of hoof. The Kitsune sat atop a tree, idly flicking its paws about like some puppeteer as Twilight and Rarity danced a rather impressive rendition of the River Dance for his amusement.

"Oh look, someone new to play with... Ya know, I was getting kinda tired of playing nice with all the little ponies and such... So I decided to put on my black hat and curly moustashe for a bit. Can I do evil and cruel or what?" asked the Kitsune as he gave Red a rather sinister smile, a smile mirrored in all but the eyes of Twilight and Rarity.

Red watched the two mares, concern evident in his face. Their eyes were full of emotion, anger, sadness, and hope all mixing together as their gazes flicked between Red and the Kitsune. Their bodies however didn't seem to be under their control at the moment, and Red could swear that he could faintly see strings attached to each of their limbs.

"Lets put away the toys for now shall we?" asked the Kitsune, waving his paw dismissively at the two mares who subsequently went flying to land among the other ponies present, landing in a bit of a heap before groggily raising their heads to watch. Whatever the Kitsune had done with them, they were free of it at least in part now.

"I thought Kitsune were supposed to be mostly benign trickster and messenger spirits..." muttered Red as he watched all this with a bit of shock evident on his face. His mismatched eyes wide as he took it all in. Sighing softly he settled back on his haunches and moved his new staff from beneath his wing to his hoof. How he managed to hold it now was beyond him, he simply did and it felt right.

The silver length of the staff seemed to glow brightly under the moonlight, marking it as something special indeed. The Kitsune was oblivious to this, it was more than interested in just thinking up something fitting to do with its newest plaything.

Wings to cement? Nah too overrated. Oooh I know, make it speak in spoonerized pig Latin! Yeah that could be fun... Hey wait a sec, whats that glowing thing? Oooh shiny, I'll be taking that soon as I'm done with the little horse-bird... it though to itself, that sinister grin growing wider as it hopped from its perch and padded slowly closer to Red.

For his part Red just watched calmly as the little troublemaker came closer. When it was within reach he took up his staff and gently poked it in the forehead. "Right there's good little fella... Tell you what, let everypony go and put things right and I'll see about getting you a proper shrine and some decent sake, ok?" asked Red, hoping that would placate the spirit.

The Kitsune paused for a moment before shorting and blowing a raspberry at Red. "Uhh buddy, that stuff only works in Neighpon, not here... So no deal... I'll take that shiny thing round you neck though." It made to reach out with its magic to grab hold of Red's keepsake medallion, but found something was keeping it from getting a grip. Frowning it tried again with similar results.

"What gives? MAGIC... Y U NO WORK?" it asked, slipping into an overdone accent and face warping to fir that particular meme as it spoke.

Unable to help himself Red responded without missing a beat. "Muffin button." before drawing back and bopping the Kitsune atop the head with his staff.

He didn't bring the weapon down all that hard, but the Kitsune fell unconscious all the same. It might've been a spirit, but if its got a corporeal form certain laws apply, including those governing blunt force trauma apparently.

Pinkie spoke up from the pile of ponies, giving voice to what everyone (cept for Granny Smith, she was napping) was thinking at that moment.

"Well... That was anticlimactic... There weren't even any muffins!"
> Chapter twenty: Back to normal-esq
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A couple days had passed since the resident Kitsune had gotten itself a well earned knot atop its head. A knot on its head and a kick straight back to the forest from whence it came delivered by the rather hard hooves of Apple Jack. That poor fur ball was still rubbing his rump and wondering when the hoof shaped dents would go away, they tended to ruin his otherwise shapely posterior...

As far as things went, everything was back to normal, or at least as normal as Ponyville ever gets. I mean really, a place where Cerberus comes running through and is easily bested by a red rubber ball? They sure have a rather lax definition of normal, one that Red had come to share. Dealt with Kitsune, next day wake up with a toothless alligator om nom'in on your face and Pinkie Pie tap dancing on your back... Seems perfectly normal, no? Red bemoaned the fact that it was indeed beginning to seem normal. All that aside, things were peaceful once more, and had been for a full day now. That had to be some kind of record.

Yawning and stretching, Red greeted the dawn of the third day since the nine tailed troubles (or so he called them) as he normally did. With a faint smile followed by a face hoof. Arranged around his bed were ever more little thank you cards, floral arrangements, and gift baskets from the various residents of Ponyville who'd had to deal with that bloody Kitsune.

"Seriously?" he said, his internal voice given an external sound as the sheer ridiculousness of this hit him once again. "I hit a fox in the head with a stick, everything it did just pops like a soap bubble, and now I'm some kinda hero? Good grief... Some times I wonder what these ponies would do if I pulled something like what Twi and her friends do..." He shuddered at that thought... Images of being stuck on a platform and buried under mountains of various praises, both physical and metaphysical, made him feel a bit sick. He really just wanted a simple quiet and peaceful life. Something that seemed a bit like a dream to him every morning he woke up to more of the same.

Shrugging a bit he wandered off into the living room of his little house and plopped down on his couch with a pleased sigh. No gifts in here thank Luna, nothing but a few books, his comfy couch, and Pinkie Pie... Wait a second... That last one didn't belong there.

While he was busy trying to process the fact that he had a face full of pink mane, Pinkie picked that time to scream at the top of her lungs. "HELLO!"

The expected followed, take one startled pegasus, add in a weak spot of the ceiling, and give that pegasus a rather hard head. The result was of course red hanging from his ceiling with his forelegs crossed and a nice view of the bats in his belfry. Not a great thing to have first thing in the morning really.

Pinkie Popped up in his view once more and he simply sighed and gave her a "I don't blame you, I blame physics" look, one which he'd had some small amount of practice in lately.

"Hello Pinkie, what's up?" he asked, doing his best to smile despite the throbbing in his head and the awareness that he was currently playing pony pinata.

"Well, you silly, also a great great great great number of things, soooo many it'd take me all day to list em, so I would if I could, but there's no time today so I won't... We gotta get cha ready for tonight! Rarity said I should come and get you up, you're even better at being strangely literal than I am." rambled Pinkie, sounding a bit serious for once, serious for Pinkie which meant she was currently standing atop Red's head, prancing from hoof to hoof, and bending over to look him in the eye. In complete disregard for the laws of physical reality she'd even somehow twisted her head upside down to talk to him face to face as opposed to mouth to eyeball.

Some time later, after Red had explained to Pinkie just why he was sure she had no bones and had been freed from his new employment as a chandelier, they two of them showed up at Rarity's shop, one covered in a bit of drywalling, or whatever it was ceilings were made of, and the other busily trying to get to the center of a tootsie pop, one Red had shoved in her mouth to keep her from talking for a few seconds while he said hello to Rarity.

"Hello my knight in shining, well... We'l have to see about some armor for you come nightmare night, for now I've got something lovely for you to wear for your date tonight... I'm surprised that Twilight took so long to ask you out darling! Anypony could see she had an interest in you." said Rarity, elegant voice ringing out over the crunching of sucker coming from Pinkie. She'd counted to five licks before her teeth got in the way.

"Uhh... Well... It kinda took us being used as a bed by that fur ball for her to ask..." he replied, blushing a bit at that memory... Some things were just too embarrassing to talk about. Being forced into bed with a rather lovely mare in a provocative position and held there was one of those things. Needless to say that the aforementioned situation had not been shared with the rest of Twilight's and his friends. As far as they knew they'd been literally stuffed into a pair of mattresses and nothing (Twilight had stressed the whole NOTHING thing quite a bit) else had happened aside from a lovely talk leading to her asking Red out on a date to allow them to talk without any form of duress.

"Hmm, well, just let me get you ready and we can talk about that later darling." said Rarity with a knowing little curvature of her lips. Without further ado, she dragged Red inside and went to work. Pinkie was left outside bemoaning the loss of her sucker, but really wondering just why a bandsaw and a hammer on wood were required to make a colt look "nice" for an informal date. She thought Red looked nice anyways, kinda like an atomic fireball dipped in hot sauce, you know... HAWT! It was the whole red coat thing, just made him look like a bunch of cinnamon, and everyone knew cinnamon candy was hot.

On the other end of Ponyville Twilight had her muzzle buried in a book, the title of which wouldn't be the sort she'd normally look twice at. "How to impress your stallion with poise and grace, should that fail here's how to save face." Yep, not her usual fare, not in the least. Spike had commented on that and was currently busy cleaning up the lesser used pre classical biography section of the library because of it.

To say Twilight was kind of nervous would be a bit of an understatement really, this was after all going to be her first date. She wasn't aware that it was Red's as well, not that it would have calmed her down any, that would have just amd eher want things to go well ever more to make it special for somepony who'd gone through a lot of bad things and was still so quiet and kind as Red was... He kind of reminded her of Fluttershy in a way, not given to talking much and always trying to avoid the spotlight despite how often he seemed to earn it. Saving Rarity from Diamond Dogs, saving the whole town from being used as puppet by something almost as insanely weird as Pinkie Pie was with powers fit to make Discord applaud. Yep, he deserved a medal really in her opinion, something a bit more than a silvery staff.

She considered writing the princess about that, curious as could be as to just how it had knocked out something like that Kitsune with a light tap where she couldn't detect any magic from it whatsoever. As far as she could tell it was just a bit of a stick... Funnily enough that seemed to fit the image she had of Red, what you say was what you got. A polite, kind, and slightly odd stallion.

Shrugging she buried herself in her book once more, oblivious to the fact that Red was currently feeling less polite and more cramped. Though when one is shoved into a dashing and princely outfit designed to be slightly form fitting and you had wings that had missed the holes cut for them the first time what did one expect? Claustrophobia of the flight enabling appendages would be the proper answer of course.
> Chapter Twenty-one: The big day, err night rather.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight face hoofed, an exasperated sigh slipping past her lips as she took in the sight at her door. There stood Rarity, Pinkie, and a barely recognizable Red Wyne. Barely recognizable due to the fact that Rarity had gone... Well, let us say over board with her beautifying and prep work for what was meant to be a casual date between two friends. Was it any wonder Twilight wished she had another five hooves or so so she could properly facehoof at the situation before her? Pinkie didn't seem to think so and so provided a second, or rather third, hoof for her friend after Twi pressed her second forehoof to her face.

"There ya go Twilight, I'd go find some more ponies, but who'd want strange hooves all over their face? I mean even if you know everypony like I do, you probably don't want their hooves in your face ya know? I wouldn't mind, it'd be like a game! Maybe something like shuffleboard, get your hoof closest to Twilight's nose and win a prize... Ooooooh, we're totally playing that at my next party!" With that the excitable pink mare rushed off, lost in plans for a giant shuffleboard set up styled after the rather bemused face of her grape colored friend.

Red watched this little exchange and tried to contain a bit of laughter, mostly because he was sure that if he did he'd probably somehow pop a few seams, or maybe something worse. Either way, he settled for a faint grin and a shake of his head that sent his braided mane flopping about.

The motion drew Twilight's eyes and she took the time to really look him over. Rarity, in her usual flair for the dramatic, had dressed him up like some princeling. A well tailored suit of a rich burgundy over a bone white shirt. The suit was embroidered with celtic knotwork similar to what was on the pendant he wore constantly. Well, constantly save for tonight it seemed, around his neck tonight went a red-gold torc, the metal gleaming dully in the setting sun's last light. Atop his head sat a wide brimmed hat, again of a rich red with a raven's feather tucked into the brim and set at a rakish angle. To say the least he looked like he'd stepped out of one of Rarity's saddle rippers, though the look of embarrassment and discomfort on his face kind of off set that image a great deal. It didn't help that, unlike Rarity's normally well fitted work, this was meant to be a bit tight, to better show off just how well formed the one wearing it actually was.

Twilight took this all in and blinked slowly, a faint bit of color creeping over her cheeks before she cleared her throat and gave Rarity a raised eyebrow. The fashionista cocked her head, prancing from hoof to hoof a bit in excitement as she awaited the judgement of the mare she'd intended to impress with this little effort.

"Rarity... He looks great, very dashing, but we were just going to go stargazing with a picnic tonight... No need to dress the poor guy up. Not that I don't appreciate it really, but he looks like he's contemplating trying to find the nearest rock to hide under..." said Twilight with a faint smile and a pat to her friend's shoulder. She beckoned Rarity closer and bent down to whisper in her ear. "He can wear that to the Gala when that rolls around, alright? If things go well I was going to ask him to go with us this year... He's friends with Luna anyways, so it's not like we'll need to force a ticket on him... Luna'll do that herself I think." 

This earned a pair of conspiratory giggles from the girls and a bit of uncomfortable fidgeting from Red. Girls. Whispering... Never a good sign.

"Exactly!" said Pinkie in his ear, sending him skyward with a yelp so quickly he literally left his clothing sitting where he had been a second before without so much as a slightly skewed thread. Pinkie just giggled and looked up at the now au natural pegasus clinging to a branch and wishing he wasn't so jumpy. Twilight and Rarity couldn't help but laugh.

After the unneeded clothing was tucked away carefully in Rarity's saddle bags, Red had been coaxed down with a cup cake, and Twilight had stopped laughing at the utter absurdity of the whole thing, Twilight and Red were left alone, save for Spike who was still cleaning.

"So... Umm... When do you want to head out?" asked Red, smiling shyly. He obviously wasn't quite sure what to do with himself, puttering about as he waited for an answer. He somehow managed to get an impromptu tap dance going as he did so, drawing a laugh from Spike that turned into a coughing fit as he got a mouth full of dust.

Now that she wasn't distracted by her friends being... Well, themselves, Twilight herself was feeling that nervousness. This was, after all, her first honest to Celestia date. Even with the whole day (and most of the day before) spent studying on how such things were supposed to go, she wasn't quite sure what to try first. Did she suggest they had a seat on her couch and talked till the stars were out in full? Did they grab a light snack to tide them over until their late supper, if a picnic could be called supper that is... She'd have to look that up. She shook her head sharply to send those scattered thoughts tumbling back into the recesses of her mind and drew in a deep breath before answering him.

"Well, we could have a seat and talk for a little bit over some coffee until the stars come out, if that's ok I mean... I've never done this before so I'm not real sure what's normal for a date... I mean I have some idea, I did read about it, but I don't know what to do first in practice..."

Red blinked and ceased his unintended dancing as he gave her another shy little smile. "Its uhh... My first date too you know, so I think that would be quite fine... Besides, I love coffee. I always feel a lot more hu-err... Like myself I mean, in the mornings after a cup.." He caught that little slip of the tongue before it really got going, but it did get a little fidget of distress out of him.

Twilight didn't notice at all, she'd zipped off the second Red had accepted her offer of coffee and conversation, brewing up a pot of good old Coltumbian black. She got down a couple mugs to await the hot brew and zipped back to ask him how he liked his coffee all before he'd gotten over the shock of looking up to find her missing with a strange cloud of purple dust where she'd been not a blink before.

"Oh... Just a bit of sugar and cream thanks... Don't need it to wake me up otherwise I'd say black." he said with a laugh when he realised that Twilight must have some relation to a certain Sooooper Jeenius who was constantly after a rather fast bird.

"Oddly enough, that's how I drink mine too, Coffee for pleasure is best served with cream and sugar... First thing in the morning the blacker the better, right?" replied Twi as she headed back into her kitchen at a normal pace this time. She was glad she hadn't gone with her first instinct to ask if they had coffee where he was from.

A few cups of joe later the two of them found themselves out under the stars in a field atop a well worn picnic blanket accompanied by a telescope and basket of sandwiches and a bottle of apple cider. The sat in companionable silence for a long while, simply taking turns using the telescope, munching a bit on daisy sandwiches, and simply enjoying the beauty of the night's sky.

"So... Red, I don't think I've told you how grateful I am for all you've done since you got to town..." said Twilight, breaking the silence first, her voice quiet and tinted with a bit of awkward shyness. "But, Thank you. Very much." she finished lamely, giving the stallion a hesitant nuzzle before turning her attention back to the stars.

Red blinked slowly, blushing badly enough to actually show through his coat for once. After a bit of gaping that would have made a fish proud, what with all the opening and closing of his mouth, he turned to her and smiled softly. "You really don't need to thank me... I don't really want any praise for anything I do of that sort... You and your friends are real heros, I'm just a fella with a silvery stick." he said, scrubbing at the back of his head with one hoof.

Like a bolt of lightning Twilight suddenly remembered she'd meant to ask him about that staff, but seeing the way he just brushed aside any form of recognition for his heroic actions she could really only smile softly at him. She'd never met someone so humble as he, though she wondered if he was really being humble or if he honestly felt what he'd done was no big deal. She mentally shrugged, deciding not to press him on the matter, it was enough for her to simply ask the princess secretly to do something special for him.. Regardless of if he thought so or not, he deserved some kind of reward for saving Ponyville.

After a moment her curiosity came crashing back into her and she scooted closer to him a bit before voicing her questions. "Speaking of the stick of your's... Where'd you get it and how'd it kock that annoying fuzz ball out with a little tap like that? I mean I couldn't sense any magic from it at all."

Red shrugged slightly at her second question and took a moment before he answered. "Well, Luna sent it to me... Dropped it right on my head from somewhere. Didn't really hurt though, no worse than an acorn from an annoyed squirrel. Where I'm from theres a religion centered around worshiping the natural world, one I follow actually, and the moon was the chief deity of my particular sect. Apparently Luna was rather flattered and amused by that and after I saved Rarity she decided to give me something as a reward... I'm pretty sure that staff is it. Kinda always wanted one really, most of the arch druids back home carried something similar, though a lot more knotted really." He said, glossing over a lot of things for the sake of trying to not come across as a zealot of some sort.

Twilight blinked slowly, a million questions running through her mind and all bottlenecking before they could get anywheres to be properly asked. Finally one got through, though it was more of a comment than a question. A comment both profound and amazing in its simplicity. Ready? Here it goes.... She said, quite simply, "Oh..." She even managed to get a very dignified, if confused, look on her face. Ponies worshiped Luna where he was from?

Red chuckled softly and gently draped a wing around her, nodding up at the night's sky. "Careful, you might make her laugh at the two of us." For a large ball of rock and dust that reflected the sun's rays providing a rather silvery light the moon certainly did look rather amused up there in the sky. Shrugging a bit the two of them snuggled up together and went back to stargazing, Red pointing out constellations he knew from Earth here and there, and Twilight showing him some of Equestria's. All in all, their first date passed peacefully under the watchful gaze of Luna's night sky, the stars all a-twinkle seemingly just for them. It was peaceful, that is, until they decided to dip into the cake they'd brought with them for a bit of a late night treat...

Cutting into it they were suddenly treated to a massive BOOM, a while boat load of confetti, and a boisterous "YAY CAKE!" from the pink bottle rocket of a mare that came shooting out from their dessert, a cake that couldn't possibly have contained Pinkie Pie at all. Somewhere in the multiverse, a Vulcan keeled over dead. back in Equestria, Twilight and Red found themselves treated to a rather nice fireworks display and Pinkie Pie floating down via umbrella power... It was a rather nice thing to watch, even with the lack of cake now, when you had somepony to hold on to who's heart was beating just as fast as your own... Or so they both thought anyways.
> Chapter Twenty-Two: Phantasms and Shadows
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Red heaved a soft sigh as he stretched out on a cloud and watched the clear blue sky above him. It had been a couple days since his date with Twilight, and honestly he couldn't remember ever feeling as happy as he did that night. Not even finding himself in Equestria had compared with the calm, quiet, and comfort he'd found snuggle up to his... Well, his marefriend. It was official, and agreed on both sides, that they were indeed dating now. A fact that both pleased and frightened the young human turned pegasus. This was the first and only relationship he'd ever been in, and while he couldn't imagine anyone he'd rather be dating, he was mortified that he'd bugger something up eventually. It helped matters that Twilight was in much the same boat, unsure and apt to tip-hoof it until they were both more sure of what to do. It was no surprise that they'd agreed to take things slow, despite their friends' jokes about planning the wedding already.

At the moment however, that was neither here nor there. Twilight, and the rest of the element bearers, had been called off to somewheres for some reason. Red hadn't been told too much, despite his asking, he just knew that they'd be gone for a couple days at the least. He was pretty sure he'd caught mention of some big test in Twi's ramblings so he figured that had something to do with all of them going. Even if he'd be missing them he didn't want to get in the way so he'd stayed behind. Not much else he could do really, save his job or read.

Speaking of which he heaved himself over the edge of his cloud and let himself free fall for a few moments before snapping his wings open and pulling out of a dive that would have made Rainbow proud, even going so far as to let a patch of tall grass tickle his belly as he buzzed the earth. Daredevil impulse quelled for the millennia he got back skyward and set about gathering up cloud cover and ferrying it to a predesignated area. It was supposed to be a cloudy day, a break from the summer heat, so who was he to argue?

After a few hours of shoving clouds hither and thither he landed for the day and trotted his tired self home for a well earned nap, oblivious to the large blank white eyes watching him from the cover of some conveniently placed cardboard bushes... Now who do you suppose put those there?





Red awoke with a loud yawn, jaw popping quietly in protest at being stretched so wide. A quiet hiss and soft wince of pain from that pop later he snapped his muzzle shut and slipped off his bed, blinking sleep from his eyes. He ambled his way into his kitchen, pulled down a loaf of bread, dug about in his pantry for the jar of apple butter that AJ had given him when they'd left, and proceeded to make himself a sammich. Say what one will, apple butter was a perfectly suitable filling for a sandwich and he'd happily defend that to anypony who said otherwise.

After he ate he glanced up at his wall clock and sighed... It was only a little after four in the afternoon. So much for a nap to kill time, he'd only wasted an hour in sleep's dark embrace. Shaking his head he cast about for something, anything to do really, and his eyes settled upon his staff. Shrugging he retrieved it from the umbrella bucket he'd placed it in near the door and headed outside to derp about with it.

Now Red was, to a fault, a peace-loving fellow but that didn't preclude him from having taken a couple self defence classes in his human life. He'd never been much into it, the very idea of hurting another living thing had turned his stomach, but it was a decent way of getting into shape and helping to deal with anger issues. Meditation and the like was a part of what he'd learned, what little that was however. He'd never gotten above a yellow striped belt. That said, he still remembered a bit of what he'd been taught and so he took it upon himself to see just how much he really remembered.

He settled down in his front yard, stretching a bit and limbering up before he reared up onto his hind legs and flared his wings for balance. He held the staff before himself in both his forehooves, perfectly parallel to the earth. His hind legs were spread in a sturdy approximation of a horse stance, a fact that brought a slightly amused smile to his face. A pony in horse stance... Now he'd seen everything.

He remained that way for a little while, his breathing slow and his eyes closed, as he worked through his memories to make sure he'd get this right. After a few minutes he began to move, slowly and deliberately. His eyes remained closed as he worked through the basic kata, long dormant mussel memory slowly coming back to life as he allowed himself to slip off into the simple pleasure of putting his body in motion. Motion that was slowly gaining speed and a certain... Fierceness.

In his minds eye he found himself surrounded by diamond dogs. Their baying and howling creating a cacophony of blood lust directed at the pony in their midst as the brandished crude swords and spears. As he worked through the kata for the third time he deviated from the set, switching to something much more free form, fighting a true and apparently violent battle against phantom foes. A dog charged him, blade swinging in in a vicious upward arc to disembowel him. Red pivoted, his staff lashing out to crack sharply against that dog's wrist and shatter the bones. A quick motion tucked the staff against his side for a heartbeat before he jabbed forward driving, driving the butt of his weapon into the shocked and maimed dog's throat to crush his windpipe.

Two charged him this time, swords sweeping in from either side to take his head from his shoulders. Red bent backwards like a reed, wings flaring to keep his balance as the phantom blades passed within a hair's breadth of his muzzle. Like a striking snake he snapped forward suddenly, driving his own weapon forward with his hooves at the center, allowing either end to impact with the unarmed bellies of the dogs. Winded the two fell back, gasping for breath as the air was driven from their lungs. One fell to the earth as a solid thwack echoed through the field, a blow to the temple taking him from the fight. His packmate received a blow to the shoulder, the weight behind that vicious strike snapping the collar bone and rendering it's sword arm useless. It wisely turned tail and fled.

The final dog approached him cautiously, spear pointed and held in an expert grip as the dog took stock of it's opponent. Red simply waited calmly for the dog to make the first move, and his patience was given no chance to wear thin. The dog jabbed at his midriff, only to pull the spear back and redirect the strike at Red's neck instead. Twisting and giving his staff a twirl he swatted the thrust aside and slipped under the haft of the spear as he brought his staff around for a few solid blows to the dog's knees. He worked the weapon with a fury, sharp blows climbing their way up the dog before a final blow came down upon it's skull with bone shattering force. Red had lept and brought the staff down on the reeling down with all the power he could put behind the blow. He could almost swear he felt the the dog's skull crack open like and egg ever as its head was driven ever so slightly closer to its chest cavity.

Panting softly from his efforts Red opened his eyes, eyes that had both gone red as blood, and planted the butt of his staff against the earth, leaning gently on it as he caught his breath. When he had he looked at his hooves, disgusted with himself for conjuring up something like that just to get some exercise. He was no warrior, no. He was just a simple weather pony who used to be a member of one of the most warlike species to ever exist. Sighing a bit he let himself drop to all fours once again and turned to carry his staff back inside and get a shower. This became somewhat difficult when he ran face first into a tall shadow, a shadow who's milky white eyes stared down into the once again mismatched orbs of a startled Pegasus...
> Chapter Twenty-Three: Something Happening Here...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"It's so good to be home..." muttered Twilight as she strode through her door and into the much beloved scent of old parchment and ink the permeated the library she called home. Sighing softly she sat her saddlebags by their customary spot near the door and made right for her bedroom.

Her and her friends had just returned from something she could only term nerve wracking. Tests were one thing, tests that involved saving an entire civilization from an ancient evil king and a solution that had her believing she'd failed right up until the princess had told her otherwise... Yep, nerve wracking about covered it. She was glad Spike had decided to spend some time at Rarity's, gave her an opportunity to relax and be by herself for a bit. Time to think without the background noise of a busy dragon doing his chores.

Time she kind of needed to be honest. Seeing Shining Armor and Cadence once again had reminded her just what love could do, and made her wonder if love was what she felt for a certain quiet... and very very red pegasus. Love had quelled an invasion, and now it seems it had saved an empire and finally stopped a tyrant for good... Did she really want to be part of something like that when she didn't know the other half all that well?

Sure, she and Red had spent hours and hours discussing things about Red's old home, but what had she learned about her colt friend in truth? Grumbling a bit to herself she flopped onto her bed as these thoughts rolled through her head. That grumbling subsided into half muttered words and phrases as her thoughts seeped out through her voice. A habit she wasn't aware she had.

"Well... He's shy and quiet for starters. Seems to know a lot about old pony mythology, or at least some of it. He's brave when he has to be... According to Dash he's pretty hard working when he's given a job to do... Wow... I really don't know anything important about him do I?" she asked herself, or more accurately the pillow she'd dropped over her face to help shut the world out a bit.

"Well..." she muttered into the old goose down of her favorite pillow, "I'll just have to ask him next time I see him... Though, why wait? I know where he lives so I could just go see him now!" Normally she'd not be so bold, but... Questions and the potential answers were the ultimate motivator for the purple pelted page-turner.





Red's eyes snapped open suddenly as he drew in a sharp breath that immediately broke into a coughing fit. He had no clue where he was now. In fact the last thing he remembered were those blank eyes staring into his own and a sudden explosion of mind blowing pain against the side of his head.

Speaking of which, the movement brought on by his coughing made the entire left side of his face throb angrily. He made the mistake of bringing  a hoof up to it and lightly touching his cheek only to yelp and jerk his hoof away again the moment he made contact. He'd had the shit beaten out of him enough times to know what a broken jaw felt like...

For a moment that brought his old life crashing back into the forefront of his mind along with the phantom pain of a broken and battered body no longer his own. As such it took him a moment to really take stock of his actual list of current hurts.

From the top down he took stock, once he could that is. Broken, or at least fractured jaw. A few very loose teeth on that side too. A myriad of bruises along his sides. A very sore tail base, and a few assorted cuts and scrapes. All in all, probably drug along by his tail after he'd been knocked silly by... Whatever it was that hit him.

He blinked suddenly, it had finally hit him. Something had knocked him flat and he'd woken up in a strange place he had no memory of what so ever. It was about this time he began to freak out a bit.

The sight of a battered and jittery pegasus in hysterics is likely an amusing one, but Red of course wouldn't get to see that. What he could see, all be it faintly, were a few cave walls, some old iron bars, and the faint glow of his staff... Hold a moment, glowing staff... Well whatever had taken him hadn't been smart enough to separate somepony they'd drug off from their weapon... Or they just weren't concerned enough to not leave it with their victim.

Either way, Red was grateful for it. A small bit of familiarity in an alien local. A rather dark local if truth be told. He could only see by virtue of the faint shimmering light of his staff, a light the brightened ever so slightly as he drug himself over to the weapon and laid a hoof on it.

Cradling the weapon close to himself Red hunkered down a bit and decided to wait until he could move his head without it hurting so badly before attempting to escape from where ever he was.





In Red's home a red Pegasus lay sprawled atop his newly claimed bed and smiled to himself, his red eyes flashed a blank white for a moment as he finished adjusting to his new shape. Life was good when taken from another, none knew this better than a 'Ganger....
> Chapter Twenty-Four: What it is ain't exactly clear...
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	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.
> Chapter Twenty-Five: The Journey Back
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A warning before you continue from here. This chapter will be brutal in comparison with most of this story. There is going to be PAIN, a lot of pain in this chapter. That dark tag is up for a reason my dear readers, so if you were expecting this arc to end as happily as the last, let me quash those hopes now. There are two more planed chapters in this arc subsequent to this one. This particular chapter is focused entirely on Red and his journey back to Ponyville. The next will cover Twi and the doppelganger. The third and final in the arc will cover the after math of the events to follow. You have been warned, and I'm sorry for what I am going to do to these characters. Without further adieu let us begin.








Red's breathing was ragged and strained, his sides heaving as he gasped for air. The Everfree was never kind to it's visitors, often doing it's best to seem maliciously aware of their presence and seeming to find a way to guide them into every conceivable danger within its dark embrace. Red's experience was much the same as any other visitor's.

For five minutes after he'd left the cave he'd awoken in things had been almost peaceful, a bit too much so. It was testament to how little wood-craft the druidic pony truly had knowledge of that he failed to heed the warning signs of a silent forest. It is partially excusable however as he was already wounded and had lived most of his life in a city, his only contact with the natural world he venerated so highly was the parks and his infrequent visits to his Gran's place.

Excusable, but unfortunate. He was taken unawares by the thing that had followed him out of his would-be prison.

The cockatrice was upon him with nary a sound, talons and sharp beak laying into the pony with a vengeance. It's ambush was met with a startled cry that quickly turned into a loud exclamation of pain and a god deal of thrashing. Thrashing that dislodged the predator and served only to piss it off. Prey was not meant to put up such a fight when wounded.

Cockatrice were normally ambush hunters of a different sort, tricking their prey into catching their eye, turning them to stone, and letting them sit for awhile before returning for an easy kill. A day or two as a statue left the victim disoriented greatly upon their release. It was this that allowed for an easy kill and an easy meal. This particular one however had opted to take a direct approach, seeing the obviously hurt pegasus as an easy kill already.

Red wasn't about to let that happen though, but he was in no real shape to fight. He took the next best option. He ran, ran as fast as his battered body would allow. He'd been running for a good ten minutes now, and he could barely hold himself up any longer, his body protesting to almost every movement and his lungs seemingly filled with molten shards of glass. Of course it was when he was just about to keel over from exhaustion that he was attacked again, talons, beak and loud shrieks of his attacker hitting him in a furious whirlwind.

Crying out in pain again Red went down and found himself being mauled, if that term can truly apply, by something he'd hoped never to meet. Up till now he had no clue what had hit him, now he did. He caught a face full of furious cockatrice, and an eye full while he was at it.

The beast seemed to smirk slightly as its little red eyes flared a bright, madder red. Red Wyne froze for a moment, his body stiffening rapidly and a weight settling over his limbs. His face twisted into an expression of horror as he realized what was happening. he was being rendered little more than a lawn ornament. He had time to think of a single sentence before his mind went blank and time stood still for him.

"Oh dear Luna, please help..."

It was fortunate for him that his staff was still in contact with some part of him for no sooner had that thought crossed his mind when his plea was answered. Sure, it took a few long moments, moments in which the cockatrice was gloating over it's soon to be meal. With a blinding silver flash Luna's gift to her favored pony cleansed the curse from him, the stone covering bursting apart with explosive force and flinging his beastly attacker away with a loud startled squawk.

Bleeding, battered more heavily now, and dazed Red could only lay there and clutch at his chest. his heart hammered rapidly and he was more than oblivious to his surroundings for a while. It was fortunate for him that his would be death dealer decided he was no longer worth the effort and had left in search of easier prey.

Red's mind was racing as fast as his heart, consumed with thoughts of what had nearly just happened. He'd so nearly died, died what he was sure would have been a horrid death. He wasn't so sure that he'd not been dead for a few moments to be honest. He'd been so cold, so empty, so... disconnected from everything in the few seconds he'd been no more than a bit of statuary. His mind had been scattered, nothing at all left to be completely aware of anything. It was only after the fact that the various inputs from whatever had passed for senses could be felt and made any sense of.

What if he had died? What would have happened to his friends? More importantly what would Twilight have felt? Never mind the fact that he'd be gone forever, as a druid he knew this was coming eventually. He'd join the great cycle like all things would, but Twilight... Her happiness and well being mattered so much more than most anything else to him. If he died he knew she'd be hurt, perhaps devastated. He wasn't sure if she cared for him quite as much as he did her, but that didn't matter. He could only focus on how it would have hurt her to lose him.

Then there was the matter of that thing that had attacked him and drug him off into this thrice cursed forest. Was it still hanging around Ponyville, gathering more victims? If he'd bit the big one just then, no one would be able to warn the town... He had to pull himself together and get back, and he had to do it as soon as possible.

With a groan he struggled his way to his hooves, hissing in pain as he disturbed his new injuries. His back was a mess of stinging scratches and aching puncture wounds and blood flowed freely from those, matting his fur and staining it darker than it already was. He could faintly feel a bit of damage to one of his wings, but he couldn't bring himself to look. He had more important things to do right now, namely surviving and getting back to his mare friend. With that goal to galvanize him he set off at a steady, and quite slow, limping pace in what he hoped was the vague direction of home.





Twenty four hours later.





A day had passed since he'd began his walk back, and he was hopelessly lost already. His injuries were more than enough to keep him from even taking a short upwards journey to see if he could get his bearings, especially the damage to his right wing. The cockatrice had done a serious number to that, and it was no wonder it had gone numb. It was cloven straight to the bone in more than a few places, a great number of his primaries ripped or broken beyond salvage. It would take a bloody miracle for him to ever fly again if he got out of here.

As it was he'd done what he could to try and prevent it from getting worse. He'd stumbled, quite literally, into a patch of blood moss and had packed the worst of his wounds with it. The herd served to staunch bleeding and keep the wounds closed, not to mention it offered a faint amount of pain relief, though that was more than likely his mind playing tricks on him. 

In any case he still staggered on, stopping every now and again to lean heavily against his staff and attempt to make heads or tails of where he was headed. It really didn't help that the forest all looked the same. Twisted trees that seemed to loom over him with a sinister air. He could almost swear he heard them whispering to him every now and again.

"This way... Come and sleep beneath my branches. Let my roots take you, hold you, choke the spark from you." some would say.

"Keep to the path, it leads into the maws of Umbra..." others would hiss. 

Seductive tones, like a lover's whispers sometimes would utter the words "Let us take you little mortal, become ours...".

It was these voices and the faces that seemed to adorn many of the trees around him that made him cling tighter to both his staff and to his goal. Get back home alive. Stop that... thing... Collapse into Twilight's arms and cry himself empty in relief at seeing her again.

Shaking his head sharply Red tried to tune the voices out even more and just staggered on again, oblivious to the fact that he was being watched once again...





The second night, an hour after Red's collapse.





He couldn't go on any more. Not without rest. His body demanded that he lay down and let it recuperate from two straight days of walking while wounded. It was an impressive feat and spoke volumes about the iron will that drove Red on. Such a thing will only take you so far however, and it had taken him as far as it could for now. He'd finally been unable to continue an hour ago. Now he lay sprawled in an inglorious heap, breathing shallowly and bleeding from a few reopened cuts. He shivered, teeth chattering softly, his back and wing feeling as if they were aflame. He was more than sure he had some kind of infection going, and it would only get worse.

Luna above, what could he do? He had no medical training beyond a bit of basic herb lore. Will bark and blood moss would avail him not right now though, not if he was getting sick enough to require antibiotics, the good kind you only got in a hospital. With these thoughts dancing about in his mind and gnawing at his resolve and will to continue on despite the pain his eyes slowly drifted closed and sleep took him.

His latest stalker crept closer, sniffing softly at the ground and watching the sleeping pegasus with an almost disinterested look.The beast smiled a predatory grin... It's children would have a host after all, and one large enough to feed them for days after hatching.

Creeping closer on eight insectoid legs the arachne's grin grew wider. The spider-like monster was a gruesome sight. It's body was that of a rather beautiful mare, but that's where the beauty stopped. Eight spidery legs, a bulbous abdomen in place of a mare's tail. A face that way a hideous mixture of pony and spider with six black orb like eyes that twinkled with malicious glee... Slowly it leaned closer to it's chosen incubator, fangs glistening and dripping a clear venom as it opened it's mouth wide and prepared to sink it's fangs deep into Red's neck. It never got the chance.

It's would-be prey jerked up suddenly, blood red eyes boring into it's own now startled orbs with a feral sort of intensity that honestly frightened the spider creature enough to send it scuttling back a few steps. The last sight it saw in life were those eyes, a predator's eyes set into the face of a prey animal as it felt the pain of an impossibly hard blow against it's skull for a split second.

Red awoke some time later to find himself snuggled up to a cold corpse, his staff driven clean through it's head right up to the mid-point of the weapon. Bites covered the flesh of the beast here and there and he couldn't get the strangest of tastes out of his mouth. Needless to say he hastened to reclaim his staff and get moving again, frightened by the implications of all he'd just seen... and tasted.





Third day, Red's fall and the death of a dream.





It was noon now, and Red was no longer lost. At least not in the physical sense. Not too long after his flight from the clearing he'd collapsed in he'd felt some innate sense tugging him in a slightly different direction and he'd allowed it to guide him. He had nothing better for directions after all. Mentally however, Red was lost in a bramble patch of caustic thoughts and vague memories.

He could still... taste... that thing on his tongue and teeth. Some part of his mind told him to seek out more, a primal part of him that relished in the fact that he'd taken a life to sustain his own. Exercised his right as an apex predator... An apex predator that he no longer was. Be that as it may, that part of him wished to feel the jarring thump of driving his staff through that thing's skull once again. Wished to watch as the light drained from those six shocked, and delightfully fearful, eyes. The other part of his mind hadn't changed it's goals in the least. Get to Twilight.

At the moment however, it was that feral side that was winning as it were. Oh his thoughts were clear enough, but he could feel his pain and exhaustion muted senses sharpening, his ears swiveling to track the sounds of small prey, worthy of a quick snack, in the bushes. He could smell the faint scent of fear and musk off of those animals as well, and it made him salivate. This disgusted him on some level, meat wasn't necessary... So why did he crave it now? Why did he want so strongly to pounce upon some small rabbit or another and tear into it with his teeth? Eat it raw and squirming. To taste the blood on his fan-... Wait, he didn't have fangs. Didn't even have canine teeth any more, he only had the flat grinding teeth of a herbivore... Right?

He ran his tongue slowly over his teeth and blinked in surprise at what he found... Canines, canines sharp enough to have cut his tongue on. That stopped him short and drew a gasp from him. He ran his tongue over his teeth once more and found nothing out of the ordinary... He'd have dismissed the feeling of a hunter's teeth as a fever induced hallucination, save for the taste of blood slowly spreading over his tongue from the small cut on it... The same cut he'd gotten off that... imagined fang? Now he was just plain scared...

Shaking his head vigorously he resumed walking, plodding along mechanically as he tried to school his addled mind to stillness. He'd not gone five steps before the earth suddenly was gone from beneath his hooves. With a startled scream he plunged headlong down a pit and landed in a heap with a couple resounding cracks. Still screaming, this time in pain, he looked down at his for leg and mutilated wing. His leg was bent at an unnatural angle, clearly broken... It was the wing however that had him screaming all the louder. The weakened appendage lay on the ground, only attached to him by a few stubborn bits of flesh, the bone snapped cleanly at the base. He'd landed on it heavily it seemed. Slowly darkness consumed his vision as he succumbed to the pain and knew no more...

His cries had drawn attention however, thankfully of the friendly sort. A hooded figure picked it's way closer to the crumpled body not five minutes later. "Oh dear, oh dear.... What have we here..." the figure muttered softly, clearly female by the voice. She carefully looked the poor boy over and tutted softly to herself. "This broken wing, I cannot mend... Seems this one's flight has met it's end. Still though to life he does cling. Perhaps an end to pain I can bring..." Carefully, oh so carefully the figure gathered up the fallen and broken body of Red, his staff, and severed wing before calmly walking away, seemingly unbothered by her burden.
> Chapter Twenty-Six: House Keeping.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Zecora frowned down at her house guest, unable to quite give voice to what she was seeing now that she'd had an opportunity to fully examine him. She knew of the strange blank-flanked pegasus that had captured the heart of her dear friend Twilight, but had yet to meet him... Well, meeting him now she wished it was under better circumstances. Sighing softly the shamanistic zebra looked him over one last time to confirm her findings before she could really get to work on the process of fixing him up a bit.

The most obvious and distressing injury was the loss of a wing, the shredded appendage and subsequent stump were beyond her skill to repair. The most she could do was preserve the wing and staunch the bleeding in hopes that some unicorn could help him eventually. While less distressing his other injuries were no less serious. His body was a road map of small cuts and scrapes, many of which, especially on his back and flanks, were infected. He'd obviously had a really bad run in with something and hadn't quite avoided the pointy ends of it. Further more the greenish fluid that occasionally dripped from the corners of his mouth lead her to believe he'd taken a bite of something decidedly poisonous. Here in the Everfree that could have been anything from a plant to a... Well, most likely a plant. What kind of pony went about biting other creatures anyways?

Muttering that very same question to herself she got to work. Her muttered questions slowly breaking off into a low chanting in her native tongue. All the while Red was oblivious, lost to the world and trapped in a fever dream that, were his body able to, would have had him shivering in fright and whimpering like a kicked puppy.





"OH HAI!" rang out the rather loud voice of Pinkie Pie, drawing a rather startled yelp from "Red".

"Oh by the Grey, where the hells did you come fro-... Oh hi honey." he eventually replied, glaring at Pinkie with a weary sort of anger. Needless to say this wasn't our Red. From hence forth he shall be referred to as False.

Now Pinkie, despite what some would think, was not a fool. She simply enjoyed acting that way, and as she often told other ponies she had to stay in character, right? Upon hearing the words of False she blinked slowly, a little internal alarm ringing and setting her molars a-quiver. A clear sign from her Pinkie sense to get the buck outta dodge. This confused her, why would she need to get away from Red, he was a friend. He also made for a fun party game, you know, pull the pony out of the ceiling. She mentally shrugged, sometimes even she found her Pinkie sense weird. Well she really should've listened to that one, and the one that warned her to duck about a second before a hoof collided with her head and the world went black... though she could've sworn she saw a little bit of pink in there as well.

Dusting off his hooves False smiled wickedly down at his newest little prize. Looked to him like he'd be eating well for a little while, despite the absolute shit food he'd found in his new pantry. Who the hell enjoyed oatmeal anyways? Not a doppelganger that's for sure. Whistling a jaunty little tune he bit down on Pinkie's tail and started to drag her off towards a nice secluded back room.





Twilight paced restlessly, occasionally glancing at the clock as she waited for two hours to pass. She just wanted to head back and see Red, make sure he was ok, talk to him... Spend a few hours cuddled up and enjoying his company... Maybe find out if that book she'd read on proper ways to kiss your stallion was worth the price of it... That last one brought a hint of red to her cheeks and stopped her short.

"So..." she mumbled to herself, "I apparently want to, to put it colloquially, suck face with Red... When did that happen? Hmm... Well, that's something to add to my observational note book on the effects of infatuation if that's what it's indicative of... Maybe I should ask Red if he can concur with that theory and... I'm doing it again. Trying to distract myself from everything important with science and such... But when did science become unimportant? Gah! That's it, time to go see my colt friend and play mother hen if he's sick." With a flash of teleportation she did just that, showing up right in his living room.

A living room currently occupied by her colt, her Red, with his teeth clamped on the tail of her unconscious friend. Her unconscious friend who had a small trickle of blood flowing sedately from the split skin at her temple. Blood that shone wetly on one of her colt's forehooves. Her response was a very eloquent "Uhhh.... Huwat?"

False had something different to say entirely. "Fuck. Well, looks like I've got two corpses to dispose of then..."

No sooner had the words left his lips then "Red" was gone. In his place stood a tall, lanky, grey skinned humanoid that was, quite honestly, the ugliest thing Twilight had ever seen. It was simply unnatural looking, what with its misshapen head, smooth and featureless face, featureless save for the eyes that is. Red on a field of gold. Its appendages, arms and legs Twi's mind supplied the words, ended in spindly hands and feet respectively. Those hands were reaching out towards her now, long bony fingers closing over her throat with the intent to choke the life from her.

It was about this time that her brain finally caught back up with reality and her proverbial jaw snapped shut. Granted she wasn't quite fast enough to get out of the thing's grasp. For as this and fragile looking as those hands were their grip was like iron. Cold, hard, and unyielding. With nothing else to do, Twilight panicked a bit, discharging raw magic in fear as he air was cut off.

Now being a unicorn of not inconsiderable magical prowess that burst of unfocused magic had two effects. First, the creature was blown clear across the room, grip torn free by the out pouring of force. The second was a magical surge, much like when she was a filly. This time however, it had direction and a certain malevolent intent. Malevolent that is, if one happened to be a doppelganger who'd just attempted to strangle her, had apparently hurt her friend, and was previously wearing the form of her colt friend.

False looked up from where he'd been thrown, golden eyes widening at what he saw. Within a raging pillar of harsh white light stood an extremely pissed of unicorn. Its coat was a white that somehow managed to stand out brightly against the decidedly white pillar in which it stood. Not quite as much as the flames that made up it's mane and tail however. That's not quite what drew him up short however. Nope, the glare directed back at him was what sent ice water rushing through his veins and a spike of mortal terror into his heart. He had just enough time to have one last thought before he ceased to be capable of such things. "Oh... Shit..."

What followed that thought would have gone down in history as one of the most brutal beatings ever delivered at the hooves of a unicorn ever. By the time Twi had regained her senses and calmed down, Her, Pinkie, And a decidedly resilient bathtub were all that was left standing )or in Pinkie's case laying) for a good hundred foot radius. She stood before a pile of what had once been Red's house, now it was just a literal ton of tooth picks with a gruesome little topper. Sticking out the top of the pile was one long bony grey skinned hand, fingers curled and broken, oozing a greenish ichor that passed as the creature's blood. As it was, that day did go down in the history of Ponyville as the day of the fastest deconstruction job ever done in town.

The once again purple mare who'd done the deed had only one question though. She didn't care what that thing was, what it had wanted, what it was going to do with Pinkie, or anything like that. She simply wanted to know one very simple thing. Staring in a glassy-eyed manner at the hand among the rubble she asked it calmly, "Where's Red?"

The only answer she got was the sound of the wind and thundering hooves as many a pony rushed to find out just what the commotion had been.
> Chapter Twenty-Seven: Aftermath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was often said that life in Equestria shimmered, that it shined brightly and that in Equestria, there was never such a thing as a dark day. In the wake of what was an admittedly short slap in the face of that saying, Twilight Sparkle felt the need to call much of what was said into question. Could one really claim that life was bright and sunny when it seemed much more apt to go and rain on her parade? Silent tears ran down her face, staining her fur a darker shade of lavender. Mirroring these tears stood her five dear friends (and one dragonic assistant). Before them lay Red, body covered almost head to tail in bandages and stretched out on a plain bed, Zecora's bed to be exact.

Not an hour had passed after Twilight's destruction of Red's home and the monster that had worn his form before Zecora had come searching for her bearing grave news. At first Twilight hadn't wanted to believe it, something like that couldn't have happened, especially to somepony like Red. Not her Red, not the pony that had faced down diamond dogs to save one of her best friends. Not to the pony who always had a smile for her, who would spend hours and hours just talking about books with her... Not the pony who she could honestly say she loved. Now... Now she had no choice but to accept that not only could it happen, but it had.

Zecora had managed to talk Twilight into gathering her friends first before bringing them all to her hut, and their wounded friend. Despite the fact that she'd wanted to rush right to his side, Twi had to admit she was glad to have her friends by her side right now. It was a comfort, having AJ and Rainbow leaning gently against her on either side. Their silent teary support keeping her head above the dark waters of her shock, horror, and sorrow.

Rainbow herself wasn't crying for what lay before her right now. No, her tears were for her fellow pegasus, a friend at that, who'd just lost something important, something vital to what it meant to be a pegasus... From what she could see, her friend would never get off the ground under his own power again. So no, she wasn't crying for the transient pain she knew Red must be in now, she cried for the pain of loss she knew he'd feel later, denied the freedom of flight.

AJ wept for Twilight, she hated seeing her friend reduced to this. Hated the raw pain etched into Twilight's grief stricken face. She wept for Red, for what he'd lost and for the fact that it couldn't have happened to anypony less deserving of that kind of pain... Not that she felt anypony deserved such a thing of course, but Red most definitely did not... Neither did Twilight for that matter.

Fluttershy had her face buried in Pinkie's mane, her forelegs wrapped tightly around the currently straight maned mare. A delicate soul was Fluttershy and seeing anyone in pain hurt her just as much. Seeing someone who was important to her friend made her feel as if she'd swallowed a thorn bush. Her chest felt tight, her throat raw and scratchy from her sobbing, and her eyes blurry from the constant stream of tears flooding from them.

Pinkie herself sat staring down at Red with a look of shocked disbelief on her face. She shed tears, how could she not when her favorite pony to play with (currently) was so hurt. The disbelief came from the fact that her Pinkie Sense hadn't warned her of this. She couldn't help but feel guilty, as if somehow, in some way, she'd failed her friend. Failed to prevent his pain and suffering.

Rarity was almost as bad off as Fluttershy. Always one for romantic ideals she'd been unable to help setting Red up on a mental pedestal as some kind of untouchable, unstoppable knight. A knight who'd made her dear friend happy in a way she'd never seen Twilight before the two of them had begun dating. For once the perfect appearance she cultivated and wore like a suit of armor was cracked and broken without her caring in the least. What use was beauty and fabulosity when one's loved ones were laying upon death's door?

Spike was the only one unsure of what to feel. He liked Red, he really did, and while he was sad that he was hurt, Spike had no clue why everyone was so sad. Granted he'd been prevented from hearing the true extent of Red's injuries and from getting a good look, but Red was alive and he'd get better eventually... Wouldn't he?

"My dear friend who's name means dusk, shed no tears over his mortal husk... I mean not to say he is gone from you, you have my word that this is true. Recover he will, but a long road ahead there is still." Zecora's voice hissed softly in Twilight's ear, the words meant for her and her alone.

Twilight just nodded numbly, unable to take her eyes off her coltfriend. Slowly Zecora ushered the others from the room, though not before AJ gently placed her hat upon Twilight's head, and left the two in peace for now. Still silently crying and oblivious of the hat on her head Twi gently climbed onto the bed next to the wounded pegasus and, being as careful as she could, snuggled up next to him. She wanted nothing more than to stay by his side until he woke up again.





Red was confused, he had no clue where he was or what he was doing. He had no clue even what he was at the moment. What he did know is that beneath his paws the forest floor told a story. Not fifty tail lengths from him a small herd of deer grazed amongst the underbrush. Silently, he stalked forward, mouth open slightly to taste the scent of his soon to be prey as his eyes and ears kept careful track of his surroundings. Suddenly he stopped, confused beyond belief. He was a pony right? Why did he have paws? Why was he hunting anything? He happily subsisted on vegetables and fruit. Meat wasn't something he wanted or needed... So why did he find himself aching for the taste of the succulent flesh of the creatures not far ahead of him now? Frowning slightly he sat back on his haunches and looked himself over. He recognized one thing, the wine red fur of his coat. What he didn't recognize were the darker striped here and there that broke up his silhouette amongst the greenery despite his eye catching color. He didn't recognize the large paws at the ends of his legs, or the long and decidedly feline tail curled loosely over his fore paws. His confusion grew as he lifted one of those paws and, through some muscle memory he was unaware of having, flexed it. Wicked looking claws as black and sharp as obsidian shards slid easily from their sheaths. He stared at them for a few moments more before the scent of prey caught his nose once more and he lost himself to the hunt again.

Watching this from her place in the dream, for that's what it was, Luna sighed sadly. She knew just what had happened to her little pony... And in her mind, he was indeed his. She'd brought him to this world and saved him from his old life. She'd meant to spare him from ever having to suffer again. The failure of that endeavor weighed heavily upon her heart. Her failure to watch over him properly had gotten him maimed and damaged beyond full repair. He'd called himself a druid, a druid who followed her... She couldn't help but feel she'd failed him in that regard as well. As a protector and a deity she'd failed her chosen pony. She'd make it up to him somehow, she had to... She just had to. Without further thought, not even to what Tia would have to say about what she was going to do, she reached for her magic and let it flow across the aether and the causeways of dreams to flood into the broken body of Red Wyne. "I'm sorry my little one..." she whispered softly, letting herself drift from his dream of what was to come...
> Chapter Twenty-Eight: Impromptu Pony Pile of Comfort.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Consciousness, ever a fickle beastie, had still yet to return to Red even after three days laid out in Zecora's hut, Now, Red was of course completely oblivious to this, his dreams filled with the simple pleasures of an animal. After his initial dream, a dream of what would be his first hunt, he no longer questioned anything he experienced. He didn't question the taste of his prey on his tongue, nor did he question how silently he padded through the underbrush of his hunting grounds. He most certainly didn't question the time he caught sight of his reflection in a still pool beneath an old gnarled tree.

A rather impressive sort of cat stared up at him from the pool, bi-colored eyes narrowed in curiosity. Its fur was a deep red in color, a red mottled here and there with darker stripes that served well to hide it among the shadows despite the crimson of it's coat. Red reached out a paw, watching as the cat in the pool did the same. Cocking his head a little he dipped a paw into the water, his reflection mirroring the action right until the ripples distorted it. As he drew his paw back, irritably shaking the wetness from it, his eyes fell back on the pool and widened slightly. Staring back at him now was prey. A red pony with eyes much like his own. They stared at one another for a seeming eternity before Red, the hunter, crouched and sprung like a coiled spring, landing in the water without so much as a splash. The hunter found itself... Red found himself crashing into wakefulness like a freight train through a china shop.

"GAH!" Red exclaimed suddenly, startling all the assembled ponies as he shot upwards and came crashing down again, landing in a tangled heap of bandaged, and rather confused, pony. Twilight was at his side again in an instant, fussing over him and helping him straighten himself out. A fact that the muzzy headed pegasus was most grateful for.

"Oh thank Celestia..." Twilight breathed, cuddling up to Red once more after he'd been righted and declared unhurt, at least any more so than he was already. "I was beginning to think you'd never wake up." Careful of her injured coltfriend, she hugged him for a moment. "Don't you EVER scare me like that again or I swear I'm going to petrify you and keep you on the lawn." Her grip had grown suddenly fierce and possessive at this.

Red just nodded, blinking and looking around in a daze. The last thing he remembered was a long fall and an intense pain in his wing and foreleg. Frowning slightly he made an effort to look himself over. First his right wing, which didn't move much in it's bandages. That seemed to be in order well enough. He'd been hurt hadn't he? Next his legs and barrel. Bandaged here and there, with one of his forelegs in a heavy splint. It stuck out at and odd, slightly bent, angle from the rest of him. Not the most comfortable thing in the world, but he could deal with it. Not like he'd never broken anything before really. Red's examination came to a screeching halt when he caught sight of his other wing... Or lack there of really. Disbelief spread slowly over his features as he waggled the stump where his wing should have been, a deep frown on his lips. Just like that it all came flooding back to him. The pain of the cockatrice's claws and spines as it tore into him. His feverish jaunt through the forest... The taste and the almost delicious shriek of pain as he tore into that arachne. His fall, the wet snap of his wing breaking so badly it had come clean off. Just like that disbelief was replaced with denial and, unbidden, the word "No..." came bubbling from his mouth in a constant, slowly quickening, jumble of repetition.

With a flash of magic and without much concern Twilight shoved her friends out the door. A fact none of them really gave complaint to, there were some things that they knew they couldn't help with. This was one of them. Once the others were gone Twilight turned her full attention to Red who stared numbly at the stump of his wing. Gently she lay a hoof against his lips to still the stream of "no"'s spilling forth.

"Shhh..." she said softly, pulling him closer and hugging his head to the crook of her neck. This, she thought, couldn't make up for her failure to prevent something she thought she could have. It was, however, a start. If she couldn't have been there to prevent it, she could be there now to make it hurt a bit less... Somehow. She ran her hoof through his mane slowly, offering her support and love silently. Words were pointless right now, invalidated by the overwhelming need to hold her special somepony until he didn't hurt any more. Later in Life, Twilight would come to say that science and knowledge, for all her love of them, was honestly a second stringer to emotional response in more situations that she'd once thought.

Like someone had broken a dam, Red clung to Twi, sobbing in confusion and loss. Despite the tears he just felt hollow and empty, like someone had reached in and scooped out something that he hadn't missed until it was gone. Even as badly as he'd been hurt before, nothing had even been taken from him, not like this. Broken bones mended, cuts and scrapes healed in time, concussions cleared up, but to his understanding a lost limb was a lost limb. There was no "fixing" that. Sure, he'd heard of people having hands reattached if the doctors were quick enough... but they never worked quite the same again. From his point of view, his wing was lost forever and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. That brought a fresh round of tears to his eyes and he hugged Twilight all the tighter.

They stayed like this for a long while, long enough in fact that neither of them noticed that their friends had slipped in again and joined in on comforting them both. By the time they did notice the others they were asleep, crowded around the two of them and pressed gently against them here and there. Rainbow's head rested against Red's neck, one wing draped gently over his back. Pinkie was using his rear end as a pillow and snoring softly, her hooves wrapped around Fluttershy's tail. Flutters had curled herself loosely around Twilight, her head against AJ's rump. AJ leaned against Twilight lightly, asleep on her hooves. Rarity had somehow managed to get herself snuggling in almost between the two of them, keeping contact with both. Slowly, Red and Twi disentangled themselves and glanced about at their friends, blinking slowly.

Red's bloodshot eyes softened slightly, a faint smile appearing on his face. This... This was something he'd never thought he'd actually have. Friends that cared enough to about him to go and... Well... He wasn't sure what exactly they thought they were doing, but it was touching none the less. Twilight's eyes sparkled slightly with unshed tears of gratitude for her friends. She'd pushed them out, and despite that they'd come right back before too long to comfort them both. She couldn't have asked for a greater joy in life than the ponies who surrounded her right now.

They glanced back at one another and smiled faintly before settling down among their friends and drifting off to sleep, nose to nose... With their heads on Rarity's belly. If she was going to lay there like that, she was going to get press ganged into service as a pillow... Not that she'd mind in this case.

In the doorway Zecora watched this all with a faint smile, settling down to keep watch on her charge. Despite what they may want, until Red was healed he was her responsibility. It was her duty as a medicine mare after all to ensure those in her care left better than they'd come... "I see you come to check on him, oh princess of most grievous sin." she whispered to seemingly thin air.

Shimmering into view after a moment Luna sighed softly and took a seat next to the Zebra. "... Can you blame me? I should have been watching him. He's here because I brought him here, he's my little pony so much more so than what Tia can claim." she said after a long moment. Zecora just nodded sagely, the silence stretching on for a long while.

"Blame is not mine to give, and we should be grateful that he still does live. From the spider kin he took a bite, their venomous blood did further his plight. From him his flight was taken, through you something else did awaken. Much of this my eyes do see, but what is to come is shrouded to me..." Zecora said at length, turning to look at the pony beside her.

Luna sat there, slumped slightly, her wings dragging the dirt almost as she let them hang slack. "He... Before I brought him to this land he was one who worshiped my moon like ponies of old did Tia's sun. A druid he called himself. Flattering really, but he was one only in name. Because of my inaction he's lost something precious to any pegasus... I made him a druid in truth. Zecora, teach him for me... As much as I wish to, I do not think I could without bursting into tears every time I see what was lost. I can think of no better teacher than a sybil anyways..." With that, and a faint glow of silvery light, she was gone, leaving Zecora to frown slightly and shake her head.

Sybil, there's a term she had not heard for a long time. A seer, a wisemare, a wytch some would say... Despite dumping this on her, Zeora had to admit that Luna was correct. For what was to come down the road for the wine red pony, her instruction would certainly be of use. Sighing, the zebra walked calmly off into the night, her hoofsteps fading into the sound of an owls wings in the air as she was lost to sight.
> Chapter Twenty-Nine: So... Your Coltfriend is a Cat.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Red yawned and stretched slowly, a faint little creaking growl escaping him as he showed the world the proper position for a dental model. Not to mention the faintly altered shape of his teeth. He had proper canines again, though they looked a great deal closer to leonine fangs really. It didn't matter much to him at the moment, there was a warm bit of sun on his back, a lovely mare snuggled up with him, and a peaceful sense of quiet pervading the library.

A few days had passed since he'd awoken in Zecora's hut, covered in his friends and bandages... A few days since he'd had to come to terms with something that pained him far more than he thought it would have... He remembered that moment with a decidedly pained scowl, the sight of that stump where his wing should have been. He remembered the words of his friends, the comforting touches and loving embraces as they worked to keep him calm. It had worked just fine really, and it helped that they'd been able to reattach the limb. It didn't function properly any longer, but he was still whole... Sort of. He was still a grounded pegasus.

A grounded pegasus who sometimes dreamed he was a big cat.

He found himself enjoying those dreams of late, enjoying the feel of the cool winds over his whiskers and the scents of the forest drawing him onward to the hunt. It was simple, and an escape from the faint pity shining in the eyes of everypony these days... He was loathe to admit that he hated that. Loathe to admit to hating anything at all. It just wasn't normally in his nature, and yet... That pity bothered him. So he couldn't fly any more, so he didn't have a cutiemark, so he'd nearly died... He was lucky, he didn't need that pity or the soft words of strangers. He had his friends and Twilight. That was all he needed. All anypony should ever need.

Speaking of Twilight... Red's tongue rasped slowly over her mane, straightening a few loose strands. A fact that the sleeping mare seemed to be enjoying a bit if the little smile on her face was any indication. They made for quite a sight, a mulberry coated mare, curled up with a pony sized big cat that took the best features of a panther and a tiger and combined them all in one pleasingly feline body. The fact that they were both still quite asleep made the sight all the more cute to a casual observer... One who DIDN'T happen to be a pony.

Therefor it should be no surprise that Murphy decided the situation needed more pony.

"Hey Twi you got that new Daring Do book in ye-WOAH!" came the voice of Rainbow Dash, who seemed to lack the understanding that yelling in a library was considered impolite... As was popping into your friend's living space without invitation. In her defense however, Twilight DID love in a public library...

Startled by the outburst Twilight shot up with a startled yelp, smacking the top of her head into Red's chin and leaving her clinging to a light fixture, heart racing. Red of course bit his tongue, leapt to his paws, and stood there, fur bristling. He looked like a blood red ball of fluff who happened to be blowing the world a perpetual raspberry. Rainbow for her part just stood there, jaw slack and completely dumbfounded by what she'd walked in on. Twi was in bed... With a PREDATOR!?

Twilight was currently rather confused. Her mane was wet, she was apparently playing the part of a bat in the play of life, hung upside down from her ceiling lamp, and she was staring down at a very confusing sight. Some big cat thing was there on her bed, staring down RD with a look of confusion and minor discomfort in its eyes.

Red just knew that his tongue was sore and that his fur felt all prickly. Without so much as a second thought on the matter he plopped himself down and started straightening his fur. Like a typical cat he used his tongue to do so. He got through about three passes on his side before he realized just what he was doing, blinked a couple time, and let out a mumbled and very profound statement.

"Da buck?"

Just like that all the tension was gone from the room. Talking tiger things tended to make for great mind bogglers after all.

"Uhh... Hey Rainbow, seen Twi? We were having a real nice nap till something smacked my chin... Why're you staring at me like that anyways? Something on my face?" Red asked, oblivious to his current form. He didn't feel any different in all honesty.

RD blinked a couple times, working her jaw back into place before she managed to get out a few words while pointing up at the wanna-be bat pony. "Uhh... Wha... Huh... Red?!"

"Uhh... Yeah? Expecting the Easter bunny?" asked the pony-cat as he followed the direction of Rainbow's hoof. He blinked in surprise at the sight that greeted his eyes, Twilight, suspended upside down by her tail. Seems he hooves had slipped in shock of seeing the kitty who'd she'd cuddled with.

"How in the world...? You ok up there my dear?"

Twilight, ever the scholar, did the only thing logical to do in the current situation. She fainted after yelling out the obvious for all to hear. "RED! You're a cat!?"