> The Red Dusk
>  by Barony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Red Dusk
By Kamitorrorga
A tale of how one fanatic will rise above his past and prejudices against him.


It has been four hundred ninety nine years since I have been imprisoned after being defeated by Princess Celestia on a mission.

I knew it was going to be risky, too risky infact.

My name is Red Dusk, a former synthetic alicorn servant and knight of Nightmare Moon.

I still remember that day, when I tried to cave in a part of Canterlot from inside the caverns.

It was a tragic failure. I bit off more than I can chew and Celestia made me into a damned ornament.

But for some reason, something told me that this was a blessing. My lack of access to Nightmare Moon and the pharmaceutical supplies she had instructed me to take has seemingly allowed myself to think freely and clearly after a month in my tomb.

Using this freedom, I thought my life over, and my more rational side took over, my own mind insulting myself. 

But it would probably be in vain. Nopony wants to see me, a monster.

I was a bigger monster, serving the Nightmare who sat on the throne on the moon, directing me to wreck havoc on Equestria.

Tomorrow will be the anniversary. Wont matter anyway.

All of this thinking would be in vain.





"Alrighty, everypony, gather around!"

An earth pony stallion with clipboard, reflector vest, and helmet calls out to the rest of his crew. As a forepony, he would have to brief his crew to get things going, so shouting out to the rest of your crew was part of the job.

A good six ponies, mostly earth ponies, walk around the clipboard wielding forepony, who looks at all of them with his large, gruff looking face.

"Is that everypony?" nods come from all around him, the grass green stallion with a blue and white mixed mane smiling to himself.

"Any questions about what we'll be doing? This is not your typical job and I also will plan to live up to my name, Risky Endeavour." Risky Endeavour smirked as two ponies, both unicorn mares, shifted in their places. 

Going down into the crystal mines to deal with structural issues when doing construction topside always held danger. But it was necessary, to keep the bigger, more gigantic buildings that are not your typical wooden two story building holding a shop, from falling into the caverns in an embarrassingly horrifying and deadly accident. 

"Are we assured to live, Risky? I have heard of some accidents that happened under your watch before." one of the unicorn's asks him, Risky biting his lip as he looks everywhere with his eyes. 

"Those were their faults, not mine. Atleast they did not get any life threatening injuries, or both them and I would be in deep shit." a gasp escapes from the earth ponies, the green stallion rolling his eyes. He cursed sometimes, it being customary at his favorite place, a casino black jack table. He was a gambler, who also played roulette and sometimes the slots. 

However, he had to pay for his gambling habit, so he found out that doing dangerous construction work payed well, well enough for him to not sink from his bills and gambling debt. Ever since then, he's been able to curb financial crises that could have happened if he did not have the job.

He looks around the group that surrounded him. Nopony was going to ask questions, so why bother waiting anymore? He had work to do, so did everypony else.

"Alright everypony, we will be going into there." he points with his muzzle, his eyes darting from one pony to the other in the group as he saw their eyes all shift towards the open entrance of the cavern. He looks back on the clipboard that was tucked into his fetlock and put up against his foreleg thigh.

"We should expect to maybe set out on either doing a controlled detonation for the construction site to sink down to be filled in, or for the area to be filled inside. Dont touch anything, none of the crystals, nothing. We're just seeing what will have to be done to deal with our problem and then go and work from there." Risky clipped his clipboard to his toolbelt, its pouches full of different materials needed for this line of work. He looks around at the other ponies, who all nod.

He throws up a hoof, flapping around his fetlock to signal for the group to follow him. He puts it down, trotting towards the entrance of the cavern and activating the magically powered lamp on his helmet. The sounds of hooves impacting the dirt behind him indicates that they were all following him. 

He enters the darkness of the cave with only the lamp's light guiding him. His head moved back and forth as the light shined off of the crystals.

The space he was in was pretty big, colossal in comparison to some of the other parts of the cavern he entered. There were big ones, and this one was one of them.

He continues to walk, looking behind him to see the others beginning to do their work, measuring and just in general exploring the place to make way for the project. Shushing can be heard as an experienced worker put a hoof to his mouth to the two new unicorn mares. The echo is annoying, and dangerous, there being confirmed tales of crystals collapsing ontop of miners when they were way too loud in their work. 

As he walks by a wall, he notices something rather odd. The scorch mark of what would be something really hot impacting the rock. It was faded and seemed to be years after years old, but it could be seen by the lamp light. He looks behind him and makes a noticeable, but quiet clicking noise with his tongue to the stallion he saw earlier.

The stallion's head jerks towards him, and he daintily trots over to his colleague.

"What?" the earth pony stallion asked, standing close to Risky. Risky gets a hoof and points to the scorch mark on the wall, his head, and thus, lamp, looking after it. The stallion's face turns to one of worry as he gets closer to it.

"We have to investigate, we dont know whats down here. I'm kinda worried." Risky whispered to his friend, who nodded.

"Whatever it was, its not natural. It could be magic for all we know." both stallions nod to eachother, both going seperate ways as they go farther down into the cavern. 

He could still hear the hushed whispers of the ponies at the other end of the cavern, which was reassuring. If there was something down here that could hurt him, he could run back to the group and being in a group is always better than being alone.

He keeps trotting, seeing more scorch marks and what seems to be a golden hoof guard? It looked just like one Princess Celestia would wear, only now it was faded, scratched up, and bent. He takes a hoof, picking it up and examining it, an awed look on his face. The decorations were just annihilated, almost as if she had been taken down.

What was she doing down here anyway? The stallion asked himself this question in his mind, shaking his head and stuffing the hoofguard into a large pouch.

He continues walking, sweat appearing all over his head. He bites his lip, daring to continue walking into the unknown. 

He stops again, to see a faded, yet still quite sharp looking and very geometrically designed, halberd. It's metallic parts were a dark crimson, which was fading away to reveal grey in the paint, or whatever it was. Its handle was carrying all sorts of decorations, with crescent moons all over, and...

The four pointed star of Red Dusk. 

He backs away, yelping as his ears pin to the sides of his heads at the speed of light. He looks back and forth around, before finally happening upon a large crystal. There was something inside of it, something he could not see.

He moves his lamp towards it, sweating now. The silhouette turns out to be...

An alicorn stallion in full armor. His helmet was not on his head, so now he could see the snarling face of Red Dusk and his sharp teeth. His body seems to be locked in a pose of running, and his head seems to be angled down, almost as if he was going to impale somepony with his horn. The horn ran through the hole in the chainmail coif that went all around his body, the only notable holes in the mail being a round one for his face and ones for his ears, which had a protruding portion that went halfway up his ears. 

The alicorn's facial features were terrifying to a normal ponies, having sharpened, carnivorous teeth, a large, square face. His ears were furrowed forward in an aggressive pose and his expression of absolute anger added to his fear inducing image.

His jaw dislocates itself from its fixture as he looks in utter fear, awe, and confusion. The alicorn's shrunken down iris' conveyed insanity, but with a peculiar hint of fear mixed in.

The stallion backed up, looking behind him to see the other stallion coming towards him. He wheels around, running to his friend.

"Alert the guard! I think I just found where Red Dusk has been all those centuries ago!" 





"Its a nice day out, Luna, why dont you get some sun?"

A groan escapes Princess Luna's muzzle as she lightly punches her sister in the leg. Her older sister only laughed, taking a sip of tea as she looks down at her little sister. She woke up not too long ago, as per her sleeping schedule that dictated 8 hours of sleep from dawn to early afternoon, from which then she does whatever. 

"Dear Sister, prithee, stop with thine foul bouts of... 'joking'. Tis most irritating." Luna asks her sister, who only smiles and takes another sip of her tea. 

"Ah, Luna, I keep forgetting to stop my use of sarcasm when talking with you considering you take everything literally. But you did spot the joke, I give you that." Celestia spoke, shifting on the cushion she was sitting on. She looks to the other side of the sitting room, a guard at the door.

The guard was motionless, typical as always due to training. However, it did sometimes amaze her how they could stand so still for such a long time everyday. 

A sip from the side of Celestia brings her focus back to her little sister, who continued to drink her own tea. She had a rather blank face with what seems to be folds under her eyes from tiredness.

Luna was not a pony for waking up at all. She did enjoy her sleep, just like others did, but it always seemed she was more irritated than others when woken up. She sometimes found it rather adorable.

The sound of some rather heavy shuffling and the creak of armor erupts from outside the door in the hallway. The guard at the door is unmoving, while the two princess' look at eachother with questioning looks. 

Finally, it comes. The door flings open and the guard at the door gets crashed into by the door, effectively being reduced to a confused heap. The enterer was a lieutenant, who cringed at seeing the confused door guard laying on the ground. He looks back at the Princess', shrugging.

"Is there something wrong, Lieutenant Berry?" Celestia asks with a hint of worry, putting down her teacup. The lieutenant bites his lips and walks closer.

"A construction crew that was sent to the caverns beneath the new apartment construction at the west side of the city made a discovery." the lieutenant's face seemed to squirm, almost as if he was thinking about how Celestia would react to what they would have discovered. 

"Another dragon nest?" Celestia asks with now a hint of disappointment. The lieutenant shook his head, now regaining Celestia's attention.

"Then what is it?" Celestia presses on, the guard deadpanning. 

"Well, replace that what and it with a who and he. We uhh... We found where Red Dusk has been for five hundred years..." the guard softly blurts it out, the message seeming to shock all in the room.

"What?" Luna asks, the guard nodding. She puts a hoof to her horn. 

"He's encased in crystal, with full armor on. He seemed to be frozen in the middle of running. Evidence indicates a large battle, but whats most disturbing is that we found one of Princess Celestia's golden hoofguards there. It was pretty faded and scratched up, but we assume anything but the worst." Celestia tenses up as she remember's the fateful battle those five hundred years ago. None know of the battle, as of yet, but she knows she must reveal the truth some time soon, the jig was up.

"What of the construction crew?" Celestia asks, the guard smiling a bit.

"They're in our hooves, and we're quite lucky that they did not immediately run off. The leader was smart enough to get them all to calm down and not run screaming into the city. We've got them under control and their lips shall be sealed." the lieutenant answers, rubbing his left foreleg with his fetlock. "Kind of proud that we handled the situation so well."

"But, the more important thing at hoof is what we will do with him. We know he's evil, but we don't know whether or not its a good idea to keep him under Canterlot in case he gets out somehow. We have not really assessed what really went down and Captain Shining Armor is on the scene to help try to reconstruct what happened down there." the lieutenant continued, walking in place with high knees. Celestia looks at Luna, her sister likewise, and Celestia turns back to look at the guard.

"Take us there, now."





The cavern entrance was a place of controlled chaos. There was about a platoons worth of guards at the entrance, securing the perimeter while there were some dealing with the construction crew, all of this happening as the carriage touched down and its doors opened to reveal the two Princesses.

"Dear Sister, what doth thou thinketh of doing with him? Surely, We mustn't endanger Our subjects." Luna looks at Celestia with a questioning look and inquires, the big sister's head and eyes unmoving as they move towards the entrance of the cave. A guard side steps to allow the two Princess' through, bowing.

"I'll tell you what I think we should do when we get to him." Celestia responds, entering the now magically lit interior of the cavern. There were still a lot of guards, but less then outside. An armored Shining Armor was over by Red, looking up at the alicorn stallion along with another guard.

The sounds of the Princess' hoofguards clinking against the stone grabs Shining Armor's attention, as well as the other guard. His face has a frown on it as he bows.

"Your Majesty's." Shining Armor says, looking up at Celestia who raises a hoof to signal for him to rise. He rises, his armor creaking and clanking as he moves alittle bit in his place. 

"How is the situation, Captain?" Celestia inquires, Shining Armor looking around. He looks back at her.

"Everything seems calm, I'm just alittle distressed being next to him. I can feel the intense presence of magic coming from him." Shining Armor shifts in his place as he turns his head around to look at the frozen alicorn. Celestia and Luna look at eachother, Luna turning her head to look at Red.

"What shall We do with him?" Luna asks Shining, asking for his opinion.

"Im not sure. For some reason, I feel some kind of sympathy for him, he just has this look of... Fear mixed in with something else..." the unicorn responds as he steps back from the crystal itself.

"The real question is, why is he here and how did he get down here?" a guard inquires, another coming to him, a female.

"Maybe this was a lair of some sorts for him." she said in her opinion, earning an unamused "Psssh!" from another guard who walks up.

"Nonsense! He's not that stupid to base in the caverns here under Canterlot, and besides, does this look like a place that he had a lair inside? Maybe he was forced in here by a unicorn or something, maybe he was going to do something around here and ended up in this cave?" the gruff male presented his explanation, adding to it a spit towards the frozen stallion himself.

Meanwhile, Celestia paced in her place, becoming anxious. She had to tell them, she had to.

"We should all know that a pretty hefty battle took place here. No normal unicorn or pony for that matter could have survived a battle that this seemed like." Shining says, looking over at Red Dusk's unusual looking helmet that lay on its side. There was a scorch mark that ran across its width, which added with all the faded old paint that had been falling off made it look more like some kind of weird, unusual steel pipe reject.

"The captain doth raiseth a point on the matter at hoof. Surely, only an alicorn might wieldith enough power to face such a foe in a one on one." Luna speaks, looking at Celestia, whose eyes clench down. 

"Dearest Sister, what doth thou say about this?" the lunar princess asks, her sister sighing, a slight shudder in her. The blue princess shakes her head, looking up at the crystal once again.

Finally, Celestia falters, knowing it is the time.

"Everypony, I have a confession." Luna and Shining Armor look at Celestia as she gets closer to the crystal. More of the guards around them gather around her aswell. She puts a hoof on the crystal, closest to his body.

"I am the reason he's here, I am the reason he disappeared." she blankly says, silence reigning over the cavern as her voice echos around the cavern. 

"What?! What doth thou mean, Dear Sister?" Celestia looks at the inquirer, her sister Luna, and looks back at Red.

"He came here to use explosives to make a part of Canterlot cave in. However, he let his guard down, and I saw him. I confronted him here, and tried to reason with him, but his fanatical mindset prevented him from surrendering, including his sense of ...Ehhhh... honour, and... maybe some kind of magic from Nightmare Moon." some gasps erupt, while Luna hangs her head and backs away at the mention of Nightmare Moon, basically because it was her who sent him to do this task. Celestia turns her head to Shining with a stern face.

"Shining Armor, your sympathy is well founded." Shining tilts his head in confusion.

"Why?"

"Because he does have a personality, like we all do. I've confronted him before, and the way he responds to what he had to do. He felt disgust when killing, he felt sadness and fear at the notion of being shamed by Nightmare Moon - sorry Luna -, I have seen him express joy at things other than what he does usually." Celestia clears her throat, indicating a pause.

"What Im trying to say is is that if he were given real free will, he would have stopped. He would have stopped doing all of this, but..."

Shining Armor gives Celestia a questioning look, the alicorn noticing. She looks at Luna, then back at Red Dusk.

"His brain was clouded, artificially. I have evidence that is gone now, but he was under the influence of drugs of all kinds and psychological magic. Psychological magic and drugs that would have made his mind go against him, convincing him that he did the right thing, persuading him to do horrible acts of violence, all with the promise that Nightmare Moon wanted that to happen." Celestia shakes her head as she looks at the alicorn again.

"I want to believe that his five hundred years might have done him a justice and that the spells have worn off by now. Maybe..." Celestia's muzzle scrunches up.

"Maybe he will take my mercy gratefully and has learned his lesson." Luna gasps as her head jerks up towards Celestia.

"Sister! Thou cant be suggesting...?" Luna trails off as Celestia nods.

Shining Armor and the guards give soft grunts of confusion, until one by one, Shining Armor first, they gasp or make a shocked face as they realize what she's proposing.

"Your Majesty! Are you sure about this?!" a lieutenant behind Shining Armor speaks up, the alabaster alicorn nodding.

"It is time. It is time to shed mercy upon one who desires and needs mercy. He must see the light, for all ponies,even he himself, deserve multiple chances. It is more than likely not his fault that he was the way he was, for he served a ruler that sought only for her control over Equestria, possessing my sister and manipulating one who she herself summoned and sent out to do devious deeds. He did this all in the name of blind loyalty to the one he called his leader, his...God..." 

A few gasps and "Whoa's" of amazement are uttered by some of the guards, all of them looking at Celestia like she had finally lost her mind. Some stepped back from her, while others bravely stood where they were in proximity of the monarch. Her sister stood by her, shaking her head in disbelief. Celestia opens up yet again.

"His sentence ends now, and I will show him forgiveness. So will all of you!" Celestia jerks her head back, yelling. Her voice, one like thunder for she was close to the Royal Canterlot Voice, echoed through the caverns. Quite a few of the guards shudder in their places from the sheer strength of the sound.

"You cant expe---." a guard is cut off by Shining Armor clasping a hoof over the stallions mouth.

"Shush. Just follow orders and be...Uhhh... I guess, forgiveful. I honestly trust the Princess on this, but Im also as nervous as all of you. That still does not mean that you can ignore him and be pricks to him. Show him some hospitality..." Shining gives alittle speech to the guards behind him.

"That is, if things go to plan." Shining turns his head back to look at Celestia, his hoof coming off of the muzzle of the stallion. Her horn was surrounded by an aura of her magic, while her eyes begin to glow.

She bares her teeth, her head bowing down to point her horn at the crystal. In an instant, a beam of light hits the crystal, and due to the refracting and reflecting properties of the crystals in the caverns, bright light spread everywhere. The groans of guards are barely heard over the rush of air all around them, all of the guards and Luna putting their legs up to their eyes. 

The crystal began to melt away, slowly revealing bits and pieces of Red Dusk's body to the outside world. His right foreleg and his face were first, and instantly, they began to move. His eyes instantly closed while his mouth seems to move as if he was talking, no words coming out, or if there were any, were probably really weak and drowned out. His foreleg seemed to weakly nudge at the air, its muscles practically asleep, a consequence of the five hundred year freeze.

Within five seconds, the sound of a heavy suit of armor impacting stone echoes through the caverns. The sound stops as Celestia stops her magic, the princess panting, looking at Red's body that lay there. His legs weakly twitched as he stays silent. 

Celestia bites her lip, walking over to his body. His mail and plate heavy armor coated him everywhere on his body. His helmet was somewhere around there, relatively faded, but able to be easily waxed and shone.

Celestia bows down to his ears that twitch as she gets nearer, going past his horn and moving her muzzle next to his ear.

"Wake up..." she whispers, the red alicorn's limbs only twitching along with her ears. 

"Is...Is he dead?" a female guard asks, Celestia still looking at his face.

"No, his mouth and legs were sort of moving on their own as the crystal melted away." Celestia calls out, her head moving slightly to her right to look at the guard before she hears a sound.

A weak groan and some tiny sounds of metal moving across stone. Her head jerks back to him as she looks at him slowly start to wake up. Why he was talking when he was being brought up, she doesnt know, but what she really wanted to know was how he could sleep with his eyes open. Unless...

The magic could've been keeping him generally just above alive enough to think consciously, while he also may have shut down his eyes through his magic, to prevent unneeded wasting of energy on them. 

The alicorn continues to squirm, his eye lids slowly starting to part. Luna begins to walk over, looking down at him. Celestia opens her mouth to talk, but Luna puts a hoof across her legs, looking at her bigger sister.

"Wake up, Red Dusk. Tis time to awaketh from thine slumber." she says in a soft, beautiful voice. 

The reaction from the stallion was immediate, his mouth slowly beginning to smile and one of his forelegs slowly inching closer to one of her legs. She is unmoving as he touches it with a hoof, blushing actually.

His eyes are open halfway, looking at Luna with a tired expression. She wondered if he could recognize her through her looks now.

The stallion weakly sniffs in her direction, his smile getting wider as he also looked at her and saw her cutiemark.

"You...You came back..." he says in a raspy voice, trying to inch closer. Shining Armor walks up from behind Luna, looking with amazement as the alicorn tries to inch closer to his Princess.

Luna backs away, much to the dismay of Red. His ears pin down again, his face hitting the floor. He picks his head up to look around with his eyes, the two eyes happening upon Celestia.

His face instantly evaporates into an expression of fear and begging, his red eyes shrinking to the sizes of pinpricks. A tear streams from his eye as he weakly puts his two hooves together and faces Celestia.

"No... No... Please... Please no... Dont..." he weakly begs, his spirit obviously broken as he set his eyes upon the unarmored mare. The alicorn's expression becomes a horrified one as she lowers herself down to look at him.

"Do not worry... For I have let you out as mercy, to release you from pain." she tries the best she can to maintain a genuine looking smile. The silence was creepy, and added to the seriousness of the situation. The red alicorn continues to squirm, looking up at the celestial alicorn.

"Oh... That... But... But why? Im a..." a hoof to his mouth silences him, a blue leg with a silver hoofguard on it silencing him. He looks from the hoof up to Luna's now smiling, forgiving face. She makes a shushing sound as Celestia begins to speak.

"No, you are only misguided, used, your emotions suppressed. We can reform you, we can show you the ways of harmony and friendship. Please stay with me." Celestia continued to soft talk him, the stallion smiling in both the comfort of Celestia's voice and Luna's contact. 

In response, his legs slowly wrap around Luna's leg, much to her surprise as he rubs her coat with his cheek. 

"Guards, get the medics. We must take him to the castle infirmary without anypony seeing him." Red looks at Shining, unknowing of who he is. The unicorn looks at the alicorn stallion, his head tilting as he sees not a face of anger and supposed "insanity."...

But one of hurt, fear, and unconfidence.

A broken soldier, ready to be brought back up again.

But will the path be simple and straight?
> Chapter 1: The Return
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This is...nice coffee."

"Well, I'll relay that to the kitchen. They make all the coffee by scratch."

Celestia smiles as she looks at a pony-loaf positioned Red Dusk on a cushion right beside Luna slurping out of a mug full of coffee. The stallion slurped up the coffee, Luna looking at him. It was currently night time, so the sitting room was lit by magically powered lights.

"Prithee, thou should not slurpeth in the presence of thine friends or other ponies." Luna gave a little scold to Red, a blank face plastered on as the stallions head bowed and his ears pinned to the sides of his head.

"Yes, Your Excellency." Luna seemed to jolt alittle from that reaction. She forgot about how he referred to her as, so it was rather new to here at this time atleast. He takes another sip, but now its relatively silent, following Luna's scold.

Luna looks at Celestia, who shrugs and looks back at the stallion. He looked tired, sad, and what confused her alot more was that he looked as if he were ashamed. She reachs a hoof over and strokes the stallions short mane and coat as it was layed before her unintentionally. 

She could hear a light gasp from him and feel the glare of Luna, but it seemed that after a few strokes, the stallion relaxed and went with it. 

"Are you okay, Red Dusk? You can tell us." Celestia brings her head down to look into the eyes of Red, the stallion blinking as he made eye contact with Celestia. His iris's shrunk down as she got quite close and behind his ears, beads of sweat form.

"Well... I-I am ashamed of... Well offending Her Excellency by slurping and that she had to scold me to stop doing that." Red looks away as Celestia arches an eyebrow. Although he did open up unexpectedly about his minor distress, it did tell her a story that he probably faced some abuse for mistakes back on the moon, resulting in a battered personality. 

"Oh! Well, nay. Nay, thou hath not offendeth Us. For tis just a simple mistake." Luna reassured her former servant, who looked back at her with hopeful eyes now. She notices that he's looking her over, his smile getting gradually wider.

"I am blessed by your forgiveness." the stallion bows his head, the horn pointed down into the ground and his eyes still looking her over. She blushes as the stallion's smile gets wider.

"Might I say... Your Excellency, you look dazzling tonight." Celestia gives a small chuckle while Luna blushes hotly and shoves Celestia with a hoof. Celestia's tea cup still resides in the air with her magic as she wobbles. 

"Why, We thank thee for thine compliment, for We have to stay well groomed for Our subjects." Luna looks at Red with a nervous smile, the stallion nodding with a smile. 

Celestia looked at the interaction with a critical point of view, seeing his fanatical side kick in as he adheres to Luna like glue. He shamelessly compliments her and simply adores her. But on other ponies, he could look the other way, apart from that of Celestia considering what she did for him, where he could show normal friendship to, but it wont be like him and Luna's friendship.

Luna takes a sip of tea, Celestia as well while the stallion looks around the sitting room they were in. There were paintings all over the wall of various things. The sun rise, life in Canterlot and other cities, paintings of ponies, all there on the walls.

"Red Dusk, how did you know it was Luna that you were talking to? Considering you've seen her only as... Well, you know." Red turns his head to look at Celestia, putting a hoof up to his nose. Celestia tilts her head in confusion.

"My nose is just barely weaker than the noses of dogs. I have identified Her Excellency's smell and kept their remembered so that I can distinguish friend from foe. Though... I dont go around sniffing the ground like a dog." Red looks away as he says the last part, looking at Luna and then her cutiemark.

"Also, her cutiemark gave her away, aswell as the eyes and the fact that she is an alicorn." Celestia nods as Luna does likewise, both interested and amazed at his ability.

"Thats... nice... Is that how you found me half of the times that we had encounters and I was not in your sight?" Red nods, weakly getting up and putting away the mug. He struggles to make for Celestia, almost falling on her at the last leg but being saved by her magic. 

"Thank you. Alot of times, your perfumes and incense that you had those days were very powerful, and I could smell you from halfway across the building if I knew what I was doing." Celestia blushed as Luna snickered. Red just stood there while he ran a hoof through the mane, eliciting a look from Celestia.

"Ah, yes, Dearest Sister. We doth rememberest the times when thine body was covered in sorts of spices and incenses." Red nods with Luna, his face not making a smile as the Princess of the Night snickers.

"It did betray you and made my job easier atleast." he deadpanned, a sly smile appearing on his muzzle as Celestia looks at him, shocked by his boldness.

He holds a smug look on his face as Celestia realizes that to him, all that matters to him is that Luna is laughing, not so much the other way around. His personality was showing some of its colors, but she would have to dig deeper later.

The sitting room is filled with the ever so dominant sound of silence, with only the sounds of light sipping from the three ponies drinking out of their teacups or their mug. 

A sigh comes from Celestia as she drinks the last of her tea. She puts down the teacup on a plate and gets up.

"Im going to go to bed. Good night." she says to the two alicorns left, Red nodding as the alicorn departed. 

"I need some sleep too." Celestia stops just short of the door as Red says the sentence, but Luna motions her hoof to tell her to go on. Luna turns her head to the stallion, smiling.

The sounds of Celestia's hoofsteps trail off into the hallway as the two alicorns look at eachother.

"Would thou be so kindest to follow Us?" Luna asks, the red alicorn bowing his head.

"I would be delighted, Your Excellency." the stallion says as he gets up, his legs wobbling. He breaks a sweat as he manages to stabilize himself and begin to slowly walk from his seat. 

He take the last drops of coffee from his mug in a fast chug, putting the mug down by his cushion and looking towards a now standing Princess Luna, who motions her head for him to follow her.

As the two alicorns walk out of the room, Luna looks over at a passing maid and tells her about the cups left there by the two. The maid nods and walks towards the sitting room as Luna goes back to walking.

Red could not help but notice some kind of weird attraction to her. It was an attraction he never really felt before and it was eating away at him.

He had to admit it, she was genuinely a beautiful looking mare and very attracting to him.

How slender and curved her body looked.

Her mane's beautiful shade of baby blue with her purple coat.

Her shining silver hoofguards that capped the ends of her regal hooves, not to mention her black chest piece with the crescent moon on it and the black tiara that just spoke authority, yet also wise and fair to him. 

The color of her eyes were hypnotizing.

Her voice was that of the voice of an angel. He could just hear her voice calling him. 

Red Dusk...

The way she walked.

Her cutiemark was gorgeous.

"Red Dusk? We are here, art thou okay?" Red's trance was shattered by her voice as he scrambled to try to get a bearing on his surroundings.

He spaced out when he was thinking of her, and it ended up making him look like a fool. His eyes scrambled all around, switching to her concerned face a few times and all around the hallway. 

They stopped at his room, a guest room to be exact, and Luna already called him once. Now that he thinks about it, maybe when he though about her voice, her "calling him out in his mind" was her actually addressing him. He mentally slapped himself in the face with his hoof.

"I...Uhmm... Uhhh... Well, you see... Uhm... I was thinking of something." Red bends the truth, hoping she wont inquire. She looks at him with the concerned look, but then smiles and looks towards the door, shaking her head.

He mentally blows out air in relief. He reminds himself of his restrictions and limitations, aswell as the humbling fact, atleast for him, that his heart was impure, her heart being pure. Being together with such a fantastic mare would only prove disastrous for both he and her, for he would probably corrupt her heart with his impure self that is not worthy of such a gift. 

"Here shall be thine room, for however long thou shall be here. As much as We would liketh to talk to thou more, We find it to be more suitable for thee to be allowed to sleep." Luna explains, smiling as she points into the room after opening the door with her magic. It was dark in there, but his night vision would solve that, that is if he gets into the dark itself. He bows his head in thanks.

"I am blessed by this gift, Your Excellency. Good night." he says as he bows down to her, the princess still smiling. She motions her hoof again, this time Red going past the door and giving Luna one last look before he goes to the already made bed. 

Nothing else mattered in the room, just the bed. He wanted to sleep on a real bed, and this was his chance to feel how it is to have a good bed. Back up on the moon, his "bed" was basically built into the castle: A big block of bricks cemented together with a thin bag full of cotton as his mattress and another as his pillow, while a thick comforter of compressed hay in another linen bag kept him warm.

He crawls onto the bed, instantly feeling the difference and feeling the need to collapse into its silky soft blanket, to embrace it. He does just that, giving a moan of delight as he continues to indulge himself in the comfortable feeling of the blanket.

Lifting the covers and slipping under the comforter and sheet, the alicorn already feels his eyelids getting heavy. 

His eyelids slowly draw across his eyeballs as he drifts off into the darkness that is the dreamscape.





Darkness.

It was a thing that Red Dusk was familiar with, but in the dreamscape, darkness was something one could not be familiar with.

Red Dusk might be able to see in the dark in the real world, but in the dreamscape, his abilities from the real world become useless.

The alicorn was trapped in darkness, unknowing of where he was. His attempts to speak were futile and he could not hear anything. But he could feel and move, and one of the first things he felt was his armor, without the helmet. 

He began to trot forward, deeper into the darkness, looking for light. As he does, he feels something misty and cold slipping between the chain links of his armor on his barrel. He jerks his head back and forth, only to hear a familiar chuckle.

"Looking for the light now are we?" the voice of Nightmare Moon jellifies the stallions legs as he can feel what he can only guess is the Nightmare Mist.

"Y-yes?" the red alicorn stutters as he sees a vortex of Nightmare Moon's misty matter make a vortex infront of him, glowing dimly. The vortex materializes into a transparent head of Nightmare Moon with a big, toothy grin on her face. She had her helmet on and her eyes looked draconic as always.

"Well, I forgot this time about the darkness, but is it not... peaceful?" Nightmare Moon asked her subject, the stallion bowing his head. 

"It is. It keeps us hidden from harm, yes." the crimson alicorn replies, just as the darkness seems to make a pathway that clears away like fog on the floor. It leads to what seems to be a hallway of the moon castle. He could see a navy blue banner with a crescent moon on it. 

He also see's what appears to be him in full armor carrying a box labeled "EXPLOSIVES" to what he remembers was the armory of the castle.

"What am I seeing here?" Red turns his head towards Nightmare Moon, who's ethereal head dematerializes into mist and floats over into the ears of Red. He cringes as the feeling of the cold mist enters into his head. 

"This is your 489th year. You had been exploring the use of explosives for use in... future missions. Those are one of the boxes that were full of your patented - approved by me - explosives, Brik. You ingeniously thought of infusing magical crystal shards within the putty like material to make it detonate through only magic and to add magical punch to the explosion." Nightmare Moon's image appeared in his mind as he felt his legs move through the path and into the hallway. 

The suit of armor was geometric in its design, with its plates being different kinds of polygons with sharp edges. His helmet was rhombus-like in shape looking from the side, having two holes on the flat top for the ears that were coated with chainmail while the rest of the helmet was closed, except ofcourse, the vision port which resided on the top front of the helmet and a horn hole. The helmet itself was built to where it would rest on Red's neck and while the top faced the sky, his head would be almost in line with his neck. 

There were crescent moon engravings and decorations all over the plates, of the armor, while small lines of runes were all over the plates and along the top rim of the helmet.

"You had already used Brik once or twice before right now, remember?" Red nods as he continues to walk. He gets close to his memory self, who doesnt notice him.

"Am I ethereal?" Red Dusk asks, the Nightmare Moon nodding in his mind.

"Yes, you are. The reason for this memory is to remind you of your duty, what you have sworn loyalty to, you see?" Nightmare Moon says matter of factly as Red walks past Memory Red, who walks into the armory with the box of Brik. 

Walking through the hallways, Red feels a sense of home he has not felt in a long time. The regal navy blue banners looked nice with the moon stone walls and the windows were masterfully created. 

There were also little decorations on the edges of the ceiling that depicted pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies all living under the moon. There were  decorations of two alicorn figures, one obviously being Red Dusk while the other Nightmare Moon. All the ponies around them were bowing to the two alicorns who had the moon right behind them, shining in its glory.

"Glorious, is it not?" Red nods, the Nightmare Moon inside of his mind smirking.

"That, that is what we are fighting for. Not just for the rightful rule of I over Equestria, but for the arrogant miscreants to finally appreciate the night and all its glory." Nightmare Moon explains with anger as she approaches the word miscreants. They continue walking, stopping next to Red's room. 

On the door, that was made of dark oak courtesy of countless teleports to and from Earth to bring the wood necessary for the making of wooden objects in the castle, was the four pointed star cluster that was Red Dusk's cutiemark. Nightmare Moon blinks in his mind, ready to speak.

"Well? Go on." she pushes, the red alicorn putting some concentration on the door knob, which clicks and opens the door to reveal his room.

His built in bed was on the immediate left, while there was a simple desk with scrolls all over it, as well as a quill and inkwell. A cushion was under the desk while there was also a dresser, armor stand, nightstand, even a weapon case for his halberd. A large window that faced Earth dominated the wall that was behind the door in the room. 

All over the walls, there were maps, notes, designs for better helmet and armor sets, and a single painting of Red Dusk with his armor on and helmet off. His face had a serious, yet noble look as there was a full moon behind his head shedding light all around him. Nostalgia flooded Red's mind as he ran to the desk and pulled something out.

It was a round, stitched up plushie of Nightmare Moon smiling, something that he sometimes took down to Earth with him when he was down there for increased periods mostly. It comforted him, the alicorn hugging the little round plushie and feeling its smooth, silky mane. He purred in affectionate nostalgia.

"I missed this thing... So much..." a tear appeared on his eye as the Nightmare Moon in his mind laughed.

"I knew you would. You miss me do you not?" Nightmare Moon asked, the red alicorn nodding.

"Then why do I feel you will betray me, hm?" suddenly, the plushie falls from the alicorns magical grasp and a sharp pain is shot through his horn and body. He lets out a yelp as the Nightmare waits for an answer.

The mist jumps out while the stallion rolls over on the ground in pain and transforms into Nightmare Moon. She bares her teeth at Red and looks at him with furrowed eyes.

"Why?!" she asks again, the red alicorn now looking into the Nightmare's eyes with tears streaming from his own.

"I dont know..." Red squeaks, the Nightmare scoffing.

"Have you not noticed? Celestia is trying to sway you to her side! She wants to use you! Judging from the fact Im not there, Celestia probably defeated me somehow and since you are the only crusader of the night around here, she's gone after you. You are not safe! She wants to use you for nefarious purposes. Remember your past!" Nightmare Moon says as she approaches the window, facing Earth. 

The shape of the Equestrian continent could be seen, while there was the inevitable sight of the Lunar landscape below the window. She jerks her head back to him, looking at him with eyes of scorn.

"Coward, your turning back on me, on your oath! Aren't you?" The stallion rapidly shakes his head as her eyes cut into his soul like daggers.

"Hmph. I trust you are telling me the truth. After all, you are not a petty liar are you now? I expect you not to go down to such low levels." the stallion shakes his head, the nightmare chuckles.

"Your comfort around the tyrant and her sister is disturbing, but their relative comfort around you is advantageous to our cause." Nightmare Moon walks over to Red, extending a hoof which he eagerly accepts. He is brought up and is face to face with the Nightmare. She grins and turns away, once more going right next to the window.

"I want you to woo Celestia into a false sense of security and then kill her, no matter the cost. Kill her sister if you must, but if you can, I want to possess her body once more. Am I understood?" The Nightmare jerks her head back, giving him a furrowed face and a deep frown.

The stallion gulps, unknown to the mare, but goes down and kneels on on knee. 

"It shall be done, Your Omnipotence." Nightmare Moon begins to chuckle from deep within her throat.

Then those chuckles became laughing.

Then it becomes insane cackling.

> Chapter 2: The Morning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Creaking.

The sound of a door creaking echoes through the hallway. A guest room door was slowly opening up to a lighted hallway from a morning sun lit room.

A tall silhouette of an alicorn stallion stands there, poking his head out and looking both ways. Seeing noone around, the crimson alicorn walks out of the room and heads down the hallway.

The stallion looks out the windows that give a partial view of the valley that Canterlot hung over, while he was also given a view of the numerous palace turrets and buildings that gave the palace shape. It was a beautiful sight to behold, quite breathtaking actually for the thousand year old alicorn.

He bites his lip as he realizes he used to be - and may now again be - working to destroy this image in so many ways. His sharp, carnivorous teeth pierced his lower lip, making him quietly yelp in pain as a bead of blood appears on the puncture. He turns a corner, going down more hallways and more doors for bedrooms, sitting rooms, meeting rooms, all the types of rooms you would expect in a biarchy's capital palace.

The hallway walls were maintained to perfection, the bricks probably having been smoothed over and their surfaces ground. The rugs on the floor were cleaned masterfully, the material caressing his hooves as he walked over them. Not to mention the ceilings which were beautifully arched and yet again, masterfully maintained to perfection.

As he continues to walk and explore, his stomach gives a noticeable grumble and squirms inside of him. He awkwardly clasps a hoof over his hanging part of his barrel where his stomach and intestines were located. He needed food, fresh food actually. For five hundred years, he had that fateful day's ration of bread, virgin olive oil, and some oats in his stomach. 

He shook his head after a thought of the food being rotten in his stomach passes through his mind. The infirmary told him that the food in his stomach was preserved by the crystal spell, digestion having stopped. He ran on chemical energy reserves from the food he already digested for a good portion of his imprisonment, aswell as his magical energy on the last part of his imprisonment. 

It was amazing, to him, how long the energy from the food lasted, which was in part due to his ability to control his body's energy requirements by cutting off bloodflow using his magic to unimportant areas, like the legs, eyes, nose, etc. But all of that wont save him now.

A guard passes by him after rounding a corner into the hallway he was inside, looking at him suspiciously as the red alicorn walked by. A scoff could be heard from behind him as the guard moves out of sight and what the guard probably assumed to be earshot.

As he rounds another corner and enters a new hallway, he continues walking down it, bored with its indifference to the other hallways.

That is, to his eyes. To his nose, however, the hall was filled with the hypnotizing aroma of freshly cooked breakfast coming straight from the kitchen. The smell flowed right into Red's nose and it was almost as if he was high. He had smelled food being cooked before, but never as delightful as this smell. 

His legs turned gear and he began trotting towards the smell, getting faster and faster as he approached the source of the smell: the kitchen. Here, near the kitchen, he finally notices a distinct increase in the amount of ponies in the hallways. 

A few maids and butlers are around him, all probably waiting to get their fill for the day. As he enters their vision, their faces change from relaxed and happy, they change to unsettled and miffed. The talking in the hallway stops as the alicorn turns another corner towards the kitchen.

Entering the dining room, there are a few ponies surrounding it, some of them carrying their breakfasts while some of them just stand, looking at Red with judgmental eyes, some disgusted. One of them stood out as especially snobbish, talking to another pony right next to him while eyeing Red suspiciously.

The white, blond maned and blue eyed unicorn had a blue and yellow compass rose as a cutiemark and wore a noble's suit. His looks and behaviour betrayed his personality, but that was not of Red's concern at that moment, for his focus was on satisfying his hunger. 

He looks past some nervous ponies ,who scamper away as he gets closer to them, to see the kitchen door. He walks towards it, hearing all types of whispering and mumbling of all kinds coming from the ponies all around them, few of these ponies being nobles like the snobbish one. 

"I can't believe the Princess allowed this degenerate to be free."

"He should've been left to rot." 

"Im actually surprised not one of us are dead yet."

The alicorn grunts in reponse to their comments, walking through the kitchen door.

He was greeted by the sight of countless stainless steel cooking appliances and tools, mixed in with the color and shapes of brightly colored ponies in the clothing of cooks. In an instant, a small, light cyan mare comes up to him, looking up at him nervously and grimly. 

"Uhhh..." she grumbles, her eyes dotting around to different parts of his body, observing him. She backs away and gets closer to what seems to be a two pronged fork. 

Red Dusk tilts his head at the mare as he steps closer. The unicorn mare takes another step back, the alicorn getting a tad-bit annoyed.

"Ahem." he clears his throat as he points at his barrel, which grumbles to confirm his point. Although the grumble was barely audible through the clanging of pans and other things that made sound in a kitchen, the mare heard it, reluctantly getting closer to him as he now smiles.

"Uhmm... W-w-what would you like to eat today, s-sir?" she stammers while the alicorn puts a hoof to his chin. He was so gigantic in comparison to her, he could just kill her now with no resistance, she thought. 

The alicorn's head jerks in its place as he gets an idea of what to eat. He lowers down his head to try to make the situation more comfortable for the poor mare, now hearing her rather labored, nervous breathing. It was at this time that Red noticed how quiet the other cooks were, which yet again annoyingly stabbed at him.

"May I ask that I receive some bread in virgin olive oil?" the red alicorn tried to softly ask for, trying to be as unscary as possible. The effect was barely felt, but he could see her relax. 

He brings his head back up, looking back down at the pony, who wheels around and goes back to what he presumes is the pantry. An idea shoots right into his mind, the stallion tapping on her shoulder with a hoof.

"What... is your name?" he asks nervously, the mare's eyes going left to right. He was nervous because he did not know if she would take offense to that. The mare swallows her spit in a gulp, looking into the eyes of the red alicorn from below.

"My name is Seasalt." the cyan mare responds, quickly wheeling back around and walking off to the pantry. So far, things did not look good in the public relations department. If it weren't for his past, maybe he would have a chance, but since he does have such a past, it'll be a nightmare for him.

He slaps a hoof onto his forehead as he uses the word nightmare in that context, the irony just astronomical. Atleast he has some experience with some things that might help him out. 

The mare comes back with a plate that is topped with a loaf of Prench bread that has been cut and its slices soaked in virgin olive oil with various spices sprinkled on. It looked appetizing, atleast for him, and he nodded at the mare with a smile.

Seasalt nervously waves, then she says "Wait!". She catches Red's attention just as the alicorn was leaving the kitchen.

She looked at him, twisting a hoof in the floor while the alicorn gives a confused, questioning face.

"Do you want some hay bacon with that, s-sir?" she asks with a tinge of curiousness in her voice mixed in with the ever omnipresent feeling of discomfort. The alicorn gives a confused face, unknowing of what hay bacon was, though he did know what bacon was, from the gryphon territories.

"Suuuure." the alicorn drags out the word, Seasalt looking a bit more relaxed then before and quickly going back into the depths of the kitchen, to come out with another plate of what he presumed was hay bacon in her magic. 

It was 6 greasy strips of fried hay, probably loaded with some other things in the strips. It looked nice, quite similar to the real thing actually. But did it taste as good? Thats what he would find out. 

The alicorn waves to Seasalt, wheeling around to exit the kitchen and enter the dining room.

The amount of ponies in the dining room had cut down considerably. Though there was the noise of whispers that were not understandable and the feeling of stares on the back on Red Dusk's head, which weighed on him. 

He dragged himself over to a cushion next to the dining room table, planting down his two plates rather unceremoniously and sitting down on his haunches. He looks over his food, putting a hoof to the bread and haybacon to feel its texture. 

Both were pretty warm and their textures were rather pristine. The bacon had a good, grainy yet appetizing texture that appealed to the alicorn, crispy and smooth co-dominating in the texture department. 

Meanwhile, the bread's outer shell was hard and smooth, the warmth adding up to a divine feeling. The insides of the slices were soft and wrapped around the tiny bit off hoof he used to touch them with. The olive oil gave the insides of the bread slices a greasy, juicy green-yellow color, supplemented by the tiny dots that were the various spices added to the olive oil.

His mouth watered and his stomach grumbled its disapproval of Red leaving the food to cool. He gives in.

His magic picks up a slice of bread and stuffs it into his mouth. His teeth go to work as the bread is effortlessly chewed into a big pile of what used to be bread mixed with olive oil. He moaned from inside his throat his satisfaction and delight, the feeling of the judging eyes being covered up by the delightful feeling and sensations of eating delicious food, fit for royalty.

Gulping down the food, he looks at the haybacon, still warm. He grabs a slice and rips off a piece of the slice, his tongue being hit with a high-inducing taste. It was almost the same as the real thing, bacon, but just with this nice, grainy texture that was supplemented by the taste of some spices and the simple quality of the cooking of the item.

He quickly took the last bite and savored it, gulping down the chewed pile of the last one while he gathered two more for the slaughter house. The two slices dont have long before they go into Red's mouth to be chewed vigorously.

Meanwhile, all the ponies still left in the room look in disbelief at how the alicorn eats so unpolitely. Some grease and crumbs had embedded themselves in the fur of his muzzle around the mouth and around the nose.

"He eats like a pig."

"He is a pig." 

"Bastard thinks he has the right to our food, yeah right."

The insults hit his ears, and the feeling of his anger beginning to metaphorically reach the cap of the bottle hits him like a brick. These ponies thought they were invincible, his angrier side and even the Nightmare Moon inside of his mind trying to persuade him to change that.

The food became less enjoyable as the insults became audible. Atleast it was not too bad, that is, for now. Could be worse, he thinks. 

He continues to eat his meal, albeit disturbed, and tries to savor it as much as he did before, but to no avail. He sighs, realizing that his life might be worse then before. 

Atleast before, when he was on Earth, he had freedom to do what he wanted and when he goes to the moon, he gets a pat on the head and love from his boss.

Atleast before, he wouldn't have to worry about worrying what other ponies thought now, considering his situation, he thinks to himself as he puts his hooves flat down on the table and looks straight forward as he tries to clear his mind.

As Red spaced out, a particular mare takes a seat beside him.

"Good morning Red Dusk." the stallions eyes shoot open and he jumps off his cushion onto the floor, some laughs coming from the ponies around them. The mare was none other than Princess Celestia, who just sat there, softly laughing into a hoof at his reaction. 

"Where did you come from?!" Red pointed an accusing hoof at the princess who only laughed harder. 

"From outer space." Celestia added in jokingly. Red scoffs, getting up and going back to his cushion.

"How did you sleep?" asked the alabaster alicorn, the stallion nodding his head.

"I slept well. The bed was soft and comfortable." the stallion answers, brushing a leg off with a hoof. Celestia rolled her eyes.

"Aren't they all." Celestia grumbled, Red focusing now on his food. He takes another slice of bread, stuffing it into his mouth and chewing it. 

"Hm... What ever happened to Nightmare Moon?" Red asks Celestia, the alicorn chuckling.

"The nightmare inside of Luna was eliminated through the power of Friendship and the elements of Harmony." Red's muzzle scrunches up like a tin can as he hears about the Elements of Harmony. But he quickly regains composure.

"The Elements of Harmony? Did you use them?" Red tilted his head in inquiry, the solar princess shaking her head.

"My student, Twilight Sparkle, and her five friends all wielded the elements of harmony, one each, to defeat Nightmare Moon, but not before defeating Nightmare Moon's attempts to break them up and make them falter and separate." Celestia said with a proud face, Red looking at her with a blank face.

"Oh... Thats reassuring." Red Dusk mumbles in an unamused, sarcastic tone. Celestia turns her head to look at him, an eyebrow arched.

"What was that?" Celestia inquired as the red alicorn took the last slice of haybacon strips. He throws it into his mouth again, munching loudly on it.

"Nuffing." Red says as he looks away, pieces of the bacon still inside with Celestia snorting. Red swallows what remained after having chewed it, searching for another bite before changing his mind, looking back over at Celestia.

"Who are these Element Bearers?" Red asks with a serious tone,pushing the plate away as he began looking at Celestia intently. As he does, he notices the same white coated noble at the doorway of the dining room shaking his head.

The unicorn notices Red is looking at him and grimaces, walking out.

"Red Dusk?" Red's head jolts as he's once again surprised by the alicorn mare infront of him. The princess maintains a rather annoyed face pointed at him, the stallion blushing. 

Celestia shakes her head, putting a hoof up to speak.

"Twilight Sparkle, my student, is the bearer of magic. She went to ponyville for the summer celebration and ended up staying there with her newfound friends in the local library, that by the way, is a tree." Red nods, giving Celestia the green light to continue.

"Rarity, a unicorn tailor, is the bearer of generosity. She owns the Carousel Boutique and produces some of the finest clothing in Equestria." Celestia continues to explain, Red nodding yet again and motioning his hoof for her to continue.

"Applejack, an earth pony apple farmer, is a part of the family that owns Sweet Apple Acres. She bears the element of honesty." Celestia continues, Red's magic reaching over and grasping another slice of bread and stuffing it into his mouth.   

"Pinkiepie, an earth pony, works at the primary Ponyville bakery, Sugarcube Corner, and is known for her... should I say, preference to continuously party, eat sweets and usually hyper attitude, aswell as some breachs of what we call the fourth wall. She is the element of laughter." the stallion cocks up an eyebrow, Celestia now nodding at him.

"What is the fourth wall?" Celestia shakes her head as Red asks.

"That is something for later. Anyways, moving on." Red scrunches up his muzzle, making a mental note for him to remind her about that later.

"Rainbow Dash, a rainbow pegasus, is a weather patrol mare who is also the fastest mare in Equestria. She is the Element of Loyalty." 

"Finally, Fluttershy is the bearer of the element of Kindness. She is an animal caretaker that lives in a cabin on the edge of the Everfree Forest." Red is mostly unphased by this, as most of the others, except, he had the thought in the back of his mind.

Would he meet them? He did not know. It was a weird thought, meeting face to face with bearers of elements that , while not having sentenced your master to the moon for a thousand years, are capable of sending him to the moon.

As he pops another slice of bread into his mouth, Celestia begins to talk about something completely different, Red responding as they go on and talk normally, alicorn to alicorn.

Or rather, a junior to a senior.
> Chapter 3 - The Meeting.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I would like to start this meeting by saying that the concept of allowing that... monster run free in our palace is absurd and asinine."

Blueblood sits at his side of the meeting table in the sitting room with a stern, authoritative face on. All other 4 faces were scrunched up in outright disgust in what the unicorn had to say. The three princesses and the captain of the guard were the only faces other than Blueblood in the room at the time.

"Duke, musteth thou be so rude and inconsiderate?" Luna frowned at Blueblood, who just pointed his muzzle into the air with his eyes closed, a typical move by self righteous nobles. A sigh escapes the muzzle of both Celestia and Shining Armor.

"Blueblood, we are here to civilly talk about Red and how we can deal with him, not imprison him again or kill him." Blueblood lowers his head, looking at Celestia with a scowl.

"That beast deserves nothing more than a good stabbing and burning of his corpse. He does not deserve any mercy, even if it comes from a sympathetic god." he growls, still sitting in his seat surprisingly. Cadance and an armored Shining Armor give eachother looks as the conversation continues.

"Im still surprised nopony has seen the thing. I would have expected a pegasus flying by the palace walls to be able to see a six foot tall alicorn through the glass, let alone just as a silhouette." Blueblood continues, putting his muzzle back into the air to signify the ending of his rant. 

Celestia cleared her throat, shaking her head softly, Luna doing the same while stirring a cup of coffee right infront of her on the table. 

"Another meeting ruined by the simple rudeness of Blueblood." Celestia mutters under her breath, rubbing her eyes with a hoof. 

"Anyway. This meeting, as we all know, will be for the discussion of how we will deal with Red Dusk. Blueblood is here because he is a liaison to the nobles, Shining Armor is here because he's the captain of the royal guard, and us for obvious reasons." she gestures to herself, Luna, and Cadance.  

"Firstly, we need to find out how to reveal him to the public quick and efficiently." Celestia states, putting a hoof up to clarify. 

"What about in a cage?" Blueblood boldly suggests, Celestia puffing in sheer annoyance. 

"No, thats not what I was looking for Blueblood. Anypony else?" Shining Armor puts his hoof up, which made Celestia smile. Atleast Shining had a sense of decency when it came to Red.

"What about we let him go out into the town himself?" Shining Armor says, Celestia shaking her head and looking out the only window of the room. It was a sitting room that looked out to downtown and overlooked one of the major streets of Canterlot.

There were ponies walking around peacefully, doing their business, the occasional nobles walking around all self righteously, and some carriages going through the streets, full of whatever cargo they possessed. 

They were all at ease, all having their own agenda. However, if she threw Red Dusk out there...

"No. As much as that sounds conveniently the best option, do realize that these are regular ponies. They get scared easily and after Red Dusk gets into the public eye, there will be a panic and then the press get into the equation. Everything I would have planned for him would be vaporized into metaphorical ashes and smoke." Celestia explains, Shining's ears drooping down.

"Oh, right." Shining Armor deadpans, putting a knee on the table to support his head.

"Cadance?" The Princess of Love seems to give a little jolt, saving some of her tea from pouring out from her little action. She blushes, obviously having been surprised.

"Sorry, just thought you'd ask Princess Luna next and I had nothing on my mind." She apologizes to Celestia, who nods in forgiveness. 

"Alright, let me think..." she trails off as she pats her chin with the tip of her hoof, her muzzle pointed up as she thought. An idea comes to mind and she looks over at Celestia with a c-shaped smile.

"Why dont we introduce him at the Gala? Its coming up in like, a week. Next Friday, actually." Celestia gives an "Hm." of interest while the others look at Cadance.

"Why the Gala, exactly?" Shining Armor asks, Cadance smiling and tilting her head as she turned her head at Shining.

"Well, we wont have to prepare much, for its already a planned event. All we need to do is do some event changing in the party's schedule, maybe some tweaking to the preparations, and then ta-daa! Instant representation." Shining Armor puts a hoof to his chin while Celestia and Luna nod their approval. 

Cadance smiles more, making a motion of her hoof clamping back down on its own leg as a sign of "Aw, you guys flatter me.". Meanwhile Shining Armor gets an idea.

"Your Majesty, should we put extra guards on duty and lock the doors in the ballroom when he's revealed?" he asks, getting a weird look from Celestia. The alabaster alicorn turns her entire body to look at the captain, tilting her head.

"Why are you asking this?" she inquires, the captain putting a hoof up as he speaks.

"Well, when he's revealed, we probably want him to interact with the ponies. So why not lock the doors and force interaction with him so that they could see who he really is, which we dont really know yet." Celestia looks at him blankly, staring off into space as she thinks. Her lips seem to zoom around to where they can move as a fidgeting gesture.

She slowly begins to nod.

"Im reluctant to do that, but it seems that maybe we'll have better results from that. If worse comes to worse, a mob of scared ponies will knock the doors down and probably get somepony trampled. But yet again, it may be worth the risk." Celestia says, her head turning to Luna.

"Ideas, dear Sister?" Luna shakes her head, pointing at Shining Armor with a silver clad hoof. 

"We believe that the captain's idea is most adequate." she says plainly, Celestia giving a little chuckle, looking back at how fast they got around to dealing with Red's reveal. But that left the meeting to end quite prematurely, way before Celestia ever thought it would end.

There just wasnt that much to talk about Red, and Shining, even Blueblood, have taken the initiative to keep the knowledge of him being out wrapped in the castle. Shining bolstered patrols around the palace and prohibited civilians from entering certain areas of the castle to prevent any confrontations between Red and unsuspecting civilians.

Meanwhile, Blueblood had the decency to convince the nobles of Canterlot not to attend the day courts at certain times and days. Only Celestia's mother knows how he convinced them without much difficulty, but the important thing was that he was able to efficiently change up schedules, aswell as persuade nobles to not go to the palace at certain times.

Now all that was left was to begin his reeducation on the world around him, aswell as the education of the ways of harmony and friendship to him. The problem was was that she would be preoccupied with dealing with two students, one of them a male alicorn who just came out of a freeze and will come with obvious frustrations because of his background.

The ponies all sitting around sat there, looking at Celestia. She'd think of it later, she thought.

"I would assume this sums up our rather unexpectedly short meeting. I bid you farewell, everypony, for I have work to do and you all too." she dismisses the meeting, nods coming from them and all of them getting up towards the door. 

Shining Armor was the last one off of his cushion, walking in his armor towards the door. Something ticked in her mind as she looked at the armor, then realized the fact he was a soldier and a male.

"Captain?" Celestia calls after Shining. He turns his head to look at her with an attentive face, an ear twitching. 

"Yes, Your Majesty?" he asks, wheeling his body around to look at Celestia firmly. She looks left to right, with a scrunched up muzzle, and then looks back at him.

"I want you to be Red Dusk's friend." Shining immediately gives out a nervous aura as he shakes. 

"Why me?" Celestia gives an unamused face at Shining, continuing.

"You're making it sound like you are going to be brutally tortured, but you are far, far from the truth. I want you to be his friend for the simple reason that he need's a friend, a stallion to hang out with and have fun with, one who will support him. It will help him in his education, while also repairing his fractured mind to a healthy one, and you could get him accustomed to the era, the world we live in now." Celestia explains, all of this flowing like a river into Shining Armor's ears. For some reason, he felt less nervous about this.

What can really go wrong? Shining contemplated this, the feeling of sympathy returning to him from the cavern. The poor guy has no friends, is probably really terrified, but not showing it, of his situation, and needs a shoulder to cry on apart from Princess Luna who's sort of in the same situation, only she's halfway through it probably.

Sighing, Shining looks at Celestia with a dedicated look.

"I'll do it."





Shining Armor peeked into the doorway of a guest bedroom.

A particular bedroom, for it was in temporary ownership of Red Dusk.

He peeked in, no armor on, to find an alicorn sitting by the window and blankly staring out of it into the sky.

His red friend here was obviously in deep thought, for he had not moved at all since Shining had decided to poke his head in. The unicorn looked all over the room that was lit by the afternoon light, spying the armor stand carrying both his suit of chainmail and his plate armor, not to forget his strange looking helmet.

He looked around more to find a plate and an empty glass right by the crimson stallion. It was at that moment that Shining saw Red's tail beginning to wag while the alicorn chuckled.

"Disturbing." Shining Armor quietly mumbled to himself. Now that he thought of disturbing, he realizes that he is spying on the poor fellow.

He had not made any sound that Red was able to hear or hint that he was right by the door way, watching this possibly schizophrenic thousand year old Nightmare Moon fanatic do whatever he was doing by a window from the guy's door way.

Shining's thoughts are cut off as the crimson stallion's head turns slowly to meet the eyes of Shining. Shining is horrified, his face showing it for a split second before a half smile replaces it.

Red seemed confused, however, at Shining being there.

"Greetings....?" Red greeted the newcomer, tilting his head as he did not know the name of the unicorn stallion. Shining nervously waved with a hoof, looking to the side.

"Shining Armor... Captain Shining Armor. You might have seen me yesterday when you woke up." Shining Armor nervously put a foot down, looking up at the host of the room. 

Red Dusk nodded, prompting Shining Armor's legs to begin moving. He walks right towards Red, sitting down by him with a space of a foot between them.

The alicorn turned his head back out the window, blinking as he watched outside into the palace grounds. The sun shone from the right side of the window, illuminating the right side of the alicorn's face and giving a better view of his features on the side of his face.

His facial fur was short but thick and compacted. His slightly lighter crimson mane was almost the same way: short and thick, but still possessing alittle height. His ears were big and long, while his horn was obviously bigger then Shining's, topped off with a sharp point. The muzzle that he possessed was broad and square, his muzzle ending with sharp corners.

His eyes were blood red, conforming with his bodies colors. Everything on him was pretty much red.

His tail was like his mane, just short and thick. His body structure was lean, but Shining knew there was power in those legs of his. Raw strength that could snap a pony's neck like his as if it were a twig.

His wings were the same thing as the rest of his body, large and lean. All in all, this alicorn was meant to be an intimidating and effective foe in battle.

As Shining sat observing the stallion next to him, the alicorn turns his head to look down at Shining.

Shining takes a nervous gulp of spit as he looks upon the face of Red Dusk.

"Pray tell, why are you here, Captain?" Red Dusk inquires, a suspicious tone having entered his voice.

"Just to... Talk." Shining nervously answers, giving a slight smile. The alicorn is only slightly amused, but he does crack somewhat of a smile. A very tiny one infact. 

"Very well, what shall we talk about? My entrance to this world? How I will be accepted?" Red looks back out of the window, waiting for an answer. Shining looked to the suit of armor on the stand, then back at Red.

"Lets not talk about that stuff right now, Red." Red Dusk looks at Shining, cocking an eyebrow.

"Red?" the alicorn asks, Shining breaking a sweat in nervousness, waiting for something to happen.

Only for the stallion next to him chuckle. 

"That is acceptable. Heh, Red." the crimson stallion chuckled again, looking back at the unicorn, who was ready to respond immediately.

"What about your armor? How did you get it?" Shining asks, pointing at the stand with the old, faded armor on it. Red turns his head around and tilts his head at it, smiling as he looked back at Shining.

"Alright, sit tight then, my good fellow, for I will take you on a very short story of adventures in trial and error."









> Chapter 4 - Clouded Intrigue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Twilight?"

"Yes Spike?"

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

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

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

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





Dear Twilight Sparkle, My Faithful Student

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

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

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

From, Princess Celestia





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

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

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

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

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

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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







> Chapter 5 - Get it through your head
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shining Armor and Red Dusk sat on the damp grass of the Canterlot Palace garden, looking over at the horizon.

It was a cloudy day, the clouds testifying the existence of the storm last night. It was quite a nice sight, the sun barely shining through the clouds but there still being light, albeit filtered. 

Both ponies were in armor, their helmets off to allow their skin to breath. Red didn't have his helmet at all, still waiting for a replacement of the long rotten straps that were used to secure the headwear onto his head before.

His helmet did feature some padding to allow it to rest on his neck comfortably when he would use it. However, yet again, it was rotten because the helmet itself was not within the crystal, where his armor straps and his gambeson were preserved.

"Beautiful day, is it not, my unicorn friend?" Red asked Shining Armor, who sat next to him on his haunches aswell. The white unicorn nodded his head, looking up at some of the grey clouds. 

"Mhm... Dont you think it's going to rain? Much less sprinkle?" Shining inquires, looking over at his tall friend for an answer. Red only shook his head dismissively. 

Their friendship took off. Both of them are in the soldier mindset and the loyalty mindset. They were almost compatible, save for some differences in how they saw the world, etc. It was pretty obvious that both were on good terms and that in the future would do many things together, and this would all benefit Red, Shining, and Celestia.

Celestia's job would become easier as him having a friend would mean he can put his knowledge to the test in his friendship. What to do, what not to do, that sort of thing will help him ease into the world itself.

Shining's provided a new friend that could relate to him, aswell as Red, but Shining will also hold Red's hoof as he will eventually walk into the public eye and be exposed to all sorts of different things coming from modern society. The unicorn's task as a friend will mean that he will have to help the alicorn cope with the reactions towards him from modern society, where ponies are afraid of every, single, little thing. 

Red's situation is clear: he is an odd one out of a society of happy go lucky ponies that would keel over at the prospect of doing the things he did. Back then, back in his heyday, ponies had a backbone and took things upon themselves alot more. But those times were no more. Now are the times of the easily offended, the snobby, the flat out weird, and the list goes on. 

His opinions would be put under a microscope where a single detail could mean catastrophe to his future progress in fitting into society and being accepted. He'd have to be precise about his movements and actions, thinking about every little thing lest he overreacts and makes a fool of himself, not to mention make his predicament a little worse.

"Pretty big storm last night, eh?" Shining Armor tries to start a conversation with his crimson friend. The alicorn nods his head in agreement.

"I like stormy weather. The drone of rain, the crack of lightning, the fresh feeling of the air after the storm passes, and might I add the filter that it adds to the light of the sun." Red smiles thinking about it, going back to his times on Earth. He used to bath in the rain, letting the rain flow into his helmet or directly onto his face, letting it clean the dirt off his coat or, at times, the blood off of him.

Shining Armor grunts at Red's response, going back to scanning the horizon. He turns his head back to look at Red.

"You've heard of the Six Elements of Harmony, right?" Red's eye facing Shining scans over the unicorn as the alicorn once again nods shallowly. The guard captain smiles as he looks over to the direction where Ponyville would be.

"My sister, she's the element of magic! Wouldnt you believe?" Red's eye widens in interest, a smile creeping on his face.

"I know she is. Princess Celestia told me, and thusly, I congratulate you on having such a sibling. I, however, do not have one, and... probably will never need one." Red looks back out to the horizon, the clouds still blocking the sun as a depressing frown appears on his face, prompting a sympathetic Shining to act.

"Hey, whats wrong?" the crimson alicorn's head fully turns this time to look at his blue-maned comrade. He was still frowning and had a depressed look in his eyes.

He looks back at the horizon, blinking. Sighing, the stallion begins to speak.

"I liked the moon. I really did, and I took all the love I had gotten from Her to heart. But, it was lonely up there. Apart from her, the only thing to do there was sulk, do some touchups, etcetera etcetera. For me, I tried my best to focus on tinkering and remaking my armor to be better, but it just wasnt enough." the red eyes scan side to side, looking down at the valley.

"Sure, when I came down to Earth, I had contacts with the 'cults' that worshipped her the same as I, but it wasnt enough. Most of the time, I wouldnt speak much with them. I only spoke when I needed, for I saw no use in wasting precious time in conversing when I had a job to do." Sighing again, the head of the alicorn hung lower, a hoof going up to rub his eye of a tear.

Shining, meanwhile, was looking intently, disturbed and shocked. This pony was extremely lonely, he had nowhere to turn to. He had to comfort him, Shining told himself.

"Hey... Its alright, things'll get better now. You can meet new ponies, make friends like you did with me. Everything will be fine, you just need to know how, you need to pony up." Shining pokes the stallion in the gut playfully, the crimson head turning to face him. The unicorn's face was centered around an optimistic theme, complete with a confident grin and pleading eyes. 

"Thats right... I cant give up on making new friends... But as far as I know, I can only interact with those living or working inside of the palace." Red looks at Shining skeptically, the unicorn shrugging.

"The ponies of the palace, probably the guards, will be your first step into getting to know how to be friends with normal ponies. The guards all come from different places, have different experiences and personalities that can ready you for the outside, for the city of Canterlot." Shining wraps a leg around Red, the alicorn surprised as he jerks in his place. 

"But these are guards. Will their behaviour not be affected by their training and discipline?" Shining's muzzle scrunches up as he slowly bounces his head left to right, his eyes doing the same as his head rocked.

"That is a factor I have overlooked. However, I think we can ignore that one. Its a start anyway and not everything is going to be perfect, right?" An agreeing Red Dusk nods shallowly, the unicorns leg jumping up and lightly slapping back on the back of the alicorn with an "oof!".

Then Shining Armor gets up, beckoning for his friend to stand up aswell and come with him.

Instead, Red stay's sitting down. He shakes his head.

"Although I would love to meet the guards on a personal level as to help my understanding of social norms in this era, I would rather not." Red explains, a disappointed Shining now sitting back down next to him. 

"Instead, I would prefer we continue seeing this sunrise before you are fully needed. I would assume your subordinate officers are doing roll call." Shining nods in confirmation as he looks up at the horizon. Silence reigns over the air between the two stallions as they both watch the orange sun rise from the horizon.

Blinking, the red stallion shakes his head.

"Yesterday, Her Excellency was observing me, staring at me from the observation tower. It was quite odd." Red Dusk told his friend without turning his head, Shining looking at his friend.

"How so?"

"I was only leaving, but when I got to the door, granted with all the equipment I had been cleaning outside, I spotted her head and neck up at the balcony." Shining nodded shallowly, inviting Red to continue speaking.

"I feel she is afraid of me." he solemnly says, hanging his head as his ears flop down and his eyelids slowly closed over his eyes.

"I would not blame her, I am an abomination, a product of what I would believe many think is of an insane mare using dark magic." he looked at his hooves, Shining feeling sympathy for his crimson friend.

"Well, she has been feeling guilty for her actions as Nightmare Moon. She might feel guilty for putting you in such a position you are now, having y'know, told you to go do these horrible things and now you're going into a world where you are confused and may be tortured by society itself for your actions those hundreds of years ago." Shining explained his guess, gesturing a hoof as he spoke. The alicorn sighs again.

"Well, in an optimistic situation, one could say that would be the case. However, I think it is what it is. She, like almost everypony here, is afraid of me. Celestia, the guards, the nobles... You..." Red looked away with guilt, scooting himself further away from Shining. 

Shining looked dumbfounded, biting his lip as he realized that he didnt actively seek to be his friend, but rather be his friend to be a tool in just his education by Celestia. In all honesty, he was a bit creeped out by Red. His demeanor was depressing and disturbing, but he couldnt blame the guy. 

His life was just to serve a mare who was possessed by an evil spirit who sent him to do horrible things, while he blindly followed her orders, continously doing this whether or not he got positive or negative support.

The worst thing about that was that he blamed himself for most of these things. Many shortcomings in Nightmare Moon's gratitude for his service or anything directed towards him, he probably blamed himself for some inane reason, something that pecked at the mind of Shining Armor.

There was one thing for certain, however. Red needed some motivation, something to get him off of this wagon of self loathing, and Shining Armor would be the vessel for that motivation.

"Dont say such things. Thats the kind of attitude that'll have ponies feast on you like vulture and take all from you that is of worth. You need to stand up for yourself." Shining put on a serious face as he reached over and poked Red in the side of the neck, covered with his mail coif. The clink of metal going against metal attracts the attention of Red Dusk, especially the serious tone coming from Shining.

He looked at the unicorn questioningly, the pony in question nodding. 

"You do. You've never stood up for yourself ever, from what I understand, and thats why you feel indebted to everypony, except the ones who are really your enemies like before, but thats different. You have no sense of motivation, no sense of independence. You depended on Nightmare Moon for support that should have been given to you given the circumstances, but she probably barely gave you enough attention to where you are comfortable, and yet you still blame yourself for that." Red turns his head away, his ears pinned to the sides of his head. However, Shining's voice then returns to its normal tone as he goes back to the way he was sitting before. 

"I have known you for only one day, and although you are able to make a friend, as you have with me, its plainly obvious you have some problems that need ironing out." 

"If one of your belief's are being disagreed with, you get too defensive about it, stemming from a fanatical attitude you have adopted. Its obvious you overreact to things, and the list could go on and on. But that is for another day." Shining breaths out from his nose, as he gets up while picking his helmet up to put it on.

"For I have work to do." the unicorn says as he leaves Red sitting there.

The stallion sits, motionless and silent as he comprehends what was just said to him. Blinking, he too gets up, but this time, to get back in side after rain begins to sprinkle down from the clouds









> Chapter 7 - Good Morning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A silent Red Dusk sits beside his window in his room, looking straight out. His eyes were unblinking, as per the account one could make using the reflection of him on the window if you were Celestia in this case, standing by the open doorway and looking on as he does not notice.

The stallion had his breakfast right beside him and it was a basic meal of bread soaked with olive oil, some oats, and coffee in a large mug. The pony had expressed quite the interest in the chocolate flavored coffee from the kitchens and had obviously got pretty hooked on it.

Celestia had been standing there for the last five minutes, observing Red as he sat there without his knowledge. Luckily, she did not have to worry about alerting him by opening the door up, for it was already slightly open when she got over.

Her mouth twisted in its place as she hears him mumble for the fifth time already. It was almost as if he was speaking to someone, but that someone was not there, or... Not in her vision?

She shakes her head, calling the thought nonsense. The stallion might just be contemplating something and he's talking to himself, she thinks, but one cannot exactly expect what another is thinking. Tilting her head, she also wonders when he is going to drink that coffee of his, which was still steaming but inevitably getting colder and colder.

Just as she thinks about this, the crimson alicorn takes a sip of his coffee, spitting it out into the cup and cursing.

"Fff-Fuck!" he hisses as his tongue rubs along his lips and along the top of his mouth, those places having been burned. Celestia could not do anything but just barely stifle a chuckle. To be honest, his sailor's mouth and little blunder was quite hilarious. 

It was hard not to begin speaking with him. Her student and her friends were up and already eating breakfast in the royal dining room, but she was entranced by a Red who was not pressured to do anything he would not normally do because he is around Celestia. However, apart from his little accident, nothing seemed much different in this situation.

Red takes a bite of some bread, mumbling as he chews the soaked piece, all the while moving a coffee mug closer to his mouth to begin blowing on it after he swallows the piece of bread almost whole. 

After a few blows, he pulls back and sticks his long tongue into it in a flash...

And in a flash, the short, oddly high pitched scream of agony comes from the alicorn as his concentration is broken and the mug falls from his grasp, only being saved by a quick, desperate save by making a magical bowl, catching both the mug and the coffee itself.

"Ahhhh! Self righteous miscreants. Soon..." Red presumably curses the brewers of the coffee, but the 'soon' part was odd to Celestia.

She did think it odd as she softly laughed, Red turning his head over to her after he finishes his sentence.

His cheeks darken as they blush, a cold sweat appearing on the back of his heads as he gave a nervous face of question, an arched eyebrow a distinct part of it as his iris's shook in their places.

"Celestia?" he asks, the princess jerking in her place as she looks over with a goofy smile, chuckling a bit at Red's face. He only shakes his head in a confused way.

"How long havth you bee--- Fuck!" a curse yet again leaves the stallions mouth as Celestia goes on for another round of laughter, the red pony wiping his face from cheek to cheek with a single hoof in disappointment. 

Celestia's laughing dies down as she prepares to answer, only met with a subtle shaking of the head.

"Nevermind. What is your purpose here?"

"I had come to check up on you and maybe ask if you would like to socialize with Twilight Sparkle and her friends? Shining Armor is down there."

Red's attention was grabbed as he takes another slice, dipping it in some olive oil and tossing it into his mouth as if he himself were a trash can with the fancy opening lids.

"Hmm... I am interested. Just give myself a moment for I must recollect the steaming liquid that has so burned me because of the brewers in the kitchens making it too hot." he says in a straight tone of voice, doing just that as he looks over an meticulously uses his 'magic bowl' to pour the coffee into a now separate mug.

Obviously, it it is not the least bit perfect, some drops of the hot, steaming substance dripping onto the carpet, which was promptly ignored by a slightly miffed Red who kept a relatively straight face. Done with his task, the magical aura vaguely resembling a bowl disappears and the plate of bread and mug are surrounded by the red glow of Red Dusk's magic while he lifts himself up to his full height, bowing down only to stretch his legs.

Celestia looks on at him as he approaches her, it being odd to her being at odds with another pony in terms of height. Both were atleast six feet, but Celestia was either one or two inches taller then Red. Red's horn was just as tall as her's, but seemed to be alittle thicker, probably to facilitate some kind of distribution of heat when using a good amount of magic for extended periods of time.

But what did she know? She shakes her head as she gives a smile at him, while also stepping back as he approaches within half a foot of her.

His muzzle just scrunches up while he shakes his head dismissively.

"Are we to go or are we to stand here and not be productive?" Celestia blushes, sheepishly smiling as she wheels around and walks out of the door along with the stallion in tow, or rather right beside her.

There was silence between them, the crimson pony not daring to look at Celestia for an unknown reason and seemingly reluctant to speak. He had a straight face on, his ears perked up to their full height as if he were alert. He was a soldier after all, so it could be muscle memory to keep them up like that all the time.

Meanwhile, Celestia kept darting her eyes around to look at Red, only looking forward to see where she was going. He seemed somewhat confident in his gait and had his neck straight up. Thinking about his neck, she wondered how he even kept his neck up for long periods of time with the helmet on, considering its position.

But it could just be the case that the muscles in his neck are quite developed and he's purposefully sacrificing comfort for protection. Nopony would ever want to lose his or her head, would they?

Celestia's eyes dart out to look out of the windows of the hallways, to look towards the blue sky only to be reminded of the Moon. Did he like to be on the moon, she wonders. 

Her head turns to look at Red Dusk, who still looked straight forward in the direction he was going, just as they round a turn.

"Did you like to be on the moon?" the stallion immediately stopped in his tracks, Celestia advancing only two hoofsteps infront of him before stopping and looking back at him, walking closer. 

He blinks as she approaches, looking away before turning his head back to her. He opens his mouth, but closes it back up as he thinks more about what to say.

Finally, he begins.

"Yes, I did."

"Is it not a barren wasteland up there?" Celestia inquires, the stallion snorting.

"Does it matter if it is a 'barren wasteland'?" Red rolls his eyes, looking out the windows.

"To me, it was my home for I would sleep there, eat there, live there... Play there." 

"Play?"

"Yes, indeed, play. I needed some stimulation outside of being sent down there, and so I usually pranced along the edges of the dusty craters, made, watched the sun set and rise, jump into space without actually being trapped in space."

"That seems like a horrible existence." Celestia tilts her head, the alicorn jerking his head back in surprise, only to bring it back to its place growling.  The alabaster offender takes a few steps back, her head recoiled away from the stallion as she did so.

"Oh you may think so, did you not? You had to insult me and the only place I had as a home. Take into mind that I was not always surrounded by loyal subjects that would throw every last one of themselves infront of you to save you from a arrow or bolt, and that I was not  not on a lively green ball of floating dirt in space inside of a cute white little 'castle' where I would have access to the finest of dining, total security, and comfortable quarters." Celestia walks back from her position as he continues.

"The moon was my only home, a beautiful, albeit dusty one. The one and only one with a Mare that did show me compassion... Atleast I think She did, but nevertheless, She and the moon will be locked within my heart as sweet memories, and that is why I love the moon." Celestia hummed in interest as he got to the last part. Evidently, he had ended with his explanation on a loose note, making Celestia guess he was not too keen on talking about it too much.

That last part, however, was suspicious. Her locked inside of his heart? Is he referring to something like... No, she thought as she shook her head, denying what she had thought as she uneasily walked after him, only staying two feet from him.




Twilight looks on at Red Dusk at the other side of the table as her friends talk with him.

He sat next to Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, who each had their own breakfast dishes, while the three others sat across from him, each with their own dishes aswell. 

She had some basic Prench toast right infront of her, delicately sprinkled with some powdered sugar and some syrup. She moved as he came along,  but her friends did not mind at all, citing her lack of comfort she had around him. 

A cushion was pulled out from under the table next to Twilight, attracting her attention to a fully armored Shining Armor, who had a cup of coffee placed on the table where he would sit and eat. 

"Good morning, Twily." he said with a smile, his sister doing likewise, turning her head to focus on cutting a chunk out of the remaining toast.

"Good morning, Shining." she says as she finally cuts the piece from the toast, such piece having some of the syrup dripping down onto the plate as she puts it into her mouth, another drop of syrup falling on the carpet under the table, much to the frustration of Twilight.

"Dermit!" she says with a full mouth, an amused Shining Armor chuckling.

"How did you sleep?" Shining asks, the purple unicorn beside him swallowing the chewed piece of toast. 

"Good. The beds here are just as good as they were when I was still here."

"Which was like a year ago, if I am correct?" Shining Armor asks, Twilight nodding.

"Does Mom and Dad know about him?" Twilight motions her head over to a rather interested looking Red, who was now listening to Rainbow Dash about the Sonic Rainboom she made as a little filly. The captain shakes his head, taking a sip of his coffee carefully.

"Nope. They don't, but do you plan on visiting them?"

"Today."

"Alright, you can tell them about Red if you want, just remember to tell them not to say anything. Its imperative we keep his reveal to the public to be through an official event where he is planned to be there, not through rumors which can get warped and make everything alot worse." Shining Armor tells Twilight, who looks at him with a skeptical face.

"Would there not be rumors anyway?" She asks in a skeptical tone, as Shining Armor takes another sip and snorts.

"Well, yeah... But we'll have it to where some may be forced to interact with him. Cadance said that, I'm not sure if its going to work, but heck if I know."

"Ponies will avoid him like the plague and only the bravest ones will even be around him if he were ever in a street." Shining says, looking over at Red, who was acting rather docile right then.

"I would think so. He's..."

"Unnerving?"

"Yeah." both agree with eachother, as Shining shakes his head.

"Sorry for last night, It just felt a little like an insult to him and we cant have things like that to discourage him further. Its probably that we are lucky that your friends have gotten friendly towards him." Shining reflects, taking yet another sip of coffee and smacking his lips.

"Its alright. All of the girls said they were uncomfortable too, but kind of surprised too, though. Applejack talked about him not having had an apple pie or apple fritters at all and said that it was 'unbelievable'." Twilight takes another piece of the toast, chewing it as she looks over at AJ, who had a slight smile on her face as Pinkie Pie told of a party story about some pony knocking over a bowl of punch and him 'dancing as he slid'. 

Red just looked on with a raised eye brow, shaking his head as he said something in response after the end of her story.

"I am utterly surprised you are functioning normally... Disregard my last, 'semi-normally' with this constant partying."a few mouths hang open as Shining sharply inhales through his teeth. The other mares look on with confusion after his remark, the stallion looking all around their faces with a confused face of his own.

"Is it what I have voiced or have I done something I did without noticing?"

"He's got some things to iron out." Shining Armor quietly says to Twilights ears, his sister agreeing with him through nodding. 

"Yes, he does. What does he usually do?" Shining Armor scrunches up his muzzle, shaking his head.

"Stare out of the window with his meal infront of him, go to the garden, and that's it apart from eating, drinking and sleeping. He has talked with me yesterday, but usually it was him talking about the Gala and what if it doesn't work, yadda yadda yadda." Shining Armor gestures dismissively with a hoof along with a frown.

"I swear, sometimes he just doesn't do anything, just only stare outside into the sky for a period or something. You can actually sneak up to him at his room's doorway if you are quiet enough and just watch him mumble to himself sometimes, which may just point to the fact that he likes to talk to himself a lot, but you never know."

"I've also overheard some of the kitchen staff saying something about putting ant poison in one of the cups of coffee he asks for, while the nobles don't even bother going near his room. The guards all talk about jumping him and kicking his ass when he's not looking."

"Sounds like every pony hates his guts with a passion." Twilight comments, a light hearted chuckle coming from Shining as he keeps a worried face on.

"I'm kind of worried that when he's revealed, the Princess's public opinion will just plummet and that there could be attempts at Red's life once he goes out there. Im also kind of worried about how he looks at Princess Luna. I mean, he just worships and praises her endlessly and calls her 'Her Excellency'. Its really creepy, and plus, we're all just staying away from him, except Princess Celestia and I, who still try to keep a small distance from him as we talk to him." Shining vents, rubbing the back of his head and brushing the mane on his helmet. He sips up the last of his coffee, putting down the mug the last time.

"You know, last night, as I was going after the girls after they left me there, I swore I felt his stare from one of the side hallways and heard him mumbling to himself, almost as if he was cursing in Pony Latin." Twilight looks over at Shining, the white unicorn stallion looking intrigued.

"I'll make a note of that, but I have work to do. I'll see you in the evening." he says as he gets up, pushing the cushion back under the table and walking away.

"Bye." Twilight says, looking after Shining before looking back at Red, who sat there eating the last slices of his meager breakfast. For an alicorn, he didn't eat that much, to the outside observer that is. 

The stallion notices Twilight looking at him, which scares her as her head jolts in its place.

"Is something wrong, Twilight Sparkle?" he asks with a straight, monotone voice. She shakes her head to which the pony then looks away, his eyes wandering. 

Twilight blows out from her mouth, poking the last remaining chunk of her syrupy breakfast on her plate. She looks back at Red, who was now on his very last slice of bread. Some tiny crumbs did lightly pepper the areas around his lips, as to be expected, but overall, he was rather clean.

It occurred to Twilights mind that if she is to become comfortable around him, or at the very least a little less inclined to leave the room when he's around, she must interact with him. Maybe she'll have the same amount of luck the others had and have some good interaction between eachother, or maybe it'll be awkward and damaging.

The muffled sounds of hoove's making contact with the carpet attracts the thoughtful unicorn's attention, only to see Red Dusk walking away with a plate and mug, off to the kitchen, she would presume. She looks back to her toast, and then the clock, which stated that it was around 9:50 in the morning.

"Twilight, is there somethin' wrong?" Applejack calls out to Twilight with a concerned tone, only for the unicorn to shake her head. A skeptical Applejack squints, turning back around to socialize. 

To be honest with herself, the only reason Twilight was not socializing with the others was because she was not exactly next to them, only being 2 cushions away from them.

With little thought, she picks up the plate with the last piece of food on there, and walks over to sit next to Applejack, for the farmer mare to look over at Twilight and begin talking, Twilight doing likewise as she sat down.

Only, she noticed, yet again, the alicorn looking down at her from a hallway with the door open. Asoon as she noticed, he began to walk down the hallway.

Slowly, she floats her piece of toast into her mouth, watching the stallion before he takes a left turn and therefore gets away from her sight. Twilight shakes her head, turning her head back to her friends.

Something fishy was going on.
> Chapter 8 - The Ball of Doom!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle stood outside of Red's door. Shining Armor was right, the alicorn did just sit by his window and stare out of it all the while mumbling to himself. She could not blame him, for he has to stay indoors, but it seemed extremely alien to her. Maybe she should give him some books to keep him company maybe? She shakes her head peeking inside more.

Yet again, as with previous times, except with different ponies, the armor stand had Red's polished armor hanging on it, with the gameson folded on a table in the room right beside the armor stand. It was all very formal and clean.

The room had next to no modification. Barely anything was on the nightstand, there was just nothing else but Red's meager possessions such as his halberd, which leaned on a wall next to the window, his armor, and maybe some other small things she did not know about. It was almost sad to think about such a life, but maybe he has become used to living without much material objects?

Shaking her head, she proceeds to knock on the door frame with a hoof, attracting the attention of the alicorn, who's body twists in his position to look over at her with a blank expression. 

He motions his head for her to come inside, to which she does, entering the room itself over to next to Red's bed, which was not that far away from the window where Red sat.  His bed was not exactly the most tidy bed one would ever see, some of the sheets falling off of the bed itself.

"Don't the maids come in to fix up the room every time you are out of here?" Twilight asks, the crimson alicorn shaking his head.

"They refuse to, for they are afraid of me." he says flatly, an ear flickering, looking out the window yet again. His simple gesture of indifference to the cleaner's fear of him was enough to send a chill through Twilight's spine. He was almost like a robot in this case, expressing next to no emotion in its activities or in this case, inactivity.

Silence, both lips sealed, Red not talking for he sees no need to, and the student for she is nervous. Twilight Sparkle looks over at the door, contemplating walking away and doing this some other time, but she shakes her head. If only he-

"What is your purpose of being here?" Red asks, his head moving over to face Twilight. Her muzzle scrunches up as she thinks of what to say.

"I think we came off on the wrong hoof yesterday..."

"How so? Your reaction is justified." Red gives a confused stare, an eyebrow raising.

"Wait... What? Justified?" She asks, shaking her head. He cant be serious, she thinks to herself.

"Yes, justified. My actions were rather... 'awkward' and 'creepy', and yes, I realize myself to be a beast of large proportions, an elephant in the room per say. You cant ignore the elephant in the room nor ignore his features and what you feel of him, taking past experience and present experiences to judge him. Although, that is how I look at it." Red expains, finally getting up from his position of sitting on his haunches and stretching. A few cracks and pops of his bones being stretched can be heard as Twilight looks on with a slight frown. 

He begins to pace around the room aimlessly, stopping only to look at Twilight for a second. He is obviously out there and probably see's nothing to talk about with her. Maybe he does not know how to start up conversation.

"Dont say that." Red stops and looks at her, approaching her slightly with a step, her eyes darting side to side, "Dont be so self deprecating, its not a healthy thing to do.".

"How so? Its true, all the things that I am supposedly. I eat meat, for The Moon's sake." Twilight recoils instinctively at the mention of a pony eating meat, of all things. This only makes him scoff, rolling his eyes and walking towards the window, looking outside yet again.

"Red Dusk?" she asks, hoping to bring him back over to talk.

"Red Dusk?" she says again, his ears flickering now as his neck sinks in. He mumbles something she cant understand, however.

"What?"

"I said, my point has been proven. It just would not work for me to lie to myself and to others. I must be straight forward with others about who I am, or else I lose my credibility as a pony, which has already fallen apart. Now, if you dont mind me asking..." he looks over at her with a blank face.

"Please leave. I wish to be alone."

"But---"

"Leave." he says with authority. Her gesture of fear was enough to make him pissed off enough to want her out, presumably. However, she was not going to find out. 

She quickly gets up and trots out, looking back one time to see the back of his head towards the window. She looks forward again, trotting down the hallway to hear a door close with a click. She breathes a sigh of relief, heading to her guest room.





"Shining Armor, might I ask, what is this?"

Red pokes the glowing part of a machine on the desk. It had a blue background with some grey bar on the bottom  with weird icons on it and some other icons on the blue space itself apart from the bar. The thing itself was big and boxy, with the front glowing part of it projecting from the main thing. It was a light shade of grey.

Right next to it sat a bulky, whirring grey box that the glowing part was hooked up to and the box being hooked up to cords that went into things on the walls. Then there was this large, hoof imprint shaped thing with two buttons and a wheel in the center ontop of a black mat. Infront of the glowing part lay this large board full of small buttons that were more wide than high, presumably to allow for one to press them with the tips of their hooves. Each button had a letter of the Equestrian alphabet on there, aswell as numbers and things like "Tab" and "Enter".

Red just looked at it all with a look of absolute confusion. It was absolutely alien to him, the whirring object that stood on the desk of Shining Armor's dark office.  There were ofcourse, other things on the large desk, but this was a center piece.

"This, Red, is called a computer."

"A com-pew-ter?" Red repeats.

"Yes, a computer. Its a thing that does all sorts of stuff! I can make documents on here with these keys and go on Equestria Online and do all sorts of stuff on it, like play games!" Shining Armor explains with a smiling face. It was night outside, which was why the office was sort of dark, except a dim lamp and the 'computer' screen.

Red's face still signified him being confused. Only a few seconds from now, Shining thought.

"W-What?" Red gives a stern statement of his feelings. Shining chuckles to himself, shaking his head as he grabs the small thing on the mat around. A white arrow starts moving, attracting the attention of Red, who's eyes track it with interest.

"This is called a mouse. This big thing here with the glow is called a monitor, the box is called a PC or CPU, and this thing is called a keyboard." Red nods as Shining explains, still curious.

"Show me what you can do." Red says, Shining happy to oblige as the cursor floats over to some weird icon labeled underneath 'Simville 2000'. The mouse clicks and within seconds, some stuff is happening on the screen. A spiraling galaxy, a floating purple saucer thing flashing the screen, some green latice framework and then terrain and buildings springing up like rubber.

As Red watches the short intro, his face slowly changes from skeptical to extremely impressed. His mouth was a perfect O and his eyes were fixed on the screen. Meanwhile, Shining Armor sits down on the cushion on the floor, doing all sorts of things that become a jumble of bizarre movements to Red's medieval eyes.

The alicorn looks away, shaking his head. 

"This is impossible! How can this be done? How?" Red asks as Shining navigates the menu of the game to a button saying "New City.". Within moments, there was generated terrain out on the screen, and Shining was getting to work, only for him to speak.

"Its called electricity and things called 'transistors' and 'hardrives' and all this other stuff. Its really, really cool. What you are seeing here is a graphic representation of terrain and this game is a simulator for cities. In some ways, but thats beside the point." Shining Armor explains, as he lays down zoning for residential housing, roads, and other things that Red could not effectively decipher. 

"But... What about magic? Cant you do things with magic?"

"Nah, those things were slow, bigger than these, and more expensive. Im not even kidding! The crystals liked to overheat apparently, so thats why they arent in use anymore." Red looks at the CPU with a concentrated face.

"Aren't you supposed to be working?"

"Who says I cant take a little break while Im still here? Besides, not much this week because all we had to do to deal with security regarding you is beef up patrols, cancel most if not all meetings with the outside ponies, which really helps on making things less messy, and tons of other stuff that just gave me not much work." Shining's head was on a swivel, looking at the screen for a second and then to Red.

Red Dusk just hums, processing. Right now, Shining had sort of a strange looking town going on with hospitals and guard stations, all sorts of stuff. Though, he remembers his confrontation with Twilight earlier on, and a part of his mind pushes him to seek counsel on how to deal with Twilight from Shining. However, he pushes it away, and instead thinks of a simpler question.

"When should Twilight and her friends leave?"

"Day after tomorrow, why do you ask?" Shining presses a button labeled "Esc", bringing up a box and some buttons, but pausing the game entirely, it seems. Red shakes his head, a small, yet nervous grin appearing on his face.

"Nothing major. Im just wondering." Shining squints at him, before shrugging.

"Wanna try?" Shining gets up, backing away and presenting the cushion with a hoof. 

Red internally sighs in relief, but on the surface, he takes a step back. Only to come again.

"I would assume that it would be quite... stimulating to 'play' this." Red sits down, and Shining uses his magic to exit out of his city, choosing not to 'save'.

Within moments, a new terrain appears, and Red's face crunches into one of concentration as it is illuminated by the white glow of the computer.

"Now, what you do..."





Within a few minutes, everything went to absolute shit.

"Red, why do you have residential next to industrial? Why do you have twenty guard stations for what, 10,000 ponies? You are taxing your people to all hell!" 

"Shining, quiet! This is my first time!"

"But just because its your first time doesnt mean you get an excuse to throw logic out the window!" Shining lectures to him aggressively. A guard walks by, looking inside and giving a rather disgusted face at Red Dusk sitting on the cushion.

Red Dusk's face was quite peeved by Shining Armor's nagging. His placement of zoning and roads clearly communicated his lack of knowledge of how to design a city: The roads were clogged by both hoof and cart traffic, taxes were higher than Canterlot, and ponies lived right next to the industrial areas. 

Plus, he forgot to put down schools and mostly focused on guard stations which were in no shape or form scarce. So not only were ponies in his city stupid, they were flooded with an influx of guards.

"Shining, calm yourself!" Red growls softly, clenching his teeth. He puts down another row of zoning and roads, which are filled up with houses instantly, and traffic becomes more of a problem.

"You have no commercial zones, man. Why don't you allow your people to buy somethings they want?" Shining Armor jabs Red with his hoof, Red's leg retaliating with an effective punch with a knee. 

"Back off, damnit. They can make shit themselves!" Red gives a mischievous smile as he thinks about it. Shining, on the other hand, blows out some air, shaking his head.

"Your people cant do that, that's not in the ga---." Shining stops as a message appears, announcing this:

"A LARGE BALL OF DOOM COMES FROM THE SKY. RUN FOR THE SHELTERS!"

Red sees this too, and is initially calm, while Shining looks away, putting a hoof to his face.

"The guards can take care of it!" Red responds, seeing Shining walk away.

The guards didn't do jackshit. The ball ravages the city as it walks on 6 legs mechanical legs, destroying houses, monuments, fields! Everything in its wake was destroyed and just a pile of black pixels.

Red looks on with disbelief, seeing his mess of a city be turned into more of a mess. He looks on, disturbed by how ironic the ball thing came out of the sky and wrecked havoc, almost a sign to him, mocking him. But he shakes his head, the only thing being conveyed is that this giant, cartoon-ish looking ball of doom just kicked over the tallest building, an apartment building, over onto its side.

"Amazing." he says, watching his debt go deeper and deeper. Actually, now that he thinks about it, how did he even get people in his city if he had taxes? Oh right, there was barely anyone in the city in the first place! 

After a minute of both the ponies watching on, the ball of doom walks off the screen, signalling that the suffering of the city people should be over. Except, now Red was in huge debt, and cant build much anymore... Sooo, he claps down his left hoof, the right one going up to rub his face.

He looks at Shining, who had bags under his eyes, looking back at Red. It was a blank, tired stare.

Before, he made a small chuckle, a small smile on his face. Red's lips bend and curve partially, giving a half smile.

Before they both knew it, both softly laughed at the absurdity of the situation. 

Maybe they could do another new game before hitting in for the night?



> Chapter 9 - Melody
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the two stallions played on the computer, a set of eyes looks on from the shadows.

They are ignorant of whoever is spectating them, a shy, yet formerly powerful and willful mare. 

She adjusted her black tiara on her head as she watched the two, Red giving small chuckles as he typed on the computer, doing something.

"Oooo...Whats--"

"No no no!" Shining stammered, the alicorn turning his head half to the right with a raised eyebrow and, quite frankly, a hilarious looking frown that had a little 'bump' in the line as it traveled not even a quarter way down his muzzle.

Luckily, she forgot her silver hoofguards when she went out to watch, to observe Red.

To her, it was a matter of just seeing how he acted. How he is, how he acts now. Five centuries may not be as long as the time she sat doing nothing on the moon, half of those years being without a companion, but it is still a very long time. Did he truly change?

Now, while she does have experience with him as her previous self, it was not like now. Now, he feels more dark and foreboding, and it was strange seeing him in this way. She did not feel as much of a connection as she did before.

Before, he was like her. Both of them had a dying hatred for Celestia, atleast it seemed. One was summoned into such a state of mind and the other was possessed to keep that attitude for way longer than she should have had, the attitude one would have if they were to have, say, a tantrum.

While she could reveal herself and converse, she felt a resistance against doing so. It would probably make out an awkward situation, regarding the fact that she just appears from the darkness, especially since they are focused on the 'computer'. 

Yes, something was abound to happen with the particular alicorn, the only alicorn male right now, and he happens to be synthetic. Made of forbidden magics and spells that all mix to create something of an abomination that just somehow came out as a rather good looking alicorn, that is on the outside.

Considering this fact, she could not help but feel that he is unworthy of any trust. His glare reflected that of a sort of dead emptiness, a disturbing apathetic moral code that just didn't exist, almost.

His height, imposing and authoritarian, perfected to create an atmosphere around his victims, to lull them into submission from sheer looks alone.

His jaws were lined with tall,carnivorous teeth, ready to rip and tear, the true jawline of one who defines terror. 

She shakes her head, closing her eyes. She must not delude herself, she thinks to herself as she realizes the teeth seemed to almost detract from how big she thought they were.

Odd, she thought to herself as she gave a glance to the side

Celestia has talked with her, describing plans of reeducation and reform that will help him, transform him into something that he was not right now. 

"If everything goes right, he'll be reformed within no time. You know how converts are the most fanatic, you know that saying, Luna?" Celestia's voice echoed in her mind, the vision of the meeting slightly foggy in her mind with an unsure looking Luna to the side.

"Oh, sister." Luna shakes her head, her knowing that Celestia was being too optimistic. Her bigger sister always seemed to look on the brighter side of things, ironically enough when you say it like that.

Luna chuckles to herself, before instantly realizing her mistake as Shining's head jerks over into the darkness Luna was in.

"Anypony there?" Red looks over too, Shining calling out into the darkness. Luna backsteps, lucky that Red's night vision was being impeded by the bright, glowing computer screen. 

Luna's blood drains from her face and sinks into nothingness in her hooves, a cold breeze making her almost shiver, jittery. What would they say about her stalking them?

"Do not worry, friend. I am sure it is nothing. Come on now, let me... Oh shit." Red gives a dismayed face while his face center-aligns itself with the computer screen, both beginning to indistinctly talk yet again, albeit with some looks into the darkness.

Luna breathes a sigh of relief, looking back over at Red to see him looking back. Her head goes back in an instant, and this time, Red notices. He gets up, the sounds of his hooves stepping down dramatic to Luna's ears.

As he gets to the door frame, he looks side to side.

Nothing.





Red looks out from the observation deck of the palace tower, now that he felt confident that nopony would see him in the shade.

The hot sunlight just stopped right infront of his forehooves, baking the bricks further that the light lay on. His mane slightly blows in the breeze that came in.

The sky was a perfect, beautiful blue, with no clouds in sight. While Red could see the sky, he could not effectively see what was around him, him being in, ofcourse, the shade!

Beside him, there was a highly decorated telescope with gold engravings mixed in with colors such as royal purple and some other degrees of purple. To him, it looked rather attractive, but tacky.

He looks back out to look at what he can look at, noticing the guard that was assigned to guard him. She was a unicorn mare, a white one with a black and red mane and tail. Her eyes were green and happy looking. She had a blank face on, and seemed to not complain about being assigned to him.

By no means did Red discount the fact in his inspection of her that she was actually quite beautiful, especially in the gold armor, but nonetheless, she was a normal pony, and he also put this into mind that she's probably disgusted with him as much as the others.

So, he looks into the sky, before shaking his head. He could hear the shuffling of armor near him, from Rose, as he stands up to go into the light.

As he does, he hears Rose coming up from behind him, her armor giving herself away, her stopping to his right to look up at him.

"What are you doing?" she asks, the alicorn moving his neck to look over at her, an eyebrow raised. 

"Getting into the light to see much more than just towers and the sky." He knew her name, having been told that by Celestia, but he preferred not to refer to her by her name right now. She looks away to face ahead, uneasy.

Meanwhile, Red took this time to look around, seeing the city for the first time in a hundred years.

From his place on the tower, he could see the roofs of apartments, houses, shops, theaters and much more. He could see ponies walking through the streets, some with carts, others were standing in the streets, talking or doing something.

There were pegasi in the sky, but at a level where they would barely see Red; they were at a lower altitude then the observation deck.

Red looks in awe at the clean looking city, most walls, if not all, being coated in a clean white paint. The roofs varied between defined darks to some orange clay colors

It was at this point that he notices Rose Melody has moved too, to get a better view of her own city. She has a smile on her face, and to this, Red yet again raises an eyebrow, but with a smile. 

"Enjoying the view, I see?" he asks, the unicorn jumping as she is surprised by him. He rolls his eyes, chuckling as she looks up at him, looking to the side with a disturbed face. To him, she was tiny, but she seemed to hold up, regaining her composure as she looks up at him, him looking back at her.

"Y-Yes, I see this everyday."

"Mm... Where do you live?" he asks, looking back out into the city. Melody, giving a side glare at him, speculated for a second, before turning her head away, her face twisting about to think.

The unicorn reluctantly points over, with a hoof, to a place in the city with a few apartment buildings, one of them having a blue coat of paint and two others having a sort of varied degree of red between both of them.

"The blue one, over there. Fifth floor." she says nonchalantly, the alicorn smiling. The apartments looked rather clean, most of them however. One of the 'white' ones seemed to be a little seedier, alittle dingier and awkward. Maybe it was all the little boxes on the windows and maybe it was not maintained properly. 

"It looks nice. Do you like your home of Canterlot?" Red asks, no response from Rose. She seems hesitant to start conversation with him, so he nudges her with a hoof.

"There is no need to be hesitant. What would I do with that information, what, steal your worldly possessions and pilfer your coin?" he asks, still receiving a weirded out stare from Rose.

"Thats a possibility." she responds sarcastically, Red giving a small chuckle, along with her doing so, though nervously.

"I beg to differ, I am a dignified individual, Rose Melody."

"True, you have been described as rather polite before you go all Alien on them."

"Alien? Movie?"

"Its a movie about these ponies in a station in space having to deal with some weird, pony like thing with a large head and acidic blood, and... Ah nevermind." Obviously, Rose ignored him asking about a movie

"Why pay no mind? It sounds interesting"

"Eh. Its just stupid."

"Sounds horrifying, though."

"Really? I mean, it is, but to you."

"Ofcourse. I am a pony too and that means that I also have fears. I'll admit, I have been scared by... some things before, like alien things, like a manticore or... insects, actually!"

"Seriously?" she tilts her head at him, the sides of her helmet folding in on themselves as the neck bends. He nods, grinning with his teeth out to be seen. It was unnerving to see him like that, but she decided to not be afraid. 

"The buzzing noise the accursed pests make, especially when they are right next to my ear, is horrifyingly annoying and prods me to freeze up or swat at the devils. The fact that they can crawl into your apparel and still carry a bite that can paralyze you or just that section of the body is not... attractive to think about." Red explains, a frown on his face. Almost conveniently, a fly buzzs right next to Red, and he takes a step back from it to give it some space to fly around in.

It buzzes back over to him, this time being swatted at by a hoof. Rose looks at Red as deals with the fly before it goes and runs off, the alicorn blushing in embarrassment, ears pinned to his head.

To this, the guard could not help but chuckle, failing to stifle it, much to the dismay of the stallion. He groans as she chuckles harder. 

"Oh shut up." Red rolls his eyes, "They are annoying little pests, I'd rather not have them around me being so distracting.". He pronounces his point with a light stomp of his hoof. Rose was not intimidated, still snickering.

"I never would have thought that a legend like you would be afraid of a fly!" Rose says, barely getting it out as the snickering comes back yet again.

"I am not afraid of all flying insects! Im just afraid of the ones that sting." he says quietly at the end, looking away with a dark blush.

"Then why not leave flies be?" she asks, her eyebrow rising as her mouth curves into a smug smile. Red grumbles.

"Too annoying to be allowed to exist."

"Homicidal tendencies?" she bounces up her eyebrows with her smug look.

He still grumbles, humoring her. She snickers at his continued grumbling, the conversation having taken a pause as they look back out over the city, only to look back down on the open parts of the palace, the courtyards.

Guards went back and forth around, some were posted at places near doors or gates to various buildings within the quite large place of power, a fortification to be exact.

Red's wings seem to flutter by his barrels sides as he feels the urge to fly about, but by special instruction, he cannot leave the castle grounds. 

Although, what good would the Gala do? He thought to himself, rolling his eyes. Hopefully, everything will go right, somewhat, and he'll get to have his freedom to do what he wants, or do what he has been ordered to do by somepony.

He swept the thought from his mind, looking down at Rose who now had a nice, slight smile on her face. It was charming, to say the least, from Red's perspective, almost like a confident teen ready to once and for all enter the world of adulthood, or rather to enter what they have seen as a prestigious goal in life, a military position in his experience.

Ah, yes, the memories. He remembered the cults, ah yes. Good memories that were to be locked up forever in his mind as a reminder of the good side of his 'heyday'. 

The sun was beginning to take a toll, however, as he felt the heat increasing in intensity, the inactivity finally making him notice the apparent temperature of the day, a warm ninety to eighty five degrees as told by his comrade, Shining Armor. 

He saw no reason to stay out here for any further time, and one such as himself does not appreciate having sweaty and hot wing pits and the stink of sweat in general. His bare hooves moved him to the door, Rose looking back after him.

"I'm going inside."

"Alright." she says, looking back out. Red opens the door to the inside of the tower, giving a last look through the transparent glass of the door to see Rose once again, before descending the steps at the other side of the room.

As the sound of hooves dies off, the unicorn looks at the doorway to the stairs, before looking back a minutes later.

Rose sighs in relief, half smiling to herself.
> Chapter 10 - A Suiting Situation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be completely honest with herself, Celestia's plan to familiarize Red with Twilight and her friends through visitation, failed.

Red preferred to stay within his room and barely seeked interaction with the group, to spark conversation. Twilight reported to her awkward moments in where Red seemed to be annoyed by her presence, and although when they did meet, Red and the six mares interacted nicely, it was not enough to cement a relationship between the two parties that could facilitate better understanding in the future.

She watches the last mare, Rarity, leave the door after Twilight had gone out of the door to the train station, followed by her friends. She shook her head as the door clicks closed. 

The Gala was three to two days away, everything went so fast since his arrival all of a sudden, atleast arrival back to consciousness ofcourse.

She walks back, by some guards who bowed their heads with more serious faces then usual during patrols. Usually, their faces are relaxed, but they seem alot more on watch, more tense. 

She could not blame them.

She makes it a rule for herself that with every planned sit down session with Red, she bring along guards to stay near as to help her if anything arises. Trusting him is going to be a hard thing to do.

She enters her study through its unguarded, high decorated doors that quietly coast and click shut. Rolled up letters, various papers and documents piled on her desk, supervised by a black inkwell and white quill. 

Normally, she would write letters on her couch by the fireplace, often times when it is to Twilight, but this is where alot of the top level bureaucracy happens. If only she had another her, a same Celestia who lived just like her, but helped alleviate her workload. It'd probably help this country immensely, she thought.

She sighs as she sits down on the sitting cushion, blinking and running a hoof across her face towards her horn, making a clop as it made contact with the similarly hard object.

She had to get Red familiar with atleast some kind of Equestrian demographic, but he would need a crutch, someone to help him do so. Maybe multiple people?

Her first thought was give Shining a chance at vacation with Red following as a condition. Maybe go to Las Pegasus or go somewhere north? She taps her chin.

"Hmmmm..."

Her eyes dart all over the place.Until finally, an idea hits her right on the head. She is knocked over from the intellectual force as she regains her bearing and realize that she could just give him another chance to familiarize himself with Twilights friends while getting familiarized with the normal pony in Ponyville.

It could be staged one month from the Gala, to give Red a degree of freedom. Maybe he could take the initiative and go to Ponyville early or stay in Canterlot and see how the city is like. Than he could be over there for two to three months worth of reformation that she optimistically hopes will work.

Ofcourse, Red is thick in the skull. Both figuratively and literally. Maybe he'll come back with half his personality and half his reformed personality, which would be a mutant. Worst of all, he'll come back with nothing reformed and have a resentment for the normal pony, which can happen.

Ponies are cowards, its a fact. Atleast nowadays they are, they run away from anything bigger than a fly that is not a bunny, a domestic dog, farm animals. 

Because of this, Red is most likely going to have no chance at all and be seen as a social pariah, which he is. Barely any social skills and his aura worsens his chances dramatically, which is something that can barely be fixed without a complete reevaluation and complete modernization of his personality, which is not good. It would completely wipe out what really is Red.

Her objective is plain and simple, but to get to those goals is the challenge, the challenge to be willing to gamble for Red's bad parts in his mind to be deleted or atleast removed.

As she thinks, her head goes over to the computer in the room. One of the most powerful personal computers in Equestria, it helps her deal with her workload better, but unfortunately, most of Equestria still uses letters considering how expensive computers are.

She breathes through her nose, thinking about how she should have thought of this before. She takes a scratch piece of paper and the quill begins to float by her, dipping its tip once again into the black ink to make it shine with a luster like that of obsidian.

Besides, she has spare time to write herself a plan.





"Alright, Red, the Gala is three days away. We need to get you spiffed out for it!"

"Spiffed?"

"Yeah, as in dressed to make you look good and presentable!" Shining grins, the unicorn not in his armor. They both sat in a sitting room, Red with a cup of coffee by him. Red tilts his head with a skeptical look.

"I have my armor shined and ready. May I wear that?"

Shining rolls his eyes, shaking his head.

"No, Red, ponies will not like that."

"But it is clean and in optimal condition for a time such as this. I would assume many would be simply delighted to see my hoofwork!" Red defends his position, frowning a bit as his eyebrows raise, his head getting close to the unicorn.

"Red, personal space." he puts up a hoof to Red's forehead, pushing him away. He growls, Shining bringing back his hoof with a terrified gesture of his ears pinning down.

"So what should I wear for my... 'party' apparel? I have nothing else other than my armor."

"That is where Fernando comes in. Fernando!" Shining calls out, and almost immediately, a griffin with a bow on his neck walks in with a wheeled rack full of spiffy clothing. However, peculiarly, Fernando gives a smile to Red, and immediately, he knew why, but he'd rather not go into that in his head.

Spiffy clothing included various suits, shirts, coats, ties, even some hats like fedoras with horn holes. Red looks on with an eyebrow raised.

"If only I could go in there without clothing." Shining's head snaps over to Red.

"Are you crazy?! These are nobles we are talking about her man! Ones in Canterlot, too! They'll judge you like never before." Shining puts his hooves on Red's shoulders, the alicorn's eyelids sliding halfway across his eyes in un-amusement at the hypocrisy just committed. He is then shook, quite violently actually.

"NOBLES, RED!"

"-Ah-yah-Ah-yah-Ah-yah-Ah-yah-Ah-yah-stop--Ah-yah-shaking-Ah-yah-me!"

"NOBLES."  Shining stops to essentially spit it into Red's face, to which the face receiving the spit spits back.

"STOP SHAKING ME!" Shining stops shaking Red, immediately putting his hooves back to his sides as the annoyed alicorn looks on disapprovingly.

"Continue." He says sternly.

"Alright... So all we need to do is find something that you can wear to a party that will make you look good and presentable." Shining gets up, taking a step back from an obviously pissed alicorn, to turn around and open up the wall of clothing, to reveal a suit. Curious, Red gets up as well and takes the hangar off the rung.

It was a nice, clean, actually shiny because of the expensive fabrics, suit. It was big, even for Shining's size, and it seemed that this was tailor made, in a span of two days?

"Was this made for me?" Red looks over to Shining. Shining shakes his head, waving his hoof in a way to just keep going and not ask questions.

Shrugging, the alicorn puts back the suit, going through the others, searching for the perfect combination while being advised by both Shining and Fernando.





An hour passes by

Oddly enough, a black fedora, suit and tie, and coat looked good on him, and he picked it at the end, much pleased by his formal look. 

"You look pretty good, sir." Fernando said in a rather deep accent, reminiscent of the southwest of the Griffin Territories. Red nods at him, feeling proud of himself as he paraded around, getting a cane too.

"And this shall be my replacement for my halberd." he twirls it in the air with a smug smile, stamping it down with a toothy grin.

But others, such as a very shiny and spectacular looking purple long coat and in general, a pimp like outfit really got the two laughing. Both got smacked by a ferocious Red with fire in his eyes.

Others looked good, but just not on Red. A dark yellow suit with black stripes going through this and a tie with a violet background and Moon knows what on there as decoration was ew'd out by all three.

Finally, as explained up there, they came to the conclusion that the black setup would be good for Red. They go off to do other preparations, trying to get ready in time for the Gala.







> Chapter 11 - The Beginning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was it.

Shining was in his armor, helping Red tidy up for the Gala. Today was the day, and right now, it is about a few minutes before Celestia reveals him as part of the introduction to this years Gala.  

Red was visibly shaking, looking on with a blank face, Nightmare Moon whispering in his head a plan of some sorts, but he pushed her away.

He never noticed how much power he had in his mind ever since he got off the drugs, maybe the drugs were to also lessen the control over his mind to make way for the soul shard to take over?

He swallows a ball of spit.

"Shining."

"Yeah?" Shining says as they both can hear talking outside their door, noble talk specifically, and the sounds of their shoes. Shining was currently working on his collar.

"Im... Unprepared and scared. I wish it was not like this." Red turns his head away. There were too many factors. Celestia announced there being a special time allocated for a 'special pony'. He shook, afraid of the social event.

"Dont worry, Red. Even if it does not work as planned, I bet some will still accept you." Shining gives an assuring face, but Red could tell it was fake. Even Shining had his doubts, and he is a confident stallion, more confident than Red could ever be in this situation. 

But he's not a thousand year old alicorn who would stick out like a sore thumb in some place like this. 

He slides his tongue across his teeth, feeling them sort of lightly jab at the tender muscle. It recedes back to its idle position. 

Shining was now looking Red over, for the third time, and unfortunately for Red, the wait has ended. Shining just adjusts Red's tie, tightening it  and making it harder for Red to swallow or breath.

"Too tight?" Shining notices his friends uncomfortable face, Red shallowly nodding. He loosens up the tie, giving Red somewhat of an ability to breath normally. It was tight enough to stay firmly on him, and loose enough not to kill him in the process.\

He is looked over quickly by Shining, before the unicorn smiles, nodding.

"You look spiffy!" he exclaims, patting Red on the neck to avoid touching the suit. His muscles became a wall which Shining's hoof made contact, much to his pleasant surprise, the unicorn smiling. 

Red looks at his silver cuffs, the moonlight going inside his room and reflecting off of them. He looks over to the nightstand in his room, floating over the fedora to put it on. It slides on, giving a classy look to Red.

"Alright, Im going to go clear the hallway, stay here." Shining walks to the door, opening it up and closing it.

He could hear Shining talking to the guards to clear the halls to make way for Red. 

Meanwhile, inside the dim room, Red finally begins to hear his master speaking. 

"So, you are nervous? About this, of all things? An embarassment." she spits out, Red physically hanging his head and walking around his room gloomily. 

"It'll never work, my dear, dear knight. It wont, nopony likes you or ever will. But this should help you. Afterall, without anypony to disturb you while you plan our righteous attack on Celestia, things will go swimmingly." she laughs in his head, her laughs echoing as her essence seems to come out in small puffs from his right ear.

The mist was cold and humid, making Red shiver as his face is that one of submission. To him, it was all true. He shakes his head slowly with a distant face of dejection. His mouth open, it was almost as if he was on something, unresponsive to the world around him, like an old pony trying to remember what he was going to say.

"Dont be sad, it'll be all over soon, and then maybe in months time, you will get me back again, and we will be rulers of this land, side by side." she caressed him in his head, with a hoof across his cheek. He blushes hotly, looking at his hooves only to see drops of blood in the darkness hitting a puddle.

His room becomes that of Celestia's room, night turns to day, Red's armor stand becomes Celestias bleeding dead body. The door warps into that of a splintered mess. His hooves turn to the metal hooves of power that he possess with his armor. He blinks, shaking as the hallucination all begins to collapse.

"Red?" Shining says to him in the real world, Red shaking his head, snapping out of the trance.

"You okay, buddy?" the guard captain asks, wrapping a leg barely around Red's neck. It was as if he was hanging off Red almost, but luckily for Red, that was not the case.

"Yes, I am alright, my friend. What is it that you want to talk to me about?" Shining points to the hallway, indicating it is cleared. A guard peeks in, bring his head back out slowly.

"Alright, Red, this is going to be a big moment. I just hope that everything goes right for you, because we both know that it would be better for you to get out of the walls of the palace and out there. There are many things that I want to show you and it would be better if the ponies around accept you, in a way. You know what I mean?" Red looks down at his friend as he talks, nodding shallowly. Shining just smiles, taking his leg and walking out.

Shining just stops, beckoning Red over with his head, continuing on. Red is hesitant to lift a hoof, but he does so anyway, and before he knows it, he is tailing Shining. 

Along the way, he notices two guards escorting them. One is Rose Melody, the other an orange pegasus. They walk in step, looking ahead as they approach the main area where Red will pop out when being introduced.

"You will be put in a room and escorted to the area so that when the time comes, you will be ready to walk out. Just act cool, dont talk, dont do anything before Celestia is done talking. Then you can go out and try to meet some ponies." Shining looks back at Red as he talks, turning his head towards the orange pegasus.

"I'll have Flash Sentry following you around and making sure you dont do something stupid. Rose Melody will also follow you but at a distance.   Just be careful with the nobles, they can be aggravating." Red nods to himself, Shining's head turning back to look ahead.

"Will I be able to go back to my room if I want?" Shining looks over his shoulder, the unicorn nodding. 

"Ofcourse. Just dont leave too early, try your hardest to get to know ponies. If you make friends with a noble, if that would even be possible, then you should be fine. Also, watch out for Prince Blueblood." Yet again, the unicorn turns his head, the back of his helmet looking back at Red. The alicorn raises an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"He usually has a clique of cronies surrounding him and if you ever get involved with him, there'll be trouble."

"He's the unicorn with the blond mane, blue eyes, compass rose for a cutiemark, white coat. Avoid him if you can." The quiet, subtle sound of talking and even the odd sound of laughing can be heard as they approach their destination. A bead of sweat goes down along Red's neck.

"Gotta give it to you on this one, you aren't shying away from this one. You were always the one who was not comfortable around ponies, weren't you?" Nightmare Moon sarcastically teased Red from inside his head, Red's face becoming one of concern as he sighs.

Rose looks over her shoulder to look at Red, but he catches her just in time, giving a nervous smile. She gives one of reassurance to him.

"Come on, Red. It'll be fine, I believe in you." Her cheerfulness washes over him, almost intoxicating him with it. He shakes his head as he continues to walk.

Within a minute, they stop at a door, Shining using his magic to peek in. By this time, the talking, clinking of glasses, and laughing could be heard just behind the wall. Somehow, the suit and tie seemed to have gotten tighter, and Red decides to take off the fedora, opening up a pocket dimension, to the surprise of Flash Sentry and Rose Melody, and putting it in there.

It floats in the infinite space, just within hoof reach. After he's done, it closes up. He looks at Shining just as he winks and turns his head towards Red.

"She's gonna call you up, Red. You ready?" Celestia's voice can be heard as everypony in the party hall go quiet. His focus shifts back to Shining's smiling face, who nods and peeks back out again.

"Just walk up there to Celestia and stay beside her. Stay quiet. Flash Sentry and Rose Melody will accompany you afterwards." Shining Armor reminds Red. 

Right there, Red Dusk knew something will fuck up. Or atleast might. He never knows exactly, but his gut was saying that Nightmare Moon was right, there will be no chance in the world that he will be able to save himself of the highly judgemental nobles. They dont see a pony, but rather a pony with some information they can gossip and manipulate to further themselves.

Hell, if he does make a friend with a noble, it'll probably be to manipulate him. As he thinks, Shining pats him.

"You're up." he looks at Red straight in the eyes. The alicorn gives a pleading face to Shining, but the unicorn just shakes his head, pointing his horn slightly in the direction outside the door. Even Celestia, who was peeking into the door was giving an encouraging smile. At this point, her voice was more defined in his hearing.

"He's a bit shy. Come on out." she says with a chuckle, few snickers coming from the crowd.

Finally, Red puts one hoof ahead the other, and then the other, and by then, he slowly walked past the door.

He comes into full view of the crowd, and the reaction, although relatively quiet, speaks volumes.

A glass is dropped, shattering on the floor.

Light gasps are heard.

Whispers are heard.

The clip-clops of hooves stepping back from Red Dusk are heard.

Scoffs and frowning, annoyed faces are seen amongst the crowd.

"See? I told you so." a familiar face is heard in the crowd, from one spoken of before. Prince Blueblood, who gave an evil smirk as he laughs quietly to himself. Red hangs his head abit low while Celestia keeps looking at him as he walks beside her.

"May I introduce to you, Red Dusk." Celestia says, bowing her head shallowly. No claps are heard, just angry stares.

"I thought he was dead." a female noble says, Celestia shaking her head.

"Far from it, I ... Dealt ... with him five hundred years ago and in a last ditch effort to stop him from caving in Canterlot, I encased him in crystal but forgot about him until a few days ago." Celestia explains, getting some feedback from the crowd.

"Your Majesty, may I say that that is the stupidest decision you have ever made?" a male says.

"Burn him instead."

"He is a murderer, thief and mentally ill monster. Why are you letting him roam free?"

Celestia looks around with a blank face, she expected it. But when she looks over at Red, his eyelids are halfway down, head hung down and ears pinned to his sides. This set off something in her, looking back across the crowd to see some nobles whispering and laughing.

She saw Twilight and her friends, who looked on with amazement. It was a cold, depressing display. She shifts her focus back to the crowd.

"I would rather you no---"

"Your Majesty, I told you this would fail. My comrade is right, he is a criminal, a monster. Why even bother try to reform him? He is obviously just shedding crocodile tears. Look at the ass." Prince Blueblood cut her off, many nobles snorting and laughing, mocking Red Dusk. 

Celestia looks over again to see a tear stream along Red's cheek. Her wing goes around his chest, bringing him close as her face twists into that of anger, looking at the crowd.

"ENOUGH!" her voice booms, and all talking stops. Very few ponies see an angry Celestia in their lifetimes, and when they do, it is almost out of character for her. Its surprising, yet hard hitting.

"I WILL NOT TOLERATE SUCH BIGOTRY AND BEHAVIOR FROM MY OWN SUBJECTS! Especially all of you! Nobles? You all are just a disgruntled rabble of entitled brats given everything in their lives." The crowd is hit again with her heated words.

"My patience runs thin and even I, of all ponies, do not know how I am even remotely patient with you all. But this? This is embarrassing. Look at him, he only wants a friend, maybe two. He's nervous, and you all thought he was just a stone cold killer? No! Far from it."

"But how exactly do you know that?" Blueblood walks away from the crowd. A sniffle is heard from Red and Celestia wraps her wing around him tighter. 

"I have evidence, case in point, he himself being here. It is true he deals with mental issues, but his actions were attributed to brainwashing. If I made you kill against your will and people mocked you for it, even if you didnt even mean to do so, would you be a happy camper? No, ofcourse not."

"But he has freewill, does he not?"

"His ability to have freewill was impaired, Blueblood. He was not in control of himself entirely. Many factors went into his inability to fully divert from his orders."

And then silence. It was awkward, the entire situation was. Celestia had said enough, maybe she should make an information pamphlet regarding this so ponies are not so confused. Within minutes, the crowd begins to distribute itself all over the room, and talking resumes, but many eyes keep watch on Red.

Blueblood especially, with his smug look on his face. Before Rarity comes up to him, talking. They both have a small conversation, walking away.

Meanwhile, Red Dusk shakes his head almost drunkenly. To Celestia, this was almost a crime, but it was expected.

"Aw, dont cry, Red Dusk. They are just bullies, and besides, they aren't like you." 

"Ofcourse, they have some dignity and pride, I do not." Red counters, snorting.

"Im nothing."

"Dont say that!" Celestia whispers to him, rolling her eyes.

"Look, I want this to work, but for this entire thing to work, what with reformation and all the other things, I need commitment from your side, particularly from here." She pokes the area in between his two front legs, indicating the heart.

"My...Heart?" 

"Yes, indeed. I hate to see a strong stallion such as yourself be whittled down by ponies like these. Now go on, try to salvage it." she prods him with a wing, his head looking at her with a begging face. Her magic just slides him forward. 

His step is awkward and unconfident as he goes into the crowd. The sound of armor can be heard as Flash comes up next to him.

"You okay?"

"Im fine, thank you." Red semi-sternly says as they walk into the crowd, ponies moving out of the way. Mocking remarks can be heard and he even feels jabbed by a cane. He looks around him, to see nopony with a cane.

"I told you!" Nightmare Moon cackles in his head, adding to his depressing situation. He looks side to side, before he just stops by a white unicorn with a monocle, moustache and suit. The unicorn is escorted by another, particularly tall female unicorn.

Both seem to be rather docile towards him, even seeming to look at him with awe as they notice him. He looks away, before the male speaks.

"You alright there?" Red slightly turns his head to peek at him, the unicorn tilting his head. 

"I...Uhm. Yes." The unicorn blinks as Red wheels around. He was a giant to this pony, and it showed how nervous the unicorn was. But his female escort actually seemed delighted to be face to face with him, oddly enough.

"So, you are Red Dusk, not some fake, correct?" the female speaks in a Prench accent, Red's wings fluttering.

"Aye." Red nods, the unicorn nodding shallowly for a minute.

"I am Fleur De Lis, I am a model. You might see me in the Playcolt magazine." She winks, a weird feeling of awkwardness washing over Red. Flash just snickers as the pony looks absolutely flustered at her statement. She, too, chuckles.

"Well, I am Fancy Pants, nice to be of acquaintance  Red Dusk." he outreaches his leg for Red to shake, which he does awkwardly by locking his hoof around Fancy's hoof and shaking.

"Why are you not scared of me?" Red asks, looking side to side. Some where looking at him, and he could see Twilight and Celestia observing him aswell. Their mouths were moving. Some where taking explicit interest in Red talking with Fancy.

"Because, Celestia's word is best, atleast I believe so. Fancy is scared but he's got a pair." Fleur says, Fancy's cheeks turning a bright hue of Red as both of the tall equines chuckle.

Flash Sentry was laughing it up behind Red, but Rose was looking on with a raised eyebrow, rolling her eyes. 

"So, what do you do as a model, exactly?"

"Take photograph shoots for Playcolt, they put it in a magazine or on a cover of a magazine, and stallions essentially have the obligation to drool over my fine body unless ofcourse, they are homosexual or asexual." she grins, Red just looking at her and shrugging.

"Interesting. What of you, Fancy Pants?" He looks at the small unicorn, who pulls back his collar with magic nervously.

"I run an electronics company, Fancy Electronics. We make computers and other electronic goods." Fancy smiles at this one while Fleur just rolls her eyes. The unicorn uses his magic to pull out a business card, handing it to Red, who reads it and opens up his pocket dimension once more, pushing it in there for the card to float in space like the fedora.

Unsurprisingly, the two unicorns and the nobles around them see this with surprised looks. 

"Both of your jobs are rather different, I guess, but why are you being escorted by a female?" Fleur just snorts while Fancy blushes, again.

"Yes, Fancy, please explain." Fleur De Lis teases.

Fancy sighs, "We are friends.".

"Typical." Red says with a blank face. His stomach, however, was unamused with his constant conversation, it seemed, the growl being heard by the two nobles.

"You seem hungry. The refreshments are over there." Fancy points to a table with some ponies there, with alcohol, punch, and some other refreshments on the table.

"If you desire to meet me, I live at Warsaw Avenue, 4560, Fifth floor." Fancy adds with a proud look on his face. Red just responds to this with a smile and shallow nod.

"Same street, different apartment. 4563, Sixth floor. Meet me." Fleur bats her eyelashes at a flustered Red, who just waves with a grin. They both wave with charming grins aswell, Red walking away.

"That was... Surprisingly easy." Red comments as they walk away, they being him and Flash Sentry. Flash nods in his peripheral vision.

"Yeah, Fancy Pants is really respective of Princess Celestia. Actually, I think the two are friends."

"I would not be surprised, he and Fleur seem rather nice. Now, about Fleur, she seemed to be getting a bit... Close..." Flash just snickers at this, a magical slap shutting him up.

"Stop snickering!"

"She wants you man, plain and simple. Wouldn't blame the ladies though, you got a good body. Stop for a minute." Flash asks Red, to which he comply's. The pegasus moves around Red, pointing at his legs.

"Toned legs almost carved out of stone."

He points at the neck. 

"Defined and muscular neck. Short and fine coat and forgive me if I say this, but rather 'cute' posture when in situations it seems." Red's ears pin to the sides of his head as he looks at Flash.

"I am not cute!" he growls, Flash just snickering.

"I was just joking. Mares like a strong, confident, yet emotional stallion such as yourself. You were actually shedding a few tears up there legitimately, right?" 

"Ofcourse, why would I lie? Now comeon, I---" he turns his head around to walk before being blocked by a fleshy and warm object. He looks down to see it is a grinning Applejack in a green dress. Red steps back, an eyebrow raised.

"Howdy there Dusk!"  

"Hiiii..." Red draws out the I a bit, referring to how awkward the situation was.

"You sure look hungry, I tell yah what. What about Ah lead you to my stand?" Her eyes sparkle with oppurtunity, and Red just looks at Flash. He just shrugs.

"Lead the way, Honesty." Red says unamused, only to feel his leg wrapped around by another leg. He tugs only to be tugged upon as Applejack drags Red over, sliding on his hind legs, towards the outside.

Quite frankly, he has this extremely confused face as he's dragged to the cart by a rather desperate looking apple farmer. 

He stops being dragged infront of a car loaded with goodies, ranging from apples, to apple friters, to apple cider and some sauce too. 

Her face behind the cart communicates desperation, as her eye twitches. He quickly looks back down at the goodies, a nervous need for speed in picking his poison for tonight, lest he be trampled by a crazy mare.

"I... Uhhmm... This thing." he points at the applefritter, and her desperate twitch evaporates off her face.

"An applefritter.

"And these two apples." Red points at a green apple and a dark red, rather juicy looking one.

"4 bits please." Applejacks face was full of smiles as Red pulled open his pocket dimension, pulling out a small bag of bits and counting four. He lays it on the counter for her to take, and he takes the two apples and the fritter.

"You okay, Applejack?" Red asks with an eyebrow raised, which she just shakes with a nervous grin.

"Ofcourse Ah am! Just fewer sales then I thought there would be." she mutters at the end, the alicorn shaking his head and biting into the apple fritter. 

"Mmmm..."

"This is... Nicely done." he says as he chews more, looking at an enthusiastic Applejack who just continues to grin almost madly.

As he finishes chewing, he nods at her, with no response back, and goes on his way. As he goes along a garden path, obviously with the eyes of nobles trained on him, he could see a somewhat distressed Rarity and Blueblood, who ofcourse notices him and seems to be looking for trouble.

He ofcourse begins to avoid him, but Prince gravitates towards the alicorn, before he's right up next to him, Rarity looking up and waving with a nervous grin.

"So? Big day, hm?" Blueblood teases to a Red with an un-amused face, which inside was readying a ball of spit.

"What do you want, Blueblood?" Red's head twitched to look at Rarity for half a second. The smug prince just smiles, looking over at Flash Sentry.

"You are a peasant, and even then, you are provided an escort. Pitiful times we live in, you should be hanged for your crimes."

"I doubt the gallows would support my weight."

"What was that, Red Dusk? Or should I say, Red Fu- GAH!" Blueblood's face is hit with a loogie the size of a griffins claw, a yelp erupting from Rarity as Blueblood's face stays still for a second.

"Did you just spit on me, you heathen?!"

"Aye. I go now." Red says with a smile, walking away from a fuming Blueblood who uses Rarity's dress as a hankerchief while she's looking away. 

She only notices the wet spot a minute later, yucking out over it and tagging along reluctantly with Blueblood.

Meanwhile, Red was in a hallway, which would ultimately lead to another entrance to the ball.

He grumbles as he eats an apple, grumbling mostly about Flash's little quip. Actually, Flash seemed to be nowhere near Red.

He looks around, an eyebrow raised. It was like losing a child yet far less dire. He shrugs, going on his way, considering Flash IS a responsible adult, right? He thinks to himself, chuckling.

He continues to walk down the hallway, coming up to a door that lead into the ball room, but there was something different.

There was this weird, fast paced music being played except for the classical music played before.

He looks at where the band used to be, only to see a Pinkie Pie jumping all over the place and another weird box that was emitting sound. 

Red could only watch, amused yet in awe of how much energy this little pony had. However, he was ignorant to the fact that Applejack entered the ballroom with a cake on a cart.

"Okay, all yah high class ponies! Heres a high~" the word coming after high was inaudible to him, just as he takes another bite of his apple. Crunchy, he thinks, "~apple cake for all your, hoity-toity taste buds.".

The tall cake wobbled on the cart, hypnotizing. A door opening and clicking shut could be heard behind him, as the couple, Rarity and Blueblood, come in behind Red.

"STAGE DIIVE!" is heard, but Red foolishly ignores it.

"Why hello, Miss Rarity." Red smiles to her. But her expression of distress does not change as she greets him back. In the background, a hard object falling down could be heard.

"Hello, Red Dusk." she says in a low, yet obviously angry voice. He just shrugs, his head turning around.

Just as both Blueblood and Rarity scream.

He looks up, only to see a cake flying towards him. His first thought seemed to be...

Is that the apple farmer's cake?

In an instant, his vision becomes a mixture of orange, green, some tiny bits of red and some white, all darkened. He groans, realizing his mistake for thinking so trivially, but there is no use crying over spilled milk, as Nightmare Moon always used to say to him, so his tongue goes to work.

He begins to back up, hearing Rarity growl around him as he waltzes around. 

"You sir, are the most uncharming prince I have ever met! Because the only thing royal about you is that you are a ROYAL PAIN!" she screams, Red's tongue clearing the area which it could reach on his face. His magic does the work on the eyes.

"E-Ewww! Stay back! I just had myself groomed!" his eyes are given vision back, just as he backs up into a pillar by a statue and sees the Prince cowering against the door, clean. However, Rarity is filthy, covered in rather delicious icing and cake. 

"Afraid to get DIRTY?!" she yells, shaking her self off of the icing and making a weird sound while she is at it. Blueblood, however, tries to get away from her, only slipping away from the door and failing at stopping himself from running backwards on his two hind legs towards... The statue of Celestia.

He falls down hard on it, and somehow, manages to make the foundation crack and begin falling. Red's eyes widen, before a flash of cyan goes under the statue, lifting it up. It was Rainbow Dash!

"YES!" she cheers, and Red feels the need to cheer aswell, such an achievement for the litt-

"Whoa... Whoahoaha!" the pegasus struggles to balance the statue on her back. As she does this, 'Celestia' 's tail hits one of the pillars.

And they all begin to fall down, all to end at Red's pillar. 

A reflex goes off in Red's mind as the muscles in his legs tense up and he speeds off by some nobles, the sound of his pillar falling over aswell behind him, getting away from there. Some nobles look at him, and where he was, and where he is now. 

From there, he saw the absolute pile of destruction around a quite relieved, yet embarrassed Rainbow Dash, the statue laying in parts around her. A hallucination flashes through his mind, the alicorn shaking his head to push it away. 

He also notices Celestia and Twilight come in from the door Applejack used to get inside, both shocked at the destruction brought upon the party. He see's Twilight's lips moving, and for a second, everything is quiet, save for a piece of stone falling down the pile of rubble.

Ofcourse, Red did think, how could this get any worse? Its now been proven how absolutely fragile the interior foundations for objects like statues and other things were and he got caked in, well, cake, and almost crushed.

So, how could things get any worse, Red thought as he stood by a particular, golden looking door that lead to the gardens outside.

Things could get much, much worse.

A low rumble is heard behind Red. Everyone's heads snap towards him and the door. Red looks at the door, quickly putting his right ear to it.

It sounded like a bunch of birds, monkeys, and other animals.

"What the--"

The door swings open, slapping Red's entire body and launching him a few feet infront of the door. He stirs, lifting his head up to look at the door...

Only to hear the words: "You're...going to LOVE ME!"

As well as get trampled by kangaroos, masses of bunnies, a few cats, even a deer? 

The sounds of nobles screaming is the first thing that comes back to Red's returning hearing after nearly blacking out from a deer hoof hitting him in the face. He puts up a hoof to his face, only to see dark blood on it and feel swelling. He shakes his head groggily, only to feel magic take over the upper half of his body and drag him. 

He looks up to see a blurry Rose Melody straining to pull him using magic. 

"Oof! Your heavy!" 

"Rose Me-l-l-l--"

"Melody! We're getting outta here, big guy!"

And at the moment, a noble running by while looking behind him hits Red, hard, in the face with a hoof, only, he was wearing steel horsehoes for some reason.

Ofcourse, he noticed this a second before it hit him and caused him to black out.




> Chapter 12 - First Flight.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Red Dusk walks slowly down a hallway, the light of the morning illuminating his path from the windows. 

His eye was swollen shut, and it had been such a long time since he felt the pain of a hoof doing a good hit against his head. He had an icepack, as issued to him by the infirmary, against his eye, which was colored black and various hues of purple.

He was looking for Celestia, to get a rundown on events from her considering he blacked out at the end of the party. If only it weren't for that one pony who smashed part of his skull in with a hoof clad in a steel horseshoe, he would not be dealing with the pain and having blacked out like a bitch.

He rolls his good eye around, disappointed with himself, but he reminds himself that his body's heightened ability to regenerate blood vessels will probably deal with the swelling fully within a week, including the bruising.

He turns a corner, seeing a maid walk by. She did not turn her head, but instead flashed a look at him, a concerned one as she passes by.

He continues down the corridor before arriving at a door that he knew lead directly into Celestia's study. He sniffs, not like normal due to swelling of his muzzle aswell, the space between the two doors that went into the room.

He could smell her in there, with a subtle smell of the pulp used to make paper, aswell as ink. He knocks with a hoof, fixing himself a forced smile.

"Come in." A reply is heard from inside. Red's horn glows as the doors open, walking himself inside, to see a Celestia on the cushion infront of her desk. A computer was on the desk aswell, but mainly, there were many papers and rolled up letters around her.

She smiles at Red as she nods to another cushion, the cushion in question rolling over to a place next to Celestia and the alicorn sitting down.

"Good morning." Red greets her, his good eye not really showing much emotional expression. Celestia's horn goes aglow, taking the icepack away from Red's lax grasp on it with his magic and takes a look under. She cringes as it goes back.

"You got trampled really, really badly. But they said your skull took the ponies hoof remarkably well, which I am thankful for. No need for a dead alicorn, right?" she says, a delay before she gives a nervous grin to an un-amused Red.

"I guess so. Did anything happen while I was out?" Red could see a magazine shuffle around behind Celestia, his good eyebrow raising in question.

"The press works fast. They labelled me as suicidal and you a primitive minded, blood thirsty murderer out for blood--- Its just weird." Red looks at the magazine, flipping through the pages, almost the entire booklet dedicated to him.

"They even got photographers on the grounds at two in the morning to get pictures of you." Red shakes his head, tilting it as he hears her say it. She nods.

"Why do they need... 'pictures'?"

"Their readers 'read' pictures and their little snippets of information, stopping at the tree's before the forest, for they dont look into the circumstances that form the basis of my decision. Its sensationalism, and its twisted." 

"Think about it, you were semi conscious in a crystal for five hundred years. I think you've had a long time to think over your life choices, right?" she asks Red, the alicorn shallowly nodding but generally unresponsive.

"They even took a photograph of your little scene up there with me, calling it an attempt at emotional control over us." Celestia says in a disgusted voice, like she had dealt with this before, which she has. However, Red chuckles inside, trying his best not to chuckle on the outside.

It was false. He had made the last minute plan to get ponies to be sympathetic to him and treat him all the nicer, and it worked. Even Celestia was fooled by it, which was surprising. But he could only guess that Blueblood and a few ponies saw through his blatant lie, which wore off after a few minutes walking around the party.

In the circumstances he was in, he would have done nothing, may have hurt somebody, but for this occasion, he knew that he needed all he could get in the way of a normal pony's heart and mind to further his goals, or rather his master's goals. 

Meanwhile, Celestia blankly looks at Red with a tired face. She had been up to help deal with the covert photographer, who had been apprehended with a couple of photos of the scene in the ballroom and even a picture of Red on the infirmary bed. It was quite disturbing what the media was doing and even more disturbing about how quickly they responded and printed. 

She looked at the magazine, looking it over. It did look like half-ass by the editor: Minor spelling errors, paragraphs were slightly ontop of the pictures. Clearly, the magazine printers panicked when they got wind of this. 

She throws the magazine behind her into a trash can, done with it. She intently looks at Red, who was looking all over the place. It was odd seeing him in this condition, he always seemed invincible. 

Ofcourse he wasnt. She had fought him multiple occasions before. Well, rarely did she actually actively fight, it was more him who actively tried to get her. Ofcourse, she was never usually burdened with heavy armor like he was.

On some of those occasions, she did score some hits on him. One time she did burn him on the leg with a beam of magic after he got too close. Some droplets of blood were shed, but overall, he took it like a champ.

Red Dusk sighs, a hoof coming up to rub his eye, yawning. He did not seem too interested in conversation now, oddly. He gave a glance at her for a second, before shaking his head, his lips moving as if he were talking.

Celestia's eyebrow raises, a hoof rising to poke Red on his shoulder.

"Hm?"

"Why did you look at me and than shake your head? Is there something wrong? Ofcourse apart from your eye." she asks, the stallion shaking his head with a blank face.

"No. Infact, Im going to go have a flight." To this, a magical force halts Red's right leg from moving, Celestia's horn alight.

"Your eye is swollen shut, you have no depth perception." she looks at him with a concerned face, but he rolls his eyes, groaning.

"Im pretty sure I can fly optimally, thank you." Red's muscle overpower's Celestia's magical grasp as he makes a hard tug at the force, getting up and shaking his coat to fluffle it up.

The stallion walks over to the door, looking over at Celestia one more time before opening the door and walking out. It clicks shut, and Celestia is left alone, thinking of what to do. 

She herself gets up, opening the door a crack, just to see Red's rear end turning a corner. She thinks for a second, before slipping out of the room.

He was going to the tower, and she shall follow. 





Red Dusk stood on the tower, looking around as his wings flutter at his sides, aching to finally begin pumping after centuries of stasis.

The sky was dotted with clouds, which seemed to be moving slowly across the sky. There was a slight, chilly breeze every now and again, but overall, the temperature was rather well, albeit on the cold side.

He walks to the edge, looking down. It was a long drop, just from the tower, the tallest of all the structures the palace had. But it was no problem, for Red ofcourse. 

He proudly smiles to himself, his wings stretching.

He groans as the bones in his wings make popping and cracking noises. He twists his neck both ways, aswell as twisting his body to include the spine. 

The feeling was simply delightful, the alicorn half smiling, until a painful one makes him yelp.

"Oof! That... Ow." he remarks, shuddering as he straightens up. He looks over the edge again, fully stretched. His wings were constantly moving at his sides, eager. 

He climbs ontop of the rails with his forelegs, his hind legs getting into position as he does a final check of his surroundings. No other pegasi or general obstructions were in sight or in his launchpath, so he was good to go.

His hind legs kick back to launch him forward in concert with his forelegs, pushing him down and into the air.

His wings were fully outstretched, lifting him up while flapping.

His body was flowing with adrenaline as it flew through the air, quickly going over the city of Canterlot. He pitches up to stop himself, allowing himself to hover in the air while looking around. 

The city streets had a few people walking through, the market places and plazas empty and devoid of vendor stands, atleast not yet. The orange tiled roofs of all the buildings was rather nice to look at, and now that he thought of the roofs, he goes to try and find Rose Melody's apartment building. 

He slowly flies around, his head on a swivel. He scans along the rows of tall buildings, before happening across the lightly colored apartment building that was Rose Melody's. 

He sees her, or at least what he thinks is her, apartment windows on the fifth floor that are looking out onto the street. They were covered with curtains, and it looked somewhat dark inside. 

The stallion rubs his chin with a hoof, slowly descending down to the street and looking up and down it. Barely anypony was on the street, and those who were stopped in their tracks, looking up at him as he descends.

Trees lined the street on the sidewalks, while the sides of the street itself were made up of the front of buildings. Various supporting blocks, stairs, and other things made the walls look rather irregular.

There were trashcans between some of the trees, parked carts, wires hanging between buildings, some even with clothing hanging off of them. The wind blew through the streets, leaves gliding through the wind as Red puts a hoof  infront of the other, walking to the apartment building.

He opens the glass door, being blasted with the heat of the building. It was spring, so there were chills, ofcourse, like today. He ascends the stairs, his hooves' sounds being amplified in the form of echoes. 

After a while, much to his annoyance, Red arrives at the room he thought was Rose's. Looking around, he knocks on her door, looking at her welcome mat to pass the time.

He hears muffled hoofsteps inside the room and a feminine voice, which was that of Rose Melody's!

"Coming!" the muffled hoofsteps get closer, before the door opens to reveal a smiling and socked Rose. Her smile falls as she see's Red.

"Oh... Hi Red."

"Greetings Rose!" Red, however, is rather enthusiastic, and does something he usually never does: he picks up Rose with his magic, bringing her up to him to hug her with a smile. Ofcourse, she squeals as he does this, squirming in his grasp.

"I bid thee a good morning!" he goes old Equestrian for a second, a goofy smile still on his face. Rose just goes along with it, hugging him aswell while rolling her eyes. She slips off after Red lets her go, looking up at him.

"What brings you here? I would think that without depth perception, you wouldnt be allowed out by Cele---"

"Nonsense, my friend. I am a responsible adult, I can hold my-"

"Meow!"

Both heads snap to look at an orange tabby cat, who looked up at Red with green eyes. The feline meows again, rubbing her body against Rose's legs as Rose just giggles.

"Aw, hi there, Lily!" she picks up the cat with her magic and brings the cat up to her face. 

"Meow!" 

"Meow meow to you too, little kitty. Look, I have a new friend." she points with a hoof, Lily looking at Red as pointed out by her master, "His name is Red.". The feline meows again to a weird-ed out Red, the cat floating towards Red, who takes her up in his magic. 

His hoof goes up to feel the soft fur of the cat, who purrs during a small belly rub. He nods, floating it back over to Rose.

"So, do you want to come in?" Red nods, and Rose takes a side step to allow him to walk in. 

His head gently coasts around as he appreciates the simple beauty of the apartment.

The apartment was cozy, with a shelf sitting behind a couch and coffee table with various decorations, alot of them eastern Dragonese kind of decorations, strewn about the entire apartment: on the shelves, on the table, even in the kitchen which was close by. 

There was a small hallway that had two differing ways, one to a bathroom and one to a bedroom. It was somewhat dark inside, but it was dimly lit with candles that smelled rather nice. He could see a desk in the living room with a computer on it, emitting the sounds of a fan working with a browser on the screen.

Unfortunately with Red, he had to slightly bow his head down: His horn would touch the ceiling in an uncomfortable way if he did not bow down.

"You have a small place, if I do say so myself." Rose only laughs nervously, the alicorn rolling his eyes. He walks up to the computer, looking squarely at it, the browser on a site called "MBRP" and with alot of text on a white background, each being headed by a different name, in different colors.

"Yeah, hehe... But its a home." Rose chuckles nervously alittle more, rubbing her mane with an embarrassed grin. 

"Want some dandelion tea? Its on the stove." she points over to the kitchen, the alicorn nodding as he goes forward with Rose in tow. 

She quickly walks forward on tipped hooves, flicking on the light switch for the kitchen, the place illuminated by bright light to better expose a teapot on the stove. A blue flame heated its underside and a slight stream of steam comes out the spout, indicating the tea is boiling.

As Rose does her thing, that ofcourse being getting some mugs and dealing with the teapot, Red looks around the kitchen, groaning to himself inside. He takes a knife out of the cutting block, the alicorn rolling his eyes.

"You should sharpen your knives better, Rose Melody." the unicorn looks over at the back of Red Dusk's head, to see him inspecting her array of knives. She only blushes, looking to the side.

"I do not use them much and I havent sharpened them since a few months ago." she looks back to what she was doing, pouring tea into a cup and floating it over to Red. He grabs it with his magic, taking a sip. His eyebrows bounce up, the tea had some kick in the flavor department, being very sweet.

"You should anyway, should the need arise. If you want, I shall sharpen them for you. However, onto more important matters, are you doing something right now?" Rose only chuckles, sipping on her tea.

"Finally having a rest after a long week, playing videogames, but right now, roleplaying." Red's eyebrow rises, the unicorn grinning.

"Roleplaying?"

"Yeah, as in... For example, you act like a swordspony and I act as an archerpony, basically acting like somepony else or yourself in a fictional world." Rose explains, taking yet another sip of her tea.

"Sooo... You are doing this by yourself?" 

"What? No! Im doing it on the computer, Message Board RolePlay." she points over to the living room computer, Red shaking his head. 

"Interesting. I have heard of something called a 'console' and a 'TV' from Shining Armor. Do you possess both of those things?" Rose nods as she walks out of the kitchen area to the shelf with what looks like the 'TV'.

It was black, boxy, and bulky, with a rounded screen. It took the centerpiece of the entire 'shelf' that had, ofcourse, Dragonese decorations all around it. Or atleast some of it was. Some were figures of these weird looking ponies, some with blonde, spiky hair, and even a masquerade mask on one of the shelves. 

He looks down, to see a box that had glowing numbers on the front of it. Small doors to the sides of the shelf carried small boxes that seemed to be able to be opened, aswell as small cartridges, some small and black and others large, rounded and grey, stacked infront.

Looking down at two shelves, he could see two more boxes, one with a slope and a bunch of ridges as it went down, aswell as rectangular holes on a raised portion. Two things with sticks coming out of them with a red button on top of the sticks were resting near this object, their wire coiled up.

The other was alot more rounded, with a hill like shape jutting from the top of it with a hopper and two trapdoors, including the obvious ports. However, the controllers were much different, it seemed. The controllers are large cubes that are meant to be set down on a lap or table and the things on them, buttons and joysticks, to be utilized using hooves. He picks one up, and feels some weight to it, to help keep it on the table, probably, if his hypothesis was correct ofcourse.

"So. These two things."

"They are consoles. The Matawi 6200 and the Manetendo 64, the Matawi was given to me by Shining Armor, and I love it." she grins cheerfully, taking up one of the Matawi controllers.

"Want to play?" Red takes it up, playing with the joystick. Interesting, he thinks to himself. He looks out the windows, to see people walking down the street, drawing his head back to look at a smiling Rose.

"I've got all day Red... Its the weekend."

He looks back at the controller, than his friend.

"Lets do it."




> Chapter 13 - The Dark Quarter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Night loomed over the horizon, as the sun's rays lost their grip on the land, giving way to darkness.

Canterlot as a city still stirred into the night, vendors in the winding alleys of the city still open, inside of their little boxes in the walls and holes to the outside world. 

Carts went down and up the roads and there was the occasional guard or guard patrol. Atleast, this is what a rather concerned Celestia saw from the palace into a few of the many winding streets of her city.

Luna stood by her, her hair having begun to slightly darken and flow since the last time Red saw her. Ofcourse, this process was going to be slow, for Luna to be back to her old appearances.

But her general confidence almost had a correlation with her appearance and her personality will reveal itself in the coming months. 

Celestia looks back at the city as more street lamps flicker on. Both watch.

"Sister, doth thou think Red Dusk... despises Us for Our actions? Having manipulated him?" Celestia looks over with a concerned look, a rather nervous Luna who slightly shy's away from her glare.

"No, Luna. Infact, I bet he is more than happy to be with you once more. Just... Be careful with him." Her younger sister nods, Celestia turning back around to face the city once more. A sigh is heard from behind her.

"Art thou sure?" Luna asks.

"I have never been so sure, Luna. Look at it this way, he would die to see you live with his final dying breaths. I know it." Celestia looks down at her sister with a smile, Luna looking to the side.

"But, after all We have put him through..."

"He idolizes you Luna. Besides, what is there to worry? I do have my doubts about him backstabbing me, especially not you. I mean, why would he? He has no achievable goal, he's just one pony!" Celestia chuckles, her magic stretching over to Luna's mane to stroke it. Luna was not so sure, however, and backed away.

"Stop worrying, Luna. Infact... I see him. Over there." Celestia says with a smile, pointing towards a black spot in the sky. Luna wanted to say something before Red would get there, but it would probably make things worse, she thought.

As she looks around for the speck, she sees a star get covered, only for her night vision to kick in as her eyes wandered far from the lights of the city.

From the battlements of the palace, however, Red's distance from them still made his form just look like a speck, with slight form. He flew fast towards the observation tower, only to seem to crash inside it.

Celestia and Luna gasp, only to see his form pop out from behind the railing and his head look around. His head stops as he locks eyes with them, before walking into the tower.

"Doth thou think he is okay, Sister?"

"He's definitely okay. Lets go see him, shall we little sister?"

Luna squinted as she rubbed the back of her neck. She's nervous, but she has not seen him in days, maybe it would be a good idea to set up better relations with him other than being his idol who he barely sees?

She says nothing, pumping her wings as she glides past Celestia, who follows slightly behind. 

They both land on the balcony of the tower, having flown over many of the small buildings within the walls of the expansive palace. Nothing was ajar or out of place, except the door into the tower inside having been opened and left so. 

There is a slight light coming from the stairwells magical lanterns, but the one inside of the tower was not on, strangely.

Celestia leads the way down the stairway, and as they near the bottom, talking could be heard, echoing from down below. It was Red's voice and Shining Armor's voice, and the two princesses see it fit to stop walking and listen in.

"We played on the 'Matawi 6200'. It was a pleasurable experience."

"Yeah, I guess it was for you. Pretty colors, but the 64?"

"It was more than satisfactory in the department of... 'fun'. However, I did prefer 'roleplaying'. I had nearly no bounds, but Rose kept yelling at me for having an 'OP' character." Shining only snickered, with Red hesitantly doing so likewise, with nearly timed chuckles, one second apart from eachother.

The Princesses just look at eachother, Celestia shrugging. They continue to listen.

"What does 'OP' exactly mean, Shining Armor?"

"Overpowered."

"She could have said just that."

"Well thats why there are such things as acronyms Red. Why bother wasting oxygen on saying the whole word when you can just say O P?" For a second, the stair way is silent, before a clop is heard.

"I see your point, friend. But I still think it to be very unproductive for you to say it if the one with who you speak with is not with the knowledge of such a thing."

"Why did she not tell you of this?" There was yet again some silence, before Shining gave a hum of approval.

"I see. Well then, wanna be useful?"

"I would love to be. However, one question, why are you not at home resting like our aforementioned Rose Melody?" 

"'Cause Im the captain of the guard and I volunteered to take this weekend, because usually, after big media things like this revolving around something in the palace or the Princess's, there is fallout, and sometimes there are crazy ponies out there who want to get over in here. Its weird, but true."

"My only option is to agree with that statement. Now, what shall we do?"

"I was thinking of showing you---" Shining's and Red's voices become quieter and fainter as they presumably walk down a hallway. Their clip clops were layered behind their voices at the start of their little journey.

The two princesses come out from the staircase, looking around. The little entrance to the stairway was open, into the hallway from its little square spot dug into the side of the hallway. Ofcourse, there was a picture, a picture of the great city of Cloudsdale in this space, which was rather fitting.

Both sisters look at eachother, nodding as they follow the boys, or atleast predict where they are. They go down the hallway they presume the two went down. 

But the two go down winding hallways and differing paths where they find anyone else but the captain or the burgundy alicorn. They both grow weary as time goes on, their search having nearly no purpose other than for a talk with the alicorn.

Finally, they stop. Celestia sighs, rubbing her eyes, a tired sun princess is a mad sun princess, and to do away with that, Luna sends Celestia back to her room with hoof motions, primarily that of the shoo variety, which was surprisingly well received.

Celestia obliged, yawning as she walked to where she knew her room was in a groggy, almost zombie like way with a tiny bit of form that was lost in the general, drunken swaying of her legs. Luna only rolled her eyes, moving deeper into the palace.

Primarily, Luna went deeper into the darker hallways of the palace, the place where her new night guard division was to go. However, she was going her to find Shining and Red since she remembers Shining showing her the barracks room in the dark, older part of the castle. She liked this area, an area of near perpetual darkness.

She entered the void, going down one of three hallways. Her hooves transfered from carpet to straight marble, each hoof making much sound. She could hear whispering, and she could see eyes looking at her in the darkness.

Her horn made a very dim glow that only outlined the form of it, providing a measure of infrared light for her to see. By this time, her vision was a mixture of cool grays and the barely made forms of ponies in black, indicating heat. They danced in the shadows, and they looked at her with glee.

She only smiled, calling to her subjects.

"Good evening, Subjects."

"Good evening, Your Majesty." they all called in unison, music to her ears. This was how subjects were suppposed to act, in her explicit opinion... But Red was a special one. 

She continued to walk through the hallway, eyes still following her from the doors of rooms. There were some rooms with dim candle lights in them, which she noticed due to the temperature of the candles showing up in Luna's temporarily modified vision. 

She continued to walk the barren hallways, still certain she would find Red Dusk around here. Shining would have definitely  sent him here, its a big possibility, considering that Shining would think that Red would feel right at home here. '

Luna chuckled to herself, her chuckles echoing through the solid hallways. Ofcourse he would, she thought, its a place of camaraderie between those of the night essentially, only thing that one can complain about here is the fact that without night vision, its very inconvenient to walk around here and that its in such an old part of the palace.

She looks to the walls which are covered, top to bottom, in various engravings, telling of stories, etc. One small one seemed to glorify Nightmare Moon, which was rather saddening, but minor. She saw it before, no biggy.

She continued to walk down the empty hallway, taking a left corner. Her hooves were still loud, but seemed to get loader and doubled? She realizes this, stopping in her tracks and looking behind her.

Nothing. She shudders, suspicious. She continues to walk, but faster, and even then, she could hear someone else's hoofsteps almost in step with her's. 

She stops, looking behind her with a frowning face,ready to give them a piece of her mind, to see a figure at the end of the hallway. To her infrared vision, it was a vague silhouette of a pony, a big one.

It was not until the pony seemed to walk forward, diagonally from her. She backed up.

"Red Dusk, reveal yourself!"

The figure did not say anything, but did stop and look at her. It changed direction, and walked towards her. 

She backed up more, her ears falling to the sides of her head. 

The figure suddenly began to gallop, an axe very similar to Red's materialized from behind him. She screamed, her entire body wheeling around immediately on the slippery marble floor. Her hooves uselessly slip on the smooth marble as she...

...Crashes into a pony, a big one who barely moves or recoils. She jumps back, looking up to see its Red, with his black eye covered with a bandage, looking down with a shocked expression.

"Your Excellency, are yo---"

"Aye, tis Us in the flesh..."

"I was going to ask you if you were okay." Red's face showed genuine concern, Luna nodding with a sheepish grin. She could see a Thestral poking his head out in his armor. He was going on Night Patrol.

She shakes her head at him and he goes off, looking at Luna as he rounds the corner before disappearing.

"Ofcourse We are intact. We just... Saw thou following Us?" Luna looks behind her, seeing noone. Nothing at all. She looks back at him with a frown and a furrowed eyebrow.

"Art thou responsible for the scare We have just experienced?" Red blinks, shaking his head. 

"I would never do such a thing! How dare you think me so low to try to scare you in such a way, what did you see?" Red asked worriedly, looking around. There were still eyes watching them, as Red could see by the little forms of black in the doorways. 

Luna was still skeptical, since she should never let her guard down, lest the one she speaks to may have been infected with the idea of 'pranking' your leader.

"We saw thee. An ethereal duplicate, We assume." Luna responded, the stallion rubbing his mane and ruffling it up. However, Luna does notice he seems to look a bit nervous, but she chooses to ignore it. Its maybe that he thinks he'll be considered guilty anyway?

"Oh... I guess you are having a hallucination for whatever reason?" he suggests, shrugging. He grins sheepishly, looking to the side. Luna looked at him for a few more seconds, before rolling her eyes and shaking her head with a hum. 

"We guess it would be better to assume it is nothing more than a hallucination. The question is, why?" Red still shrugs.

"I would never know."

"Anyway, why are you here, Your Maje---"

"Call Us Luna." Red's head recoils and Luna just brings it back to its normal position. She chuckles at his flustered face.

"L-Luna? Is that not a bit personal?"

"Red Dusk, We are 'friends', are we not?"

"I...suppose so?"

"Then call us, Luna." she says with an breath out from her nose. Red only nods, accepting it reluctantly.

"Why are you here, Luna" he drags the L a bit, much to her annoyance and to his embarrassment. 

"We have come to find thee, and converse with thou... To be more like what 'friends' are." 

"I believe we already are friends in the fullest sense of the word but in a different way, Your Ma--- Luna. What more could we improve?"

"We barely talk and We barely do anything with thou." Luna motions her hoof in a circular motion indicating 'other things.'

"Fair point. But there is nothing we can do on a regular basis that is... friend like?" Red asks bluntly, the princess looking away to think.

She just shrugs seconds later. 

"We do not know what to do. Who applyith thine bandage for thee?" Luna points up to it, the stallion touching it.

"One of the Night Guards. She said I would look better with this on. I protested against it since it seemed wholly unnecessary." Red sighs, rolling his other eye.

"But its on now. Why take it off, its not doing anything wrong."

"Thine appearance has been improved, however. We would rather look at Our subject without an obnoxious purple bulge on his face." she says with a smile. The stallion blushes, Luna giving a small chuckle.

"I assume so. Now, I am ready to go to sleep. I only came with Shining because I did not want to seem rude." Red turns around, quick to trot away, but Luna was not having it.

"Stop right there." he stops in his tracks and walks back.

"Thou art going to do something with me as a 'friend'. We believe it would be suitable that we both go and fly in the night sky as 'friends'."

"Your Majesty, I have no depth perception!" he protested, Luna shaking her head.

"Tis' Luna and We know you can fly perfectly well considering We saw you flying over to the tower."

"I stumbled because I could not gauge the distance I had from my position in the air to the balcony!"

"Was thine body hurt to a major extent?"

"N-no?" Red rubs his leg as he sweats profusely. He almost got into a verbal tango with Princess Luna and he was not too happy about it, neither was his body, some hairs in his mane standing on end.

"Good. Now come along, dear Subject!" Luna's face instantly turns from skeptical bordering on smug to full on smiles, which, ofcourse, did not effectively compute with Red. Such rapid transitions were mystifying, almost cartoonish. 

The Lunar Alicorn just wheels around, triumphantly marching away from Red as she made her point or rather just ended it after a rather simple question. 

Dusk sighs, trudging along behind Luna, who looks back.

"Stop dragging thine hooves on the marble! We mustn't wait!" she calls out, going faster as Red reluctantly goes after her, both Red's and Luna's hooves' sounds, both different, echoed through the halls.

However, as Luna goes through the exit, Red sticks near it, looking behind him.

A laugh sound as in done in the throat of the one it was coming from could be heard, echoing. It was feminine, and it was familiar.

Red blinks, turning back around to go into the light.
> Chapter 14 - The Two Observers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two forms danced in the sky, silhouettes against the bright, yet not entirely full, lime light that was the Moon.

To the ground, one would just see these silhouettes simply as small black flashes against the creme-like white of the crescent Moon.

If one looked from the mountain face, they could see both the sky plus Moon, Canterlot, the Palace, and quite a ways west. 

To that, two smaller forms flap their way onto a small jutting out platform that barely stuck out of the rocky mountain face. Both of them wore helmets and armor of the nightguard, one pair of eyes a glowing, golden amber and the other a brilliant green.

"Velvet, you do know that we're supposed to be on patrol, right?" a male voice from one of them is heard, a feminine scoff responding.

"Pssh, you worry too much, Winston. This is how I do my thing." 'Velvet' says, laying herself down on the small platform. However, her partner still hovered by her, which brings her attention.

"Comeon, Winston." Winston rolls his eyes as he reluctantly lays his haunches on the platform, the tips of his metal clad hooves over the edge. Velvet takes off her helmet, laying back to enjoy the night and cool breeze. 

"I've always wondered why you're called a Griffon's name."

"My sort-of-reluctant-stepfather was a Griffon and by the time he and my mother got married, my mother was pregnant from her ex-boyfriend." Velvet nods, a hoof going out to pat Winston on the underside of his barrel with the topside of her hoof. He puts both of his forehooves there, that being a vulnerable place and his reflex's acting out on instinct.

"Not the best story for somepony I guess, was your stepfather nice?" Her leathery wings fluttered on her back, one of them jutting out from behind her to reach in a small bag to take out a chrome flask with liquid swishing inside.

"No, not exactly. Sometimes he was, but he was just a dick many times. He began beating my mother by the time I was ten after he lost his job  in the factory." he finally takes off his helmet, looking out to the side which Velvet took the time to take a small sip of what was inside the flask, her favorite drink, whiskey. 

"He drank quite a bit, but my mom knew what to do a year later. We left, and when I turned fourteen, I left the house and enlisted. Im eighteen now." He sighs, looking for a second back to Velvet, thinking for a minute before looking back and tapping her in the shoulder. She rounds her head over, to see him and then smile.

"Ofcourse, I'll spare you a sip, Winston." Velvet chirped charmingly. Quite ironic, her partner was just talking about an alcoholic father and she herself is a bit of an alcoholic with an iron liver. But Velvet could say there is being a bad alcoholic and a good alcoholic, and she leans good...ish.

Winston gingerly took the flask, tilting it up slightly to let some whiskey in. His head dips as the liquid flowed down his throat and the alcohol made him feel warm inside. 

"I always wonder why you keep such a powerful drink in your bag while you patrol. Why not something light?" Velvet looks at him with a raised eyebrow, Winston registering her answer a few seconds later and silently turning his head back to look infront of him. Velvet just snorts. Her answer was 'Seriously? You know me, Winston.'.

Velvet  Eclipse is a 22 year old First Sergeant who made up part of the Air Patrol route that combed the mountain of Canterlot, with Corporal Winston by her side to be her wingpony. But since it was a route that was not known to have many strange or bad things happening along it, Velvet and Winston, Velvet mostly, relax as they do it. 

Generally, both were almost opposite in personality. Winston is somewhat calm, neurotic, and organized, plus he was not an alcoholic, while Velvet is relaxed, somewhat disorganized, a 'semi' alcoholic, experienced, and a First Sergeant.

Velvet looks up into the sky, yawning before seeing the specks flying about, one in particular large and noticeable. 

The smaller one seemed to come to a hover, before continuing on its way. The bigger one's flying was decent, but it was obvious something was wrong with him.

They seemed to always pitch up to late before they went through a cloud and ends up getting wet, and considering alicorns have pegasi magic within them, might have a slight pain on their faces as they crash through something which to them, is somewhat solid.

"The bigger one is flying around like a drunk." Winston says as he gives Velvet back her silver flask, which with a wing, goes back into the bag. 

"Its Red Dusk. His eye is out of action for a week or so. That may be Princess Luna." Velvet points at the smaller one, who slowly follows the bigger one onto a cloud. 

"How do you know?" Winston looks at her, slightly turning his head but relying on his own eyes to look over at her.

"I saw him at the Dark Quarter and both were talking about what to do as 'friends'. To be completely honest, they act more like two strangers. Anyway, Luna said they should start flying together in the night." Velvet comments, blankly staring out with her hooves now on her belly. She shivered, only to get up and get out a small blanket from her bag, standard issue.

"I see." Winston ruffles up his light green mane, thinking of what to say.

"He's pretty awkward..."

"I woke up at like, three fourty five and at about six thirty, I saw Rose going down the stairs of the apartment building. She said she needed some bread and another liter of milk, she uses a small refrigerator, and she also described Red with me." 

"He went over to her apartment?"

"Yeah, uninvited too. But she said Red was... Fine, sort of. She said he was awfully quiet and preferred not to speak. Although he really liked the Matawi 6200, she said. She said he looked more like a child on Hearths Warming day." Velvet moved about her hooves as she described to Winston, the rather lean Thestral nodding as she talked. He gives a peek over to the two dancers in the sky, but they were not flying.

"He drank alot of milk too, apparently." he nodded, glad Velvet was not looking straight at him. He looked around for them, before seeing one--- no, two, forms on another cloud, separated by a meter or so by his estimate. One seemed to be partially rolled up like a cat into a sleeping position, evident by how the cloud there sloped up and his or her body was on such slope.

The other was obviously awake, sitting on his or her haunches, watching over the other one with intentness. It could be Luna, watching over her subject as he sleeps after a long day, he thinks.

Winston did not even notice that Velvet stopped talking, looking at what he was looking at.

"She's watching him sleep." Winston says, and Velvet only nods, patting him after a few seconds. She stuffs her blanket back into her pack after a quick, dirty fold.

He looks back at her as she puts on her helmet, he doing likewise as both quickly jump off the slope, keeping a level trajectory that was angled upwards.

Both of them had armor on, and predictably, their armor rattled, their wing roots pushing and turning the plates about, until they come to a stop on a cloud. Both land softly on the rather large cloud, with convenient cover to look from about fifty meters away, somewhat out of earshot and yet still within a range where details can be made out.

The two guards' curiosity were responsible for their action, both of them crawling on the cloud to the cover to look at the two alicorns.

Red was sleeping, and Luna was on her haunches, looking at Red with a straight face. They continue to observe, to which they lay witness to Luna picking herself up and walking to the sleeping alicorn. How long did it take for the two to talk for him to take a nap? Did time go fast? Noone knew.

The fact of the matter is is that Luna stood over the alicorn, taking off one of her hoofguards and floating it near her with her magic, before reaching out with her leg and stroking the body of Red. Red stirred slightly.

Luna continued to stroke him, before looking side to side. Velvet tilts her head, while Winston makes a quiet grunt, looking at Velvet. She shrugs, only for both to look back just in time to see Luna kiss Red on the cheek.

Velvet puts a hoof up to her mouth, blushing hotly, noticing Red stir with a slight smile appearing on his face. He muttered, rolling slightly as Luna gingerly continues to rubs, before pulling back her hoof. 

Winston only watches with wide eyes.

She puts her hoof guard back on, looking side to side, the guards dashing back down as she almost sees them. 

She tilts her head at the noise, but shakes her head, looking back at Red. She only smiles, before unfolding her wings and jumping off the cloud, a feather all that is left from where she was and the sound of her wings flapping passively.

Both guards pop back out from cover to get back to their good observation points - yes, they sort of saw Luna through thinner parts of the cloud.

Red was still fast asleep, snoring.

Both mare and stallion look at eachother with raised eyebrows, before Velvet snickers and Winston frowns.

"Do you think...?"

"Velvet, no."

"Do you think she might love him?"

"Ofcourse she does, he's a subject."

"No..."

"Love him."






> Chapter 15 - Plans
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia looks at a parchment, laid out infront of her, quill in magic.

It slightly dripped, a small pool of ink on a towel. Equestrian characters were masterfully wrote on the parchment, with another parchment nearby, the ink on there drying on Celestia's study desk.

She was almost about to sign her name on there, a letter to be sent to Twilight and her friends. It was a plan to send Red off to Ponyville, for it was obvious Canterlot was not a suitable place for him to reform at that time.

Weeks have passed since the day after the Gala, and apart from Red's eye having healed, nothing remarkable or expressively good has happened.

The fallout from the Gala still loomed, poisoning the populace as Red's travels through Canterlot was met with more ire from the populace, stores closing down at places he frequented, as well as...

Celestia looks over at a small pile of letters, from people in Canterlot, even other cities. Letter writing campaigns, within the span of three weeks. She shakes her head, going back to her letter.

Red's habits seemed to change over time, which was that instead of going around the Equestrian dominated districts of Canterlot, he went over to the Griffon immigrant districts or the Dark Quarter, the Quarter being notorious for having seedy stuff going on in there.

Overall, most of his time was spent in the palace, eating, sleeping, thinking in his room or the gardens, maybe flying around or above the palace. 

While wondering about, he took over an old, outside room connected to the palace used formerly to store tools for the gardeners. 

He now maintains his armor and weapons over there, even against Celestia's advising not to, considering that sharpening your big scary weapon is not particularly good for public relations with such circumstances that are now.

Celestia only shook her head, looking over her letter.

On it lay a plan. It was a plan of reformation, agreed to by Red himself, which contained orders for Twilight and her friends to choose who will allow him to live with them, how he should live, what they should do during the duration of the proposed two month visit, what he should do, and especially what they should record.

The visit came out of necessity simply because the fact that Canterlot is such a big city, it has its seedy parts and Red is in danger of being dragged into that or having or doing something relating to it. 

There is the Equestrian Mafia, a organization which has a firm grasp on Canterlot's underworld and therefore, quite a bit on what happens on the surface.

The group is dangerous and Red could be dragged into it, considering his general naivety of the modern world and whats good and what is not. But one would argue Red would know better.

No, no he does not.

There are also the nobles of Canterlot and the populace of Canterlot in general. Everytime he goes out there, he barely sees any ponies within a six foot radius of him, its miserable. Though Red has said its nice going through empty streets with noone in the shops and pubs along them.

The nobles Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis, however, have visited Red. Fleur especially was interested with Red, particularly in his ability to fight. Ofcourse, Fancy Pants was dragged into a training session one Thursday and proceeded to get the snot beat out of him, Fleur De Lis likewise but in a lesser sense.

The Princess only smiles, knowing that will be one of Red's first steps in amending his relations with the public. However, the media was still an issue, and with it still in the way, they would make no headway.

At Ponyville, it being a small town with much to do around may be beneficial. Its a homey, peaceful setting for Red to adapt in, and although his home may always be in Canterlot, it might help with his social skills.

He can work on the apple farm with Applejack, hauling apples, doing whatever Applejack does to get the apples in the first place, making whatever they make with the apples.

With Red living on the farm itself, he can experience the hospitality of the modern pony... Well, slightly modern to be completely honest, she's not sure if the Apple's are time travelers from another era of family values. Not only that, but also experience living with a semi-modern filly. 

Celestia only blushes with a smile at the thought of the adorable little filly and the imposing giant with the shining sharp teeth being friends. It'd be so adorable, if only she had a camera and that was happening right infront of her!

Plus, he'll learn from Honesty herself the ways of the world, an honest opinion and analyzation of the world from her eyes. It'll be foolproof... But Red might not appreciate being a farmpony all day everyday, it would be a dull routine.

There is Rarity, and Red knows how to sew stuff up, in a way.

Generosity is a good thing to have as a trait, he could capture the hearts and minds of the citizens! Without a weapon, ofcourse, just a helping hoof with a generous offering.

Also, Celestia knows for a fact that Red knew how to utilize gems from the ground in a number of ways, something of which she has an example of. She floats over a piece of armor from the stallion himself, turning it about to look at its layering.

The one layer on the top was smooth, and shiny - gems.

More specifically, magical Everfree Red Topaz, known for its properties to literally absorb magic and completely distribute force should you utilize it correctly like Red has. He seemed to have ground the topaz, however which way he did that, and used a strong adhesive on the bottom, with the gem particles sprinkled on and evened out.

With this knowledge, he would be an immense help to Rarity, and both could become good friends with eachother. That is if Red can deal with Rarity's drama, a reportedly very curious sister that likes to touch things shes not supposed to, and Rarity's obsession of dresses.

Celestia shudders at the thought of Red being dressed up by a Rarity with an evil grin, he would not be happy at the slightest. To save Red the hassle of being recommended to her, which she now plans to do, she mentally gets a permanent marker and scribbles out Rarity's name, just for memory.

Plus, she runs a store, a store she lives in and Red would have to live in. His presence could be a drag on business.

Celestia tapped her chin with the end of her quill, thinking.

Rainbow Dash, she cant trust with Red. Things'll happen, thats for sure.

Pinkie was especially out of the question, Red relayed his opinions of the party pony to her after the day they left and he said she was "disturbing and astoundingly ill.".

Ofcourse, Celestia scolded him, but he was not moved.She's pretty sure both will have a rather aggressive, particularly on Red's side, confrontation at some point. 

To help do away with this, Celestia begins to scribble on the bottom of the parchment as follows.

"P.S, watch Pinkie and Red carefully."

She puckered her lip out, nodding. That should be enough, hopefully, for Twilight to interpret what Celestia meant.

Talking about Twilight, Red could stay at her place. Celestia pridefully grins, her student is probably the perfect choice.

For one, Twilight has a direct line of communication with her and with that, he can even do friendship reports! A jittery Celestia rubs her two gold clad hooves, almost dropping the quill onto the letter, however.

Two, Twilight would be a constant source of knowledge for Red, considering her own thirst of knowledge and the fact that she's learning something new. It'll be a crutch for Red, hopefully. If not, living in a library will keep him occupied aswell as informed.

But...Celestia frowns.

Twilight can be an annoying little brat,a feeling coming from her mentor all the way through the mare's childhood. Red might not be so keen to board with Twilight because of that, simply because of interactions before where he has relayed that she seems to "not understand the concept of social cues."

He has no position to speak on that, but its true. She does not seem to take social cues, and more importantly, although Red was one to be precise in his work, he was not to the level of Twilight.

Twilight was hard to please, frustrating to work with unless the both of ponies thought the same. So you would either be really good friends or her husband... Or wife if she is lesbian but that is besides the point, Celestia bashes herself internally, rolling her eyes.

Red, on the other hand, seemed to be more moderate, and with his small amount of patience, a puddle being a term you could use to describe it, his focus would evaporate almost immediately and he would proceed to just quit on Twilight entirely.

Plus, yet again, business would be impeded, Twilight does lead the library and she leases out books to ponies to deal with living costs. To send Red in there would be financial suicide for Twilight, alot of ponies would not be so keen to be so close in contact with Red.

But, to Celestia, the benefits outweight the problems. She begins to move her quill into action to begin writing her recommendation.

She had just finished with writing Twilight before she remembered. She forgot about Fluttershy!

Fluttershy was an elusive little mare, the Princess knew little of her except for her shy, rather sidelined personality, her love for caring for animals. She also knows she is rather gentle and patient, but thats about it.

Celestia thinks for a second, remembering the fact that Fluttershy did not necessarily own a business, and if she did, it's rather low key. She owns a cabin near the Everfree and essentially lives on her own out there with animals, doing all sorts of things---.

The alabaster alicorn proceeds to take off her golden shoe and smacks herself in the forehead.

It was so blatantly obvious. Fluttershy is the ultimate pony for Red to be reformed under, Celestia's voice echoes in her head.

Gentle, patient, and she deals with animals who would otherwise be ripping her face off... Or she just had lots of skin transplants due to aggressive animals and noone has ever brought up such a question, but thats besides the point!

Celestia takes her quill back up, re-inking it and quickly writing Fluttershy in her masterful cursive.

She winces, licking her rather dry lips as she rolls up the parchment, wraps a ribbon on the middle, and puts her badge of authentication onto it.

The alicorn blinks, holding it in her magic, sighing. She hopes this plan works, and should it not, it could mean dire consequences. Anything that can go wrong in this place may have a, at best, moderate effect on Equestria as a whole.

She burns the letter into embers, magical ones linked to Spike through a magical connection. 

As the letter fully dematerializes, the glowing remains of the letter swirl around in a cyclone, before in a single column like formation, makes a beeline for Ponyville, going through Celestia's door lock and between the doors and door frame.

It will only be a matter of time until a letter of response comes back. Until then, however...

Celestia peeks over slightly behind her to a platter with a glass cover that protected top of the line strawberry short cake.

She turns around, grinning as she approaches it, the cake's future rather grim.





Twilight sat on her bed, reading a book as the sun began to set in the window right beside her. 

She had a little smile as she read it, a book about what makes a steam engine, quite an arbitrary book to be reading considering her business: leasing books to other people and collecting profit on that through late fees and check out fees.

It was just a little something she picked out of one of the many bookshelves in the library, to keep her occupied.

A slight snore beside her elicits a reaction from her, the unicorn's head snapping to look at a napping Spike. 

She rolls her eyes, going back to her book. Her eyes scanned each and every line, a notable, smooth-ish movement that can be easily be seen considering a pony's large eyes.

A cup floats from beside her, formerly resting near the window sill. It steamed, fresh coffee inside the coffee. Despite Celestia's immense influence on her as a child, she could not bring herself to drink tea as much as her mentor did. She preferred coffee, nicely brewed coffee.

She sips it, some of the liquid burning her tongue - in the usual place, but she did not mind, she just let the liquid flow through her as she enjoyed the taste. 

Enthralled by its taste, the unicorn moves the cup closer to her again to sip, that is until a small commotion is heard beside the  bed.

Her head snaps back to Spike, who was choking on something. He grabs his throat his eyes dashing about everywhere.

"Spike!" Twilight alarmingly exclaims, her cup quickly gliding back to its former place by the window sill, some of the coffee spilling on her bed as she dashes into action.

She grabs Spike with her magic,performing a maneuver which effectively pushed the object out of the esophagus, should it be performed correctly using adequate force. 

With a few pulls with her magic, the dragon coughs up what was choking him: a letter, from Celestia.

Twilight sighs, remembering the last time the letter had teleported too deep down his throat. She quickly takes it up, waving it about to get some dragon saliva off of it.

Meanwhile, Spike wheezed and coughed, using the bed as a support for his body.

"Why...When...I...Sleep?" Spike waves a fist in the air, coughing as he drags himself to sit down and look at Twilight who seemed to be more focused on the letter, which had Celestia's stamp of authentication. 

"Its a letter from Princess Celestia!" Twilight thinks aloud, the baby dragon rolling his eyes: ofcourse it is. 

The unicorn unties the ribbon holding the letter together, for it to spring open, the ribbon and badge being thrown over to a small pile of its own. Always hopeful for a letter from Celestia, the grinning pony reads through.

But immediately, her grin becomes a frown. It was a plan in great detail, one that detailed Red coming down to Ponyville. It had goals, schedules, all sorts of things. Twilight puts down the letter, a bead of sweat going down her forehead.

"Are you okay, Twilight?" Spike asks, but she does not answer. Curious, the purple dragon walks over to look at the letter, only to be rather accepting.

"Whoa... Thats kinda cool."

"It is not, Spike. Imagine the implications of this! She's essentially making us into therapists with a crazy pony!" 

"I didn't think you thought of Red as a crazy pony." Spike looks at Twilight with a side eye. She nods like its obvious.

"But he is!"

"No he isn't. Celestia knows best, you know that, and its for the best. Canterlot is not a good place for him to reform, infact, it could make him worse and he would be in a better position to do something to alot of ponies or the princesses... Except Princess Luna, but thats beside the point!" Spike went into a small speech, Twilight's skeptical face constantly forming due to her opinions, which were somewhat convinced.

He had a point, if something bad happened and Red went absolutely nuts, Celestia, Cadance, her brother, and millions of ponies are immediately within his crosshairs.

Here in Ponyville, if anything happens, it'd probably be minor and they can effectively deal with Red since they have the Elements of Harmony. Plus, its a great place to learn a few things, relax, and make new friends, provided that the populace of Ponyville are more accepting than that of Canterlot.

Twilight takes back the letter, floating it out of Spike's paws. She reads through it again. There were instructions on keeping pepper spray near them, them being the pony letting him stay at their house, at all times, aswell as a small note at the bottom of the letter.

"P.S, watch Pinkie and Red carefully." it said simply. A very basic command. There was another note, with a scribbled out word whose ink did not drip down to create a curtain of ink.

"I recommend Twilight Fluttershy as the one to take Red Dusk in. She is perfect for the role, I advise you try to get her to do so." Twilight was more than happy not to be recommended for taking in Red, now that she recognizes the word stricken through, but does that also mean Celestia sees Twilight as untrustworthy? She might not know exactly what she feels about Red, really.

Hopefully, Celestia does trust her. Hopefully...

Twilight shakes her head. It was too late for her to get all her friends together. The sun was already halfway to being finished with the sunset, so tomorrow would be the day that she inform her friends.

She picks herself up, opening a drawer from her work desk across her bed area to pull out two thumbtacks. She takes the letter, nailing it to the wall with Spike watching, after which she is done, she wheels around to face Spike.

"We've got a long day tomorrow, Spike... Rest up." the dragon nods, going to his bed and jumping into it. He crawls into a comfortable position, quickly going to sleep, with Twilight watching the full 15 minutes.

Spike knows how to sleep, thats for sure. Twilight chuckles at the though, she herself closing off her window with curtains and turning on a lamp, slipping under her blankets to pick her book back up.

She reads, the thoughts of what could happen tomorrow ricocheting in her mind constantly. 

She will have to delay it, tomorrow will begin a long two months.




> Chapter 16 - Receiver
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I thought the library was clean?"

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

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

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





Dear Red Dusk


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

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

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



See you in Ponyville!

Best Wishes, Fluttershy.

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The alicorn only smiles, hopeful.





> Chapter 17 - Goodbye
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The night was cold and breezy, the stars giving a faint, pathetic glow to the sky.

Canterlot lay empty and barren, save for few pedestrians and potential troublemakers up to no good, aswell as four particular ponies.

One of them stood tall above the rest, brandishing wings and horn aswell as a saddlebag. The two others were unicorn with another possessing leathery wings and fuzzy ears.

All four wore coats over them, but the three were obviously wearing armor, the sounds of the plates rubbing against eachother obvious in the quiet street, echoing off the brick walls of the apartments and shops.

The one with leathery wings walked a confident gait, leading infront slightly but still with the main group. The two other unicorns, one obviously a male, walked with a normal, usual gait that made them stay completely in line with the large one that was in the middle of the group.

The alicorn had an awkward gait, however, partly in due to a small accident the night before regarding his hoof, which was now bandaged and with a splint to protect the bandages.

As the group rounds a corner in the rather empty street, the sound of talking from the group can be heard.

"So, Red, are you sure you wanna go down to Ponyville?" the female unicorn asks the tall alicorn, Red, who simply nods, barely visible in the darkness of the night, alleviated slightly by the street lamps. 

"Ofcourse, I have no place here... Yet. It will be crucial to our goals." The unicorn raises an eyebrow, shaking her head.

"Celestia... And I, in a way, have a plan in integrating me through...Ehhh... Association with public figures I assume?" Red Dusk explains, but ends up questioning himself at the end. 

"I don't think Twily and her friends arent too much of public figures by any estimate, maybe Rainbow Dash has a tiny bit of recognition in Ponyville, but I would not count on it." The other unicorn interjects, the alicorn rolling his eyes. The other unicorn just nods.

"Then I guess,Shining Armor, its integration by 'befriending' those who may have atleast a small influence or are slightly known in the village apart from being element holders, essentially integrating via association with important figures. If they see I am getting along with their colleagues, if I am correct, pony psychology will lead them to believe that I am 'good'." Red responds, with Shining Armor rolling his eyes.

"Not going to immediately work like that, Red. Ponies will still see you for who you are... Its not about the ponies you talk with and hang out with..." The alicorn turns his head over to Shining once again, seeing his face slightly, what with light from streetlamps keeping his nightvision from better seeing his face, apart from his dilated eyes.

He looks back over to his other friends, the thestral and the female unicorn. Both looked up at him, the unicorn being Rose Melody with a rather normal look. She raises an eyebrow as he slightly shakes his head and looks at the thestral, Velvet Eclipse. 

Ofcourse, he sort of knew Velvet, not so much her partner. Only reason he knows about her is because she was assigned to him during two of his night excursions into Canterlot, most other times being accompanied by either Rose Melody or Shining Armor, theoretically closer friends than Velvet since the alicorn had known the two unicorns for atleast a few weeks and knew a bit more about them, except for this fact.

Both Velvet and Red seemed to bond in a way where Velvet was more lax with what Red could do in her presence. Conversations weren't so awkward, and Velvet even showed Red some areas of the city including a bar in the Griffon immigrant sector in the back parts of the city, hugging the mountain. Not surprisingly, Red wanted to be more associated with Velvet to know her a bit more, but Celestia refused, describing her as "not a good influence at times.".

He scoffed to himself as he thought, for him to see Velvet give a small smile to him, which he bounces back with a stern nod. Her head goes back to looking forward.

Looking forward, Red could see some more pedestrians and even a cart passing through as they began to near the train station. Ofcourse, people realized who he was, and they immediately began to disperse, some murmuring among themselves if they were in groups.

Rather annoyed, the alicorn flashes an angry glare at a group of ponies, who immediately begin to turn tail and run off with wide eyes. He smiles at his work a second after they get out of sight.

From there, the walk seemed bland, at most. Nothing to talk about with his friends who only conversed between themselves about something unimportant, something about like a carpenter or something along those lines, Red just continued to walk, dreaming in his head.

How would Ponyville be like? He asked himself this question. Maybe it'll be like villages of old, with small, slightly dug in houses that are short and semi walled with stones. There would be the occasional tall barn or pole with a thread running to another with lamps or little flags that denote the land division, the fief. 

But it could also be like the Canterlot suburbs or the smaller townhouses of Canterlot. Tall, wood supports crisscrossing every which way with spaces filled in with plaster, some concrete, some stones, very varied. He could not really think of what to expect, five hundred years is a long time for cultural building habits to change form, neither was he an architect, that was her Excellency's job. 

They cut through an alleyway, but as they did, the entire group compressed to fit into it without sacrificing comfort by trying to walk side by side. However, Red Dusk was the one who got pushed in front, heading into the advance.

As he walks by a trashcan, the sound of two ponies running about can be heard, the alicorn catching a glimpse of two small figures dash behind a trashcan. He saw something bright fall to the ground as he walked forward.

As he got closer, it was the doll of a pony, a unicorn. He looks to his right, only to walk faster in horror. He saw the eyes of two little earth pony fillies, why they were playing late at night was answered quickly by the sight of a door and a window right there that was lit, they were sisters, it seemed by the similarities in color of their coat. 

Before he could say anything, they took the doll from under him and ran ahead, to the door. The group passes by it, only for him to notice one of them looking at him. The height of the window was nothing to him, his eyes were level with theirs as they put their hooves on a table to look out. 

He sighs, the group spilling back out onto the street as they near the trainstation, indicated by the very loud, low pitched sound of a train's steam horn. The alicorn could only shudder.

"That's gotta be EU-253, to Fillydelphia, or is it Baltimare?" Shining could be heard asking, with a quick, prompt answer.

"Nope, thats for Vanhoover, EU-253 is one of the newer trains, the biggest one yet. I heard its huge." Velvet quickly answers, receiving a look from the others. She raises an eyebrow.

"They call it the 'Bucking Colt', I heard." Rose Melody tossed in, the other nodding in agreement, except Red, ofcourse, who was just mystified by this as they approached a ticket booth. There were people everywhere, some with luggage carts and some not in the lines at all, talking with those in line and some of whichch smoked.

Red still headed the group, being its spearhead, and he was afraid he would have to attempt social interaction as immediately, a ticket booth revealed itself. However, Shining quickly got infront of Red, the unicorn giving a hopeful smile at him as he moved ahead.

"EU-116?" Shining could be heard saying, but the rest was drowned out by the drone of talking and train whistles. He could very obviously feel the eyes on him, eyes of anger, fear, awe. An uncomfortable Red seemed to feel a cool breeze as he realized this, and before he knew it, some things somehow fell out of his pack and shattered.

Looking behind him, at his side, was a small book of his, along with a quill and ink well that shattered, spilling blue ink on the cobblestone. Snickering is heard from his left.

A unicorn beside a line nearby, along with his friends, all of them adolescent colts, chuckled and snickered. 

He snorts, his eye twitching as he stares right at them. His horn glows as he squints at their taunting, smug faces, his horn begins to heat up, ready for the...

A hoof is felt patting at Red's shoulder blade, the alicorn shuddering as he see's Shining looking at him sternly. 

"You alright?" the unicorn asks, the alicorn looking to the side which attracted the attention of Shining. He looks over, to look back at Red with a comforting face.

"Don't worry, they're just a bunch of punks, don't pay them mind. Now comeon, the train is coming in five minutes." 

"Hah! Little Nanny Armor came in to save Big Red. Oh how cute!" a voice from the group of unicorns could be heard, along with laughing. The rest of the group join with him.

"Oh shut up over there, unlike you, Red has some dignity." Shining yelled back, attracting some eyes but mostly with looks of support, even with Red in tow. Red only just looked at them with one leg already up. They all switched their eyes to him after staring at a defiant Shining, sneers on their face before the leader of the small group shakes his head, speaking indistinctly to the rest of his group as they make a hasty retreat.

"Pathetic." Was all that Shining Armor said, the two ponies entering the train station. The crowds all eyed him carefully, many of the crowds moving out of their way. Red was only anxious, he wanted to get out of here now, but the train had to come first.

"Where are our other friends?" Red asks, asking about the rest of his friends. Shining Armor could only respond with pointing to a coffee shop, where he could see the two girls, each one carrying coffee, one with magic and the other with her wing. They see them, and hastily make their way over. 

They stop right infront of the two stallions, who look at eachother and could not bear but laugh, but Red only really just chuckled, he could control himself. A bewildered Rose tilted her head, unaware her mouth had some coffee above it.

"What?" Rose asks, furrowed brows pointing at the two stallions. Velvet just took her free wing and begins to rub above Rose's lip with the tip.

"You have a little something there." Rose could only help but blush hotly, looking at the two stallions with an angry expression, both still snickering.

"Why are you looking at us that way?" Shining asked, with Red slightly stopping, tiny chuckles coming out few and far between. 

"Well, I'm angry at you for not saying anything for the first few seconds you two douches were laughing at me." Rose bit her lip as both eyebrows pressed down on her eyes.

"We could not resist. I doubt Red has never had a real good laugh in a long long time, right?" Shining responded, with Dusk only eagerly nodding in agreement.

"I could not agree more. The sight of such a show of obliviousness makes me just feel alot better about myself." Red confidently said, Shining obviously proud as he elbows Red's leg lightly and looks up at him with a sly grin along with a shallow nod.

"Hey!" Rose fumed hot steam, her eyes staring daggers into Red's soul, who only laughed alittle harder then last time, before Velvet was obviously sick of it.

"Alright guys, I know we like having some good laughs, but Mr.Ecstasy Trip over here~" she pointed in Red's direction, "~was also more oblivious then lemmings following a leader to jump off a cliff." Red could only snort and look to the side, defeated.

"Curses." he could only mumble, the others laughing harder then before.

As they laugh and converse about various topics, the sound of a particular, high pitched whistle could be heard as a new train comes in, one that is small in comparison to the others but still rather big. It had pink paint on there, and on the side of the boiler read in white letters was "EU-116 - Canterlot - Ponyville".

Red looks over rather quickly, reading words and looking back over at Shining Armor.

"That's my 'train', correct?" Shining nodded, giving Red the ticket before patting him on the knee.

"Hey man, uhmmm..."

"Yes?"

"I'd like to wish you good luck in Ponyville, I'll see you in two months." Shining says dejectedly, with a rather unamused Red in terms of his sadness over his friends emotions as of then. But just as he thinks that, Shining warps his hoof around his neck at the base, and Red could only stiffen up as Shining did his bro hug. It was a foreign feeling, having somepony hug him, he thought as he did so too, wrapping his leg around Shining and patting him while looking at the girls.

They both smiled, with Rose woefully out sizing Velvet in the smile department, the unicorn moving up as Shining let go and looked up at Red. She comes in to hug him, both his legs this time. He blushes hotly, much to the joy of Velvet who laughs.

"Gonna miss you, Red. Good luck!" she says in a hopeful tone as she too lets go. Weird, she was just mad a minute ago, Red could only think, but nonetheless, he nodded at her, unsure of what else to say or do.

Velvet only looked over with a grin, nodding.

"See ya', Red." She said simply. The alicorn felt rather warm inside, and he even felt the want to blow this whole thing and just stay here, but that would be being a jerk to the six mares in Ponyville, especially Fluttershy, and so, he knew he had to go. 

He waves to them, all of them waving as well, but Shining making the gesture telling him to move. He nods and he makes a slow trot towards EU-116.

Looking back over his shoulder, he still saw his friends standing and looking at him walk. They saw him look back, and began to feel annoyed, Shining taking wide eyes and doing the same gesture again. Dusk's head snapped forward and his legs immediately began to move, one after the other.

The alicorn turned onto the platform, only to be caught in what one may call a dry sauna. There was steam everywhere, and it felt rather hot.At the other side of the platform, completely opposite of his side, he saw a uniformed earth pony hanging out of a railcar.

"ALL ABOARD! TWO MINUTES!" he hollered, his little blue cap that bounced on his head matching with this blue outfit. Red Dusk began to move towards him.

"Red Dusk!" a feminine voice called from the steamy fog. How the heck did people navigate this place and not fall into the platforms? Its like swimming with your eyes open in a pool of syrup. He looked about, but shaked his head, he needs to go.

Closer did he get over to the announcer, all that was left was a span of a couple of steps that was blocked by a sheet of steam. Little did he know... 

"Red Dusk!" the feminine voice, a familiar one, came back, way closer. The alicorn looks to the right only to see another of his kind, Luna. He jerks in place, looking at her. He looks left to right, noone but the guy hanging off the cart. His shouts were indistinct, made so by unknown means, Red noted.

"Princess Luna?" the stallion could only say in a bewildered tone, the princess snorting. She got close, slipping a small bag of what sounded like coins onto his pack.

"For the times in the future where thou requires money, but that is not what We have come for." the lunar alicorn said with a smile, her counterpart just looking at her, worriedly. What does she want? He doesnt know, he just shook in place.

"What have you come here for, your Majesty?" she blushes when he says this, before hugging him. His blood runs cold as she does this, but it begins to flow again as she kept it going for only a second. 

"I..." he puts up a hoof, but she puts her own right infront of his face.

"We bid thee good luck in thine travels, Red Dusk. Now go, your 'ride' awaits." she says with a smile on her lips as Red blinks at her, before slightly smiling, awkwardly but enough for Luna to just chuckle behind her silver clad hoof.

He pushes himself to go to the pony at the train cart, just as he yells.

"ALL ABOARD! LAST CALL! LEAVING NOW!" the earth pony yelled, just as Red Dusk runs up.

"Wait, I have my piece of paper!"

"You have your ticket?"

Red nods frantically, and the pony takes his ticket, analyzing it. He goes inside of the car for a second, with a small counter there with an ink well and a small contraption that had a stamp on it, obviously a thing for earth ponies since they have no ability to do telekinesis or use their wings as arms.

As Red waits for the pony to finish, he looks back to still see Luna staring at him. Her smile came back again, barely visible, but it was sincere. He waves over and she waves back, just as the earth pony comes back with the ticket.

"You're alright, get a seat and hold on. Comeon." Red nods, fumbling with the ticket as he got in. Inside, it was environmentally controlled, with lights on and everything. Very few ponies were in the train car, and the few that were here glared at him as he sat down at a seat, putting down his saddlebag. He looked out the window, which was along the platform he used to be on, to see Luna still standing there.

As the train revved up, coughing steam and smoke, Red saw the Princess get enveloped in steam.

She still had those staring eyes, somehow knowing which window he was in, surprising considering the windows were tinted. 

He blinked as he put a hoof up to the window, only to see the steam clear to reveal nothing. 

His ears pinned themselves to the sides of his head, he was alone now, like five hundred years ago, he thought as he slumped back in his seat.

Atleast he was going to somewhere where he believed he would find friends. Hopefully he is not rejected completely.

The train backed up, and merged in with another track that snaked around the train station terminals. He sighed in relief, but rubbed his forehead, anticipating the pains and troubles of the two months. Many things could go wrong.

But he knew he could not turn back, like before just a few minutes ago. He could not turn back, his friends depended on him to keep going, to do what he has to do.

He looks back at the platform terminal which shrinked ever so much smaller as the train gained speed. The wheels made a distinct, low pitch clicking noise along with a drone. Than, the windows turned dark, they were in a tunnel.

Looking forward, he yawned, fumbling with his saddlebag, taking out a letter, Fluttershy's letter.

Unfolding it, he read it's words again, smiling as he shook his head.

Soon.
> Chapter 18 - Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Red sat on the bench, slumped over as he looks out the window at the passing trees and fields, what little he could see at this time. Bored would be an understatement.

Considering the fact he lost the means of writing in a journal without the possession of ink for his quill, his only ways that he could have made the entire trip faster was to try napping, but he couldn't, he was too anxious.

He sighs, it has been two hours. One of which he almost slept it off, but the other he has waited through. Its the beginning of the third hour, at the very least about twenty minutes in. Halfway across the second hour, they did distribute tea and coffee from the back of the train, ofcourse Red taking some coffee. He still had the mug, infact.

In between every bench in the rail car were small tables that only went up about 25% of the bench's lengths. Ofcourse, they were rather small, but it was so that ponies would have less of a hard time getting up or doing something, so its put to the side. Besides, the train ride was supposed to be short, if Shining was to be trusted, which he was. 

Here on his bench set's table lay his empty coffee mug, and although he would have appreciated some more, they stopped serving it right after Red was done with his share. 

Right beside it lay a map and an advertisement pamphlet, both of which had barely any value in keeping Red from being bored to death.

The train continued to chug along through the night, and Red began to hear talking from a group of three mares, all pegasi. By their body language, they seemed to be pretty happy about something. 

His prediction was proven true as a laugh came from that area of the train, one of the mares taking out what seems to be a magazine and handing it to the one opposite of her, saying something as she did so. 

The mare took up the magazine, quickly reading through it and nodding, talking.

The alicorn growled, if only the train was not so loud all of a sudden, he could better decipher what the mares were saying, but alas, no. Red only looked away, looking out the window with a bored, blank expression. He could only predict that it would take yet another half an hour, at the worst an entire hour, until they got there. 

"Wait... Didn't I have a book inside my bag?" the alicorn mumbles to himself as his ears perk suddenly. He looks over at his bag on the floor, just as a slight digital sound from the top of the railcar is heard. 

It was a beep from the intercom, and a few ponies who did manage to take a nap were woken up, all stirring and some yawning. The mares stopped talking.

"Attention passengers, we are nearing Ponyville Station, and we shall arrive within five minutes. Prepare your luggage for unloading, thank you." the stallion said over the intercom with some noise coming in from the background.Probably it was something going on in where he was, most likely the front, if he's correct in thinking he's up there.

Meanwhile, as Red thought for that moment, ponies began to stand up, grabbing their luggage. He looked back at his own bag, and proceeded to take a big chunk of the stuff he had in there out to see what was inside. He peers inside only to see that he only had his journal, which was just a meager, hardcover, grey book. 

He did not have a book worth reading after all, he thought to himself as he huffed and threw everything back in with a thud and clang. Some of the passengers look over, rolling their eyes and shaking their heads. 

The alicorn could only feel bad, but he knew he can't worry about it. He stands up, immediately beginning to stretch his legs and wings with a strained face, springing back into a normal standing pose. and looking over at his saddlebag, his horn alight and the bag surrounded by an aura of red magic.

As Red threw the saddlebag onto his back, he looked out the other side's window only to see a few houses pop up, surrounded by fields and some immediately adjacent to an apple orchard, Applejack's property, he could only assume. They were tall with walls crisscrossed with wood and filled in with what he can only assume might be plaster. 

At nearly the same time, the train begins to lose speed, the low drone of the brakes getting louder and louder as they slowed down even more. The sound of a steam horn blares from the locomotive up in the front as all the ponies begin stacking up on the front of the car, except Red.

Red went over to the other side's windows after the train makes a nearly perfect stop on the platform of Ponyville's train station, which was drastically different looking to Canterlot's large, architectural beauty of a station. The platform was wooden with a small overhang with lights within them and benches directly underneath. Behind that was a building, probably the ticket booth or offices? He did not know.

Maybe that was the other building to Red's left that was where the ticket booth was located? Such a building was painted blue, looking drastically different from the buildings that were off in a distance, the Ponyvillian houses. 

With some initial information being used to draft out a prediction of life in Ponyville in his mind, Red Dusk stepped back into the isle, only to bump into a male earth pony. Immediately, Red turned around to apologize, only to be met with a frown and furrowed eyes.

"Watch where you're going, moron." he spits outs spitefully, leaving Red to stand there and slump his head down with a miserable look as he gets off the train. The alicorn blinks, before moving towards the exit of the car.

The stairs only served to almost kill him due to a misstep, the stallion stumbling back from the steps down before going again, this time along more careful. He shook on the small steps with his saddlebag, before finally emerging onto the platform with a group of ponies making their way out of a five meter radius of him.

Looking around, he could see the passengers from the train meeting up with some other ponies on the platform, others going straight to Ponyville, and some just reorganizing their stuff. The steam locomotive leaked excess steam through its side valves onto the platform, creating a fog at that side of the platform akin to the one in Canterlot.

He blows air through his nose, his hooves moving with a set goal, Ponyville. But as he did so, the sound of some two ponies trotting at a fast pace began to be heard. However, he ignored it, it could be two passengers eager to just get off the train and maybe to someone or something.

"Red Dusk?" a voice comes out from behind him, his legs immediately snapping back onto the ground. He turns his head around with a blank face, unsure of what was to come, only to meet face to face with two of Twilight's friends: Twilight and Fluttershy. His eyes widen a small bit in surprise, but they quickly go back to normal 'size'.

Right off the bat, Fluttershy looked quite tired, which was a direct contrast against Twilight who looked full of energy, or atleast sort of. He could barely tell if there was anything on them, the residual light from the platform just preventing his eyes from getting used to the dark. 

"Oh... Uhm... Hello." Red had been thinking a bit for five seconds and Twilight tilted her head at him in that time span. Essentially, he had just stared at them for five seconds, for no reason, it seemed. He slaps his hoof against his head mentally, sighing.

"Huh... Uhh, we've been waiting here for thirty minutes for you, how was the train ride?" Twilight asked him, with an obvious smile. Fluttershy struggled to just focus, her head kept drooping. She puts a hoof up to her eyes, rubbing them. 

"It was better than I expected, but very boring, actually. Some dolts broke my inkwell." Red responded, licking his dry lips. Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"Ink well? That's not good." 

"Yes, my ink well that I need for my quill. I was planning on passing the time since Shining Armor predicted a travel time of about an hour and thirty minutes by recording the day and the train ride, maybe this too, but ofcourse, no." Dusk said in a rather annoyed tone of voice, complete with a face. However, Twilight kept her eyebrow raised, and she brought up a reasoning hoof.

"But why didn't you bring another book?" Red only shrugged.

"I thought I did, but in fact I did not." Twilight just slightly leaned to the side with her whole body as Red said the sentence with a dejected tone, going back to her normal stance with a sympathetic frown.

"Oof... I know how that feels, you forget something and just completely regret it later on. But dont worry about that, you're here now and that's all that matters. Talking about being here, we should get going to Fluttershy's house." Red gave a stout nod, allowing the two mares to go first and take point before he came up from behind them.

He split the two mares who walked side to side, and as they walked away from the Ponyville train station, he was finally able to have his night vision work. Right beside him, Fluttershy walked with a tired gait, increasingly lagging behind both Twilight and Red Dusk. He looks back at her, looking her over.

She notices him looking at her, and quickly makes a nervous grin, but Red was not amused at all. He looks back over at Twilight.

"I do understand you have been at the station for thirty minutes, but do you mind me asking why Fluttershy is in such lethargic condition?" Twilight moves her head slightly to look up at Red as they walked closer to the town. Barely anypony stirred in the quiet town at this time, it seemed. The stallion could only take a mental note, it was perfect.

"Fluttershy kind of stressed quite a bit over preparations, but I assure her that it'll all be worth it. Rarity and I helped her clean up her cabin and set up a bed in one of the small empty rooms in her house, which was the only one she could have spared." Red only nodded, on the moon, his room was not the biggest by any stretch of the imagination, but it was tolerable for the then loyalty crazed alicorn of times past. Actually, could he consider himself loyalty crazed?

Granted, he still feels loyal connection to Nightmare Moon, but he just doesnt feel as much of the drive. In the final two hundred years, he just started losing the drive, everything felt more empty. Is he empty? Has he truly lost the will to continue serving and he's just fucking himself over?

He clenches his teeth hard, he had to stop thinking about this and focus, he reminded himself. He closes his eyes, breathing in and out, before looking at Twilight. She was silent, maybe he could go behind and talk with Fluttershy, he thought. 

But he can talk with her at the cabin, hopefully. By this time, they were walking down the streets of Ponyville. He could see the tip of the town center building from a certain angle at a street, just the tip of it. Around him were usually just houses, but also small clearings with stalls ,small markets that were usually restricted to hugging the backs of some houses, most of which illuminated with streetlamps.

There were also permanent shops, cafes and restaurants, even a hashed out, extremely decorated bakery, judging by the fact that it looked like a large gingerbread house from common Equine fairy tales, and the fact that there was a sign with a cupcake on it. The pink one should live there, he thought, questioning himself whether or not he remember's correctly. 

There were some houses with the lights on, but it did not seem that they were being watched, which was a relief, for Red. Twilight walked with great strides, for a pony of her size, while Fluttershy kept lagging behind. Once in a while, the tired pegasus did catch up in spurts but to no avail. Red could only feel the compulsion just to assist her by carrying her with magic.

It was not long before they happen across a gigantic tree with a house carved out inside? Red questioned this, he felt awe struck, infact. How was the tree itself still alive if it's been carved out? Nonetheless, it was 'cool', in Shining Armor speak, to Red, and he felt attracted to it.

"That's the library, Spike and I live there." Twilight seem to notice, tapping him before saying what she wanted to say. He only looked at her for a second and then back over.

"I must admit that I am rather awestruck by the fact that the tree is still alive even after being carved out." The stallions says to Twilight, who just shrugs.

"I dunno, just maybe magic or something. I never really looked into that."

"Hmph. Is it always this quiet in Ponyville?" the stallion inquires, the unicorn only nodding.

"Usually it is, but there are parties every now and again and the holiday's are not an exception. Apart from that, Ponyville is pretty quiet." As the small group moves through town, they pass the last few houses, before going forward towards the Everfree.

The road they walked on, formerly paved with greenish stones, turned into a gravel path that crunched beneath their hooves. They passed through some parts of the Sweet Apple Acres orchards and some houses before passing it all.

Before he knew it, they had passed multiple groves of trees to behold a small cabin that was also a tree. By this point, Red did not care, he just kept on walking.

The cabin itself was elevated on a small formation of what he can assume is rock and surrounded by a little brook that branched out two ways, one into the Everfree forest and the other in a copse of trees. Around and within the boundaries of the brook, which had a small bridge over it, were birdhouses and other stuff that was intended for the caring of animals. 

This included a hoof operated well pump that included a little wooden trough of water, the wood most likely coated with creosote oil or some kind of water rot retardant. All in all, the place was a beauty to behold, yet it looked relatively small. 

They walked up to the bridge, and as they do so, Twilight stops which leads to Red stopping aswell. Fluttershy seemed to catch up pretty quickly, but she went past them and to the door. She took some keys from within a birdhouse and began fumbling with them to unlock the door.

"So, Red Dusk, I assume you're okay with all of this?" Red nods, the sound of a door opening being heard. Red was unmoving, but Twilight looked over at where Fluttershy was. The door closes with a click.

"Ofcourse, why put you through the trouble of preparing only to say I'm not?" Twilight made a circle in the bridge with her hoof as she looked up at him, nodding.

"Well, I guess this begins a process which I hope will be good for all of us because I sincerely doubt its going to be easy." 

"Ofcourse it won't be easy. If I am not correct, Equestria is in the era of cowards, with a majority of our people being those who generalize all and cannot bear to resist the norms, which would be hating me, I could only assume." The unicorn, taken aback by the long response, just kept looking at him. She smacks her lips once, before smiling. 

"Well, good night." she says nervously, and Red nods with a small smile aswell. Twilight turned around on the spot, going back down the path and looking back to wave. Red waves his leg close to his body, before walking over to the now open door of Fluttershy's cabin, spilling light out into the outside.

He walks in, slightly tilting his head down to make room for his horn as he walks towards a small archway.However, Fluttershy runs up, infront of him, and shakes her head.

"What?" He looks at her with a confused face.

"Upstairs, your room is upstairs." it was the first time he had heard her voice this entire day, and he had almost forgotten about her meek voice. It was like a mouse trying to speak, it was quite adorable, infact. He looks at her with a confused face still, but moreso confused by her voice.

But in the end, Red turns around, walking up the stairs with Fluttershy following close behind. Yet again, Fluttershy took the place infront of Red, and he followed her through the small hallway, past what he assumed was her bedroom. Down they went the hall, before to his right, Fluttershy stopped at a door.

She opened the door, walking in to flick the light on and turn around to face Red.

"This is your room...I...I tried to get you a big bed because mine was too small andthat'd be very bad for your back, I'm sorry, so I really hope that its a good investment."Red only blinked.

"What was that in the end there?"

"Nothing!" she smiles sheepishly, before walking back into the hallway, looking at him with tired eyes.

"Im sorry, I just never get guests over as much as I should. I'll talk to you more in the morning, but for now, I have to go to~" she yawns, smacking her lips, "~sleeep...".

Fluttershy gets out of Red's sight as she drags her hooves into her room, the door closing with a click. He looked inside of his new room, which contained a rather large bed with a cute blanket decorated with red hearts on a green background. On the otherside of the bed lay a small desk with a kerosene lamp ontop and a cushion underneath, and at the foot of the bed was a bedtrunk and a shelf across from it. 

This room was obviously a walk in closet, proven by the shelfs that were level with his head and a stepladder at the same side of the room as the desk. Red smiles heartily, it was a nice room and the wooden walls actually gave off some kind of personality. 

He walks deeper into the room, putting down his saddlebag on the bottom shelf across the trunk, the bigger space. He flaps his wings slightly, the bag pinched them a small bit during the time he had it on, and then he walks over to the desk.

The desk was made of birch wood, very light in comparison to the values of the walls it stood infront of. He proceeded to put his hoof on it and lightly drag it across the desktop, the wood giving some resistance to his hoof. 

He snaps his hoof back up for him to turn around, and sit on his bed. Everything seemed so smooth, everything nearly perfectly done. No problems have been encountered as of yet, and Fluttershy, although tired at the time, seemed receptive to him.

The stallion yawned, stretching his legs out on the bed once more. The anxiety of the train ride seemed to end right then and there, and finally, the onset of tiredness was almost immediate.

Ofcourse, he would not mind some sleep, after the long night. He wondered what his friends were doing as of now, probably sleeping like they should. He snorts, before letting his head fall onto the pillow and his body to begin to stuff itself in a blanket that run right under him and then over. 

He shimmies himself into a more comfortable position, letting one eye open so that he may see the light switch.

His horn glows and the light switch is engulfed in a red aura, the lightswitch making a click as the room goes dark and Red descends into unconsciousness.


> Chapter 19 - Storm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The bed creaks as Red rolls over, yawning and smacking his lips, waking up from a loud sound.

There was a slight droning sound that is ever so prevalent within his room,which he began to notice as soon as the bed springs stopped creaking under his weight.

Looking around the room, he flicks on the light switch. He wondered why she would have a lamp if there was a light here? Maybe because of her isolation?

He gets up from the bed, struggling to get just enough space and a comfortable position to stretch his legs and wings, just as thunder erupts outside and the droning sound gets louder. Raising an eyebrow, he straightens up and opens the door.

He walks from out of his room, turning off the light inside of the room with his magic as the wood creaks underneath his hooves. Up ahead, Fluttershy's door was slightly open, enough for him to see a good portion of the room from it.

He peeks into Fluttershy's room as he passes to not see the butter-colored pegasus sleeping there, surprisingly enough. He looked up at a clock in the room.

It read "9:23".

He blinked, he did not expect the pegasus to wake up earlier then he had. But he just shook his head, and went downstairs, maybe she is in the living room?

The stairs creaked as he went down them, the alicorn looking around the living room to see not one living soul. The living room itself had a nice little fireplace with some pots hanging over it and little stairs for what could be rodents to go up into a hole in the wall and even to a small house.

Infact, there were little catwalks in the rafters that led to all sorts of holes within the walls. Along with that, birdhouses were placed around everywhere, with most hanging off the rafters in the ceiling and one behind a cute green cabinet in the corner, with a bird cage in the opposite corner with another set of stairs leading up to it.

All the way on the other side of the room, were two more birdhouses, a couch and a comfy seat, aswell as a built in bookshelf, along with a window behind the couch. Suffice to say, Red was impressed, but he had to find Fluttershy, maybe she was inside the kitchen?

He walked over to the doorway that led into the kitchen, to see nothing but a refrigerator, a stove, a table, cabinets and drawers galore, along with hooks for pots and pans to hang down. There was other stuff too, but it was of little importance to the scene itself.

He looked out one of the windows from inside, to just see a grey sheet just beyond it and small splatters on the window itself. His face twists into that of slight worry, just as thunder cracks outside.

He turns around, going back up the stairs to check her room and the bathroom again, maybe he missed something? He snorts, maybe he did.

Finishing the small trek upstairs, he peeked into her bedroom again, slowly bringing himself inside with his body pushing the door open.

However, the door was extremely light in comparison to Red's weight. What would seem like a slight touch to a regular door made it fly open in a rather bombastic way.

It's knob slammed into the wall with a loud thud, with Red sidestepping suddenly to make several loud hoof steps as he attempted to re-balance himself. 

He does re-balance himself to a state of stiffness, the alicorn breathing in through his nose and sighing. He walks around, looking around at the room in its simple glory.

It had another fireplace, above where the other was. Above it was a shelf with some pictures, nothing else. 

The bed, adorned in a cute orange and pink checkered blanket with a butterfly within each checker. was in the middle of the room, beside a window, a small desk with an overhanging bookshelf and below two rather adorable pictures that hung from black tacks. 

Ofcourse, the rafters had birdhouses hanging from them and even actual bird nests on them along with a vine growing around one of them.

The bed also had a greenish trunk right infront of it with a red rug beneath it, but that was it. He could see nothing else within his immediate overview of the room. He sighed, beginning to wheel around before another lightning bolt sends the sound of thunder throughout the house and the landscape outside.

He hears a squeak come from underneath the bed as the thunder goes through, peaking his curiosity. 

The alicorn walks over directly next to the bed, sitting down on his haunches and bending his neck down, looking underneath the overhanging blanket to see something that looked like a hoof.

His eyes go wide and his head abuzz with fearful thoughts.

His horn glows as the blanket lifts from its position for him to see, expecting to see a body.

Fortunately, it wasn't Fluttershy's dead body, which was just his brain thinking of the worst. 

Unfortunately, the alicorn had opened the 'flap' so fast that to him, Fluttershy's scared face had seemingly just appeared out of nowhere in his vision, like it just came from oblivion.

"EGAD!" he yelled, and Fluttershy only screamed along with him. He falls on his side and the blanket goes back down as Fluttershy flails under the bed. A squirrel and a grey bunny scamper out from under the bed and out the door.

The alicorn flips over on his back, looking back at the bed's fabric liner which slightly waved after the movement.

"Fluttershy?! Is that you?" the discombobulated alicorn asks, looking over at the bed from his laid down position away from it.

"Yes..." the pegasus squeaked, the alicorn shaking his head and inching towards the bed to lift up the blanket, looking inside.

All he saw was Fluttershy looking at him wide eyed, an array of little animals, a book and a flashlight with its battery lid off and its batteries strewn about, along with some pillows, aswell as two small blankets made into hammocks of some sort hanging from the framework of the bed. 

One animal, a white bunny, stood out, standing particularly close to Fluttershy with a carrot in his paws and a frown on his face, with furrowed eyebrows. Red eyed him with confusion, was he trying to be scary?

"What are you doing underneath your bed?" he asks, concerned. Fluttershy rubbed the back of her head, straightening up in the bed. He blinks, was it really that big for her or is she just smaller then he remembers from last night?

"Im hiding out the storm..." she says, embarrassed. 

"You are afraid of thunder?" She nods reluctantly, putting up her hooves to cover her eyes and whimpering. Red only rolled his eyes.

"Wonderful." he looks to the side, unamused.

"This is embarrassing..." she whimpered, the burgundy stallion putting a hoof on the base of his horn, disappointed.

"I would think that you would have no fear of thunder considering that you live at the edge of one of the most perilous areas in Equestria." Red said from behind his hoof, his eyes closed and his eyebrows scrunched together.

"I know, I just hate the big boom and the scary flash... It's so sudden! It's like... Uhm..." she tapped her chin. She looked to Red, the pegasus hatching an idea.

"Knock knock." she shakily said, the burgundy stallion blinking as he did hear of this little 'joke' from Shining Armor himself.

"Who goes there?" He rolled along with it, in his own way. 

Just as Fluttershy is about to say something, a lightning bolt lands right on a tree, both ponies almost becoming deaf. Both plant their heads down onto the wooden floor in surprise.

The alicorn was slightly rattled, his head quickly going back up. However, Fluttershy only cried for a bit, the same white bunny patting Fluttershy on the shoulder. 

She recovers, looking at Red.

"That bolt said all that needed to be said." she whimpered, the stallion nodding.

"I would not have expected a lightning bolt to hit so close, but then again, we are near the Everfree." he commented, his stomach suddenly growling with hunger. Immediately, he looks down at it, then at Fluttershy.

"What have you eaten?"

"Emergency granola bars I keep under here. Are you hungry?" she said with a blush as Red nods. One of the squirrels, a chocolate colored one, immediately gets to work, going behind its blue, very soft looking pillow and coming back up with two bars, both rather small. 

There was a green one, and a brown one. One read peanut better beneath its brandname and the other original. Red simply tugged slightly at the green one, the squirrel immediately letting go and giving a thumbs up with its paws at a nodding Red.

"Aw, thank you, Jeremy. That was so nice of you." the squirrel in question put his paws together and outstretched his arms, letting them hang as he gave a smile, with a blush, to Fluttershy.

"Cute." was all the stallion had to say as he opened up the granola bar and tossed the small bar into the cavernous domain of his jaws, letting them get to work. The bar stood no chance, being ground into tiny, separate pieces within seconds. 

All the while, Red hummed with delight. Just as he finished chewing and swallowed, more rolling thunder came about, but it was farther away this time. However, the rain came down harder, just as the sound of thunder went through.

"It seems to be getting worse, I wonder it'll go." the stallion said nonchalantly, the pegasus looking to the side glumly. 

"The radio said that the system will probably stay here for atleast four hours. We've only been up for two." Red Dusk nodded, huffing from his nose.

"Well, I guess that it'd be best to stay here with you, just to keep you and your animals company, since there is really nothing I can do around the house . except cook.Anything you have that we can do?" he asked. She nodded, the pegasus bringing up the book that he saw earlier.

Red took the book, inspecting it with a raised eyebrow. It was a red, rather new looking, soft cover book.

On it read "Tales of the Everfree". He hummed in interest, opening it up. Flipping through the pages, the alicorn nodded. 

Although he himself knew some tales, many of them a tad bit gruesome, he was in no mood to recollect a story. Yawning, the crimson stallion flipped back to the first page containing the beginning of the first tale.

He breathed in, licking his lips while Fluttershy and the animals all got themselves comfy. 

Confident they were ready, he began.

"The Tale of the Talking Tree..."
> Chapter 20 - Orchard
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The storm lasted for as long as previously stated by Fluttershy. 

Throughout the last two hours, Red had entertained Fluttershy and her animal friends with a vigorous energy as he read from the book. 

Tales like the Skeletal Pasture, the Talking Tree, and the Dark Spectre, with others still waiting in the rather deceptively small book, proved that Red did have a passion for something, story telling.

His hooves became almost like wands that waved around, capturing the eyes of the animals and the pegasus while his words painted the scenery with an weird silver tongue.

Ofcourse, he was not the best at socializing, and that was what made it weird. Did he have to be good at social skills to be a good story teller exactly? No, he didn't, as this was evidence. Plus, he had some help from the storm.

The storm only added to the effect, the alicorn even getting a good lightning bolt to strike beyond the window behind him as he played the laugh of the Dark Spectre as he caught the doomed Hay Seed, a mare that was ripe for consumption by the unrestful spirit.

He might have played the part too well, however, since Fluttershy cried after that. It was an awkward moment for the both of them and the rest.

Nevertheless, as he finished the Dark Spectre, the storm began to lift. By then, Red was surprisingly eager, maybe it was the fact that finally he was not trapped inside of Fluttershy's cabin, keeping her company.

With a quick and fast goodbye to Fluttershy, Red had gone out the door, having gotten some black rain boots from Fluttershy, or rather just water-sealed rubber socks by the looks of them.

Quickly passing the numerous birdhouses and going down the small bridge that was over the stream, he trotted down the now muddied and puddle ridden gravel path that went down to where he thought was Ponyville, his boots quickly getting mud and dirt on them. 

At one point, he reached a fork in the path. Now last night, he did not remember there being a different path deviating from the one that they used to get from Ponyville. He shrugged, taking a path to the left path that made a slight curve around a familiar grove. 

Breathing in the fresh air and smelling the fresh scent of the air after rain made the alicorn feel rather euphoric. Unlike in Canterlot, the air was not as polluted by the industrial sector or thinned out by altitude.

The moment was only made better by the relative quietness of the area around him apart from the singing of the birds, the crunching of pebbles beneath his covered hooves, and the rubber socks squeaking. 

As he walked down the path, he could finally see chimney smoke from behind a small hill that separated him from Ponyville. Convinced he was close, he decided to go faster, closing the distance between himself and the hill relatively quickly. 

Expecting to see a village, the alicorn's head popped up from the hill only to see just apple orchards. Fenced in apple orchards almost as far as the eye can see, and the smoke was only from something at the complete other end of the orchard.

He blinked, shaking his head. He could not decide whether to be mad or pleasantly surprised. But over to his right, he could see Ponyville in the corner of his vision.

There was nothing to do but walk down the path, in hopes of going to Ponyville. So, the red alicorn bit the bolt, and made his way down the small hill, down into the orchards.





It was nothing but just a maze of apple trees, corridors and corners across all where the eye can see. 

Everything looked the same, and things that looked different were so subtle that he would forget about them and walk around in a circle before realizing they were there. 

Objects that looked like navigational aids, like red posts, had meanings, if they had any, that were so cryptic that they could not help him at all.

For what seemed like an hour was in reality thirty minutes to a constantly walking Red, who insisted to himself that walking was better than flying.

Ofcourse, he'd be more likely to find Ponyville in less the time it would take to walk through the trap that was the orchard, but carrying himself in the air was easier said than done. He was heavy and bulky for a pony, and he would've more quickly tired himself out.

Plus, he could miss the little things, maybe even somepony in the orchard that he would like to meet, because he would fly directly towards his destination doggedly. There is no fun in that, he reminded himself. 

So, despite the temptation, he trotted forward, an apple making a snap off a branch and floating down near his mouth, his magic surrounding the fruit with a dim aura. 

He bit into the red fruit, making a distinct crunching noise and a delightful giggle from behind his sealed lips. Just the right amount of sweetness to lift the spirits of a very lost soul.

"So, how do you like this 'Ponyville' so far? I bet that within five minutes of anypony meeting you, they'll be behind their windows in no time." Nightmare's voice echoed in Dusk's head as he continued to chew, a small frown developing.

"I'd rather think optimistically this one time. I'll have a chance with the help of Twilight and her friends. Don't you worry."  A chuckle comes from the ethereal mare inside, and he could see her smiling.

"You were always so naive sometimes. I guess this is one of your days, my subject, but they will run away from you no matter what." The stallion sighs, an honest mental nod of submission was all that the mare could see. He stops for a second, taking off his boots as Nightmare Moon begins talking again.

"They just don't understand you nor I. They think we are bad ones, the monsters, but Celestia is the real monster, I know she is hellbent on erasing any opposition to her power, especially you... You know that, right?" Another mental nod from Red was the answer, but soon after, her eyebrows betrayed worry or concern, but her devious smile still remained. He finally throws his boots into what seems to be a small pocket dimension, perks of being taught by a highly skilled entity in magic.

"You do know that me making fun of you the last few weeks were in jest and that I...Uhmm.. still 'love' you as a subject, correct?"

"Yes, Your Excellency." he said monotonously, yet another chuckle coming from the night mare, he adored her and although it did not sound like it, she knew it. As she chuckled, Red took a corner left, and bit into the apple yet again.

"Now, lets talk business. Any new plans?" her smile evaporated, her mouth flat lining and her brows slightly furrowing.

"Not yet. We both should know that Celestia drinks alot of tea, and it should be easy to poison the tea itself or the teabag. The problem stems from efficiency and how fast it'll act." Nightmare Moon nodded as he explained to her in his head. He took another bite, already seeing the seeds within the fruit, inside of the core.

Instinctively, as to not get them in his mouth and have to deal with getting them out later, his magic ripped out the two he saw at the time and threw them over a fence.

"Too slow, Celestia will most likely know whats going on and may get medical treatment either immediately or after subduing me." 

"You are strong and she is weak, you can simply break her neck with just your hoof's fetlock." 

"Not exactly. She is a master of the arcane arts and she'll have me on the ground in no time if I try to go for a more aggressive approach as described, which I may not be adequately prepared for at the time." Nightmare Moon sneered, scoffing.

"I doubt it." she said, looking 'away'. Before then looking back at 'him'.

"What about contacting sympathizers within Canterlot or here to come with you to help? The 'Dark Quarter' you constantly visited ought to have many." Red Dusk stops, his head jerking. He put a hoof to his chin, tapping it. The Night Guard was almost entirely comprised of thestrals, and many thestrals were sympathetic to their cause, is it possible Velvet is one of them? 

"That is a good idea, I must say. We can corner her that way and better dispose of her..." Nightmare Moon only grins, a smile appearing likewise on the alicorn's face. Just as he was about to say something to her, a squeaky wheel of a cart arouses his attention.

His head snaps to the sound, looking down a path way that diverted from his own.

"We shall continue brooding later, Dusk." she says, her un-amused mental image of a face fading away for Red as he grunted, seeing a large red stallion with a harness pulling a cart full of apples.

The blonde-maned pony, albeit with some distinct orange thrown in there, looked over at Red, his green eyes widening as he unhooks himself from the cart and walks to the side to face Red directly. He takes up a hoof and points at Red, who begins to walk towards him.

His jaw drops, twitching as he got closer, before finally stopping right before him and looking down on him.

The stallion audibly gulps down some spit. The alicorn blinks, two to three times, before opening his mouth to speak.

"Are you Applejack's brother, Big Macintosh?" the stallion nods, and Red Dusk could only smile.

They stood still looking at eachother for a minute and a half. Red took a chance to look at the cart Big Mac had formerly been pulling. 

"Y-you ex-xist?" 

"Mhm." Big Macintosh puts his hoof back down, still looking at Red with awe. One part of him was shocked by the fact that he stood before an alicorn, especially being a farm pony such as himself.

A second part of him was shocked that Red even existed, for to him, Red was nothing but a fairy tale made to scare little fillies and colts.

"Hm..." he hummed thoughtfully. 

"Ah thought that when Applejack said that you were comin' here to Ponyville that she was nuts. Guess not." The stallion finally says softly with a shrug. This left Red Dusk slightly intrigued. The stallion was relatively calm around Red and did not seem too aggravated, which could be a sign that not as many ponies here will be as 'afraid' as those in Canterlot. 

However, as he began to think about it more and more, the more it sounded foolish to him. Big Mac is most likely the exception, more so focused on work then on what he called 'fairy tales'. He might aswell make a good impression on the stallion, for he could be a rarity in Ponyville, or anywhere for that matter.

"I see. Well, you already know my name." 

"Eeyup." 

"Well that deals with part of my introduction. What are you doing right now, out of lack of a better question." Red Dusk squints at Macintosh, who just points with a hoof to the cart and down the road he came. Red raises an eyebrow.

"Ah've been haulin' the cart for Applejack while she picks 'em. Though she said she had to go to the 'mare's room', but she also said that if she doesn't come back over here within fifteen minutes, that Ah should go back to the house." Dusk squints at the stallion, Big Mac blinking, before realizing his confusion.

"Oh, she had to pee." Red immediately straightens back up, looking side to side.

"Hm." 

"Eeyup."

"I have a feeling you say that to ponies all the time."

"Eeyup."

"Hm."

They both stay quiet for a minute, again, looking at eachother.

"Nice to see that I may have a stallion down here to talk to. To talk to mares all day would be murder." Big Mac's head jerks back.

"What do you mean? Ah would love to be you in your situation... and weren't you living up there with 'Nightmare Moon' all that time?" 

"Well, she was different. Im talking about the fact that I cannot really predict exactly how the mares will act towards me down here. Regardless of me meeting them before the Gala, I do not believe that I have seen their true personalities and how they act." The farmer chuckles.

"Ah'll tell yah right off the bat that Applejack is oblivious to everything. Sometimes, she's so focused on working that she forgets about other problems and even when yah try to correct her, she'll think she's right and is as stubborn as a mule." 

"Mm. Would you say that she's excessive at times?" a hoof comes up to make an inquisitive motion, the bottom of his hoof pointing to the sky.

"Eeyup."

"Hm."

The both of them stay silent, before wheeling around and looking up at the mountains to the south. There were still some clouds left over from the storm, but the sun was shining through some holes in the clouds.

"Beautiful day today apart from the storm, hm?"

"Eeyup."

"Hm."

As they stand there quietly, they talk about small stuff, mostly in regards to Red's questions about the farm. The sun's glare made the darkly colored alicorn hot and sweat, but he paid barely any mind to it, for he had made a friend.

A very good friend, it seemed. Quiet, yet he was attentive and hard working. Friendly, but not too attached. It was wonderful having the feeling of making a new friend, especially one that could bring some different things to the table then Shining Armor, not that he didn't like Shining Armor. He loved the unicorn, the guard captain being a good friend and also rather funny.

As they talked and talked, finally, Big Macintosh realized it had been twenty five minutes after Applejack had gone. 

Quickly, Big Mac connected himself with the cart, turning it around while Red walked alongside him, following him all the way down the road, with slight laughter and eeyups following them under the sun on the path they walked.
> Chapter 21 - Barn
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The apple cart squeaks behind the two ponies, both silent as birds chirp and insects make their own, distinct sounds. 

Over them, clouds keep on moving, and the sun is constantly blocked and unblocked, the few seconds of blocked sunlight being a token relief for the two as they keep trotting forward. 

They hug the fences to their sides, in a futile attempt for the overhanging branches of some of the trees to cover them from the sun's gaze. The sun did not effect Big Mac as much as his darker colored friend, but nonetheless, the fact that he pulled a large cart with cargo in this situation made sure that he was sweating.

Tis' was his life, rather monotonous apart from slight variations day to day. However, he tried to make the best of it, and Red would be perfect for that.

He was quiet, could be a much needed helping hoof (and horn!) on the farm, and a good guy, that is to Big Mac. He just met him today, so most likely, Big Mac thought to himself, he was just scratching the surface of Red's personality, should it even be his true one.

It could be a farce, many legends speak of him being deceptive, playing with a pony's emotions if he was not looking to actually fight or wanted to get something done without having to clean up his blade or armor later. Maybe Red is manipulating him? 

Ofcourse not, the stallion assured himself in his mind. He seems genuinely nice and appears to have good intentions. Besides, why would he manipulate a stupid stallion in a quiet little town? For what reason? To get apples for free, sure, but the alicorn seems not to be that petty. He's far from petty, he's bigger than him.

Speaking of which, Big Mac spots a large, almost perfect looking apple hanging on a branch over the two ponies. The alicorn's eyes and mind alike were wondering, taking in his surroundings, and so the earth pony quickly tapped Red, getting a lucky shot on the moving right foreleg.

"Hm?"

"Get that apple, Red." the hauler said in his gruff voice, pointing his muzzle towards the apple. Red's mouth becomes a curious O shape, his horn dimly lighting up to rip snap the apple off the branch with no effort. 

He floats the apple towards the cart, but Big Mac shakes his head. 

"Split it." the alicorn blinks, his eyes gliding over to the apple before his magic aura lights up for a second and the apple itself is split. Big Mac looked with wonder as the two apple slices, both rather big for a sliced apple, each almost a regularly sized apple in their own right moves towards Red and himself.

Red held the apple infront of his mouth due to his lack of available hooves to hold it with and no horn. He takes a bite, the apple's meat crunching beneath his molars and releasing its sweet, sweet taste towards his tastebuds.

"That's a good apple if Ah've ever had one. What about you, Red?" Big Mac asks, looking up at Dusk, who took a 'small' bite of the slice. 

"Delicious." the tall pony says with a grin. Big Mac would normally be so inclined to genuinely smile at this gesture from any other pony, but Red's teeth put him off immediately. He pushes himself to give an encouraging smile to Red, who takes it and looks forward, devouring his piece and throwing the half of the core to the trees.

The ponies yet again stayed silent. The orchard was huge, added on to by the somewhat small cornfields and carrot fields, the former being what they had to pass twenty minutes into the walk. 

The sound of an apple falling from the pile on the cart arouses Red's attention, the alicorn bending his neck around to swipe the red apple up and away from falling in the dirt. Unfortunately, Big Mac did not react, the burgundy stallion blinking as he looked at him.

The alicorn sighs and puts the apple back on the pile of other apples rolling alongside him. Some apples were green, some red. He did not know the exact difference between the apples except the fact that he favored green apples over the reds.

After doing that, he goes back to letting his mind wander, his eyes looking everywhere, place to place. The sky was starting to clear up by this time, slightly. There were still clouds lingering, some grey and still containing water, others white and puffy.

Puddles had begun to disappear already, and the ground, while still rather wet, was starting to have less muddy patches. He did not regret taking off his boots, the feeling of the ground under his naked hooves was delightful, especially when it was nice grass that would caress and rub his hooves.

Despite having gone down to Earth hundreds of times over the course of five hundred years, everything just felt new to him. The sight of all these trees proved to be a heartwarming sight, the smell of fresh air lingering made him smile, and the feeling of the dirt under his hooves accompanied by their clips and clops, Big Mac's hooves, and the songs of birds, all so fresh and delightful.

Yet, he was always so detached from the world around him by the wall of steel that would usually coat his body, shielding it, his face and therefore, his senses to the point of obliviousness, with only the mission taking precedent over beauty when it came to them. 

When he was not wearing the set, he barely took notice of his surroundings. He was constantly on task, moving around with purpose, working constantly,with little to no rest. 

However, it should not be discounted that rarely, he did get to sit down and rest. He still remembers the one moment when he was in the Griffon territories and sat on the side of a mountain, overlooking the range of mountains that all the eye could see. Ofcourse, this was simply accomplished by his ease at the time, the Griffon Territories were lands where he could be relatively safe from the threats he would face in Equestria.

Bounty hunters, roving patrols of guards, wildlife and the environment itself, even. Back then, storms were not regulated like they seem to do in the present. Roving thunderstorms bore down on villages and tornadoes ripped towns apart and left nothing but debris in their path. Blizzards would freeze ponies to death if they stayed outside too long, and sandstorms killed many by making them lost and eventually slaying them afterwards due to the onset of dehydration.

Equestria was not a friendly place,  but as the years went by in his absence, Red could only infer, things got better. Maybe Celestia finally got a weight off her shoulders once he was 'out of the picture', and she could focus on making things better. 

"We're here." The alicorn's head jerked, being ripped out of thinking. He looked at his friend, before his eyes wander forward to see an open white gate before him, with an arch and some subtle decorations to make it look good.

As they pass the gate, Red feasted his eyes upon a barn and multiple henhouses inside of pens with other pens inhabited by pigs sitting directly next to them. While much could be said about the highly decorated barn, which was apparently the farmhouse if he was correct. To be sure, however.

"That is your house?" Red asks, and Big Mac only nods. Delightful, Red only thought.

The two continued to walk down the path towards the house, Big Mac still pulling the cart as it squeaked. The path seemed to be alot smoother at this point, and all Red was feeling were stones covered in a finely powdered dirt. 

Finally, they arrived by the house, and the hauler detached himself from the cart, moving away from it to stretch himself and do his thing before wheeling around to face his guest. 

"Ah've gotta go do somethin' else right now, if yah don't mind. If you want, you can come with me." The stallion asked, pointing back towards another structure, something looking like a less decorated barn in the distance. Dusk looked around his immediate area, and only shook his head, that was for another day. 

"Alright, suit yourself, see you around." Big Mac wheeled around again, slowly walking towards the barn, leaving Red right there before finally disappearing after he turned around the corner of the house. 

Red snorts, he too wheeling around to look at the house at a different angle, aswell as to better look at the array of pens and coops. 

Chickens clucked, pigs snorted and oinked, while a windvane perched upon the house itself squeaked as a slight breeze turns it ever so slightly. Red's haunches slowly make contact with the ground, looking over the small patch of land the house sat upon.

By another gate, which obviously led to Ponyville as he saw the roofs of some houses, a rather new looking well sat there with two buckets neatly stacked on the ground next to it, with another on its side beside them. To his right by the well, there was a vegetable garden, with lettuce, tomatoes, even squash and some potatoes.

His tongue slithers out to slide across the top part of his lips. They were right there, waiting to be picked, particularly looking at the potatoes. Nice little food to have to eat as a snack while in the field, he could make a stew with anything, just using the potatoes as a base ingredient. 

Although some combinations were not the best, he did get some really good ones, ones worth his time at the campfire and waiting for his small pot to heat up and boil the food.

As he continued to sit down and take everything in a second time, the sound of talking, two mares to be exact, attracts his attention. It was coming from his left side, right by the farmhouse. 

They sounded like...

Two ponies popped out from the corner he watched, both instantly recognized by him to be Twilight Sparkle and Applejack, with her signature hat. He opens his mouth to speak.

"Oh, hi Red Dusk!"

"Hiya there, Red!" 

He did not even get the chance to speak, both their heads had practically snapped over to look at him and they said their respective greetings. Either he underestimates other ponies regarding reflexes or he himself has a case of bad reflexes.

"Uhmm..." Applejack approached with a smile on her face. She extended a hoof once she stopped, the alicorn getting up to naively accept it.

Quickly, Red, expecting nothing strong coming from her shaking, felt her fetlock's iron grip clamp down on his hoof. He slightly gasped, before his leg was violently shaken.

"Wow, Ah didn't know you had gotten here or would've gone here in the first place, I would've thought you would go to Ponyville right off the bat! How did you like it? Did yah eat any apples? How were they? Did yah meet Big Mac?" she continued to shake, before finally, Red's senses kicked in and stopped her shaking immediately with an impressive show of strength. She wheezed slightly for a moment, before he lightened the grip - she got the message.

"Yes, I ate some apples and met your brother, Big Macintosh. He's a good stallion, he must be a good brother." The alicorn said, releasing her hoof. Applejack smiled sheepishly with a blush.

"Daw shucks. Yes he is, he's a nice guy, sweetheart too. Glad yah met him, sugarcube, he's perfect for settling you in or working with if you intend to work on the orchard. If yah want to, ofcourse." Twilight moved in from behind the talking cow mare, the unicorn extending a hoof out, albeit with some shaking, for Red.

"Good Morning!" she said, with her hoof still out. His focus shifts over to her, and with a hum, he takes his hoof to shake hers, but with a bit of strength applied to it to make the unicorn wince. He chuckles as he releases his fetlock from her own.

"So, how are both of you?" Red asked, the lavender unicorn looking up at Red finally with a normal face. Applejack only gave a confirming look, saying all that is needed to be said. She was good, obviously.

"Good, how did you sleep?" Twilight asks innocently. He tensed up, but regained his composure quickly, giving a half smile to her.

"Delightfully, the bed was not as small as I would have thought." Applejack snorted with a small snicker. She wagged her hoof at him.

"Yuppers, they don't usually make beds for ponies your size. It's a miracle Twilight goes to yard sales all the time and found it for Fluttershy." Red tilted his head, confused. Twilight chuckles with a blush.

"It's when ponies sell stuff that is taking up space in their house right there at their house. Usually everything is really cheap, and I got the bed for only 30 Bits! It was quite a bargain." she explained to him, the alicorn nodding.

"Interesting, maybe I can visit these 'yard sales' sometime and see what I can get." he said, remembering he left his pouch of bits at Fluttershy's cottage by accident. Twilight giggles.

"I'm sure you'll love them, Red. But, we're getting off topic. How was Fluttershy?"

"Mm, she was hiding under the bed for the first two hours of the morning that I was awake, and so I read her and her animals tales of the Everfree to keep them at ease for the duration of the storm. Primarily, it was not my idea, and I would've rather had them get out from under the bed and stop acting like cowards, but eh. I enjoyed reading to them." Both of them kept smiling, actually really creepily. That was until he said the word 'cowards' that they'd stop smiling.

"Not a big fan of scaredy ponies, huh?" Applejack asked, the alicorn processing it for a second before nodding. 

"I mean, tis' only thunder, its not going to hurt you or anything, right?" Applejack and Twilight nod shallowly, but Twilight's smile seemed to go straight. Red recoiled slightly, confused.

"What?"

"You can't hold a pony's fears against them, that's just mean and unfair. It probably means they can't control it nor themselves."

"I realize that, but for thunder, it's illogical. It's something that rarely should hurt you... Atleast in my experience despite the conditions before."

"Don't you have an illogical fear of bees and wasps?" Red recoils, the alicorn bouncing back to tap his chin before sighing and nodding, a giggling Twilight sitting before him. Applejack had been watching the interaction for the last two minutes, and she only shrugged.

"Glad ya'll didn't get into a shouting match or a senseless argument over whatever you two were really talking about. Fear or something? Anyway, don't yah wanna check out the rest of Ponyville, Red?" the stallion's turned to look at Applejack, and yet again, he nods. 

"So, where should we go first?"

"Ah say we go to Rarity's house first, she's finished repairing one of Big Mac's harnesses, the cushion got torn." The earth pony pointed over some trees, in the direction of Rarity's house, he could only presume.

"Hm. Well, we are burning daylight." The alicorn says, beginning to walk away. However, a slight tug on his tail arouses his attention to Twilight Sparkle.

"Its only the morning. The day is still young, so we have plenty of time if you really want to stay and talk." he shakes his head.

"Nay, we do not know if the storm will come back, and it would not be very nice if we were caught outside to get wet. Atleast for you..." Twilight stared at him, before shrugging. She looks at Applejack, both giving nods to eachother before overtaking Red and letting him follow them.

Overhead,clouds still blanketed the sky, many grey, many white.
> Chapter 22 - Brownie
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

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

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

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

For today, she has money.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The sensation of...!

"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Look, thats him!"

"Holy Toledo, he's huge!" 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Sweet Celestia!"

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

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

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

Except Sugar Cube Corner.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

> Chapter 23 - Coffee
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The town was a ghost town.

There were no words spoken, atleast not to the exact knowledge of Red, nor any hooves clip clopping that ran parallel to his. 

It felt eerily similar but he continued on. He did not want to be bogged down in memory. 

It was obvious everypony and their dogs got the message that he was out and about. Carts turned over with items scattered all around them were a common sight on the streets. 

There were even saddlebags that were left with some stuff in them, probably falling off and being disregarded in favor of speed.

They were deathly scared of him, and he could feel their eyes dissecting his very appearance, right down to bone. 

He could essentially feel their scared murmurs and whispers behind the windows that stood in between him and them, but that was simply a gut feeling.

He could feel them keeping anything which was of use as a weapon close. But even if he was hostile, he knows that would be a study in futility. 

What could one do against a giant with nothing more than a broom? Probably give some pony one heck of a bruising or a headache if you hit them hard enough times. 

The thought even entertained the Nightmare, her chuckles bringing a small smile to the alicorn's face as he continued to walk under increasingly graying skies, the sun being covered and covered by passing clouds before being silenced once and for all. 

As he walked, he continued to think. He had to get into the Everfree Forest without garnering any attention from the locals or atleast make it so that they do not suspect his purpose there, much less see him.

His task in the forest will be to find a plant in relative abundance to make a poison. He had to have redundancy, should he lose one of the planned doses or one of the doses proves to be contaminated with a nulling substance or is too weak. 

With that, it'll take time and effort for him to find enough of the plants he plans to use to make atleast three bottles or atleast six doses. So it was obvious he would need a partner or partner's to lookout for him.

He grumbles to himself, like that's ever going to happen. He could only think how unlikely it would be for him to find an ally in the town. Many cults have probably withered away in his absence.

He was revered as a 'prophet' of sorts from their God, i.e, Nightmare Moon. To them, when she would come down on the thousandth year of her imprisonment, she would cleanse the world of all evil and corruption, heretics aswell, who they considered to be the ones following the Sun.

Red to them was her preacher and the one who would lead them through the times before She came back down. 

So, because of that, they treated him like a king... In a way. He was more so a general, leading the army's and rarely engaged in much social interaction with the cultists themselves. When he did however, they took what he said to heart, and that was no problem since he was not really good at humor at the time, especially considering her stance on sarcastic 'twits'.

Primarily, it was the Nightmare soul shard in his head that was more opposed to alot of things. Less fun, more bloodthirsty, angrier, he could never tell why. 

Her ideas were usually tainted with the ever constant presence of some sort of impatient bloodlust, a hatred for life itself. Peasants to her were simply stalks of wheat waiting to be grabbed and cut with a sickle.

Infact, he remembers her calling him 'nothing but a blood bag'. Atleast, he thinks it was her. If it was, he probably did something against her will, and he should be ashamed of that!

But now she's making him bite the helping hoof of one who pulled him out. Is this truly what he wants? What is best for Equestria, for him? For...

He stops, the alicorn putting a hoof on his temple and running down to his muzzle, sighing.

He tries his best to get back to walking for the Boutique, to stop thinking about it. Nightmare did nothing wrong, she never has, he...or she...tells him. 

He shakes his head, trotting faster. The Carousel Boutique's tip seemed to be in sight with a red flag on it as described, seen over a house roof, and against a darkening backdrop. Rarity would probably not want a wet pony walking around her house, so ofcourse he trots ever so slightly faster.

The thoughts come back, the Nightmare seeming to become concerned in his mind. 

He wears a poker face, trying to disguise his contemplation. Is it really worth it? Betraying the one who stopped him from being a conscious vegetable for eternity? 

Ofcourse it is! She committed all those horrible things to the Nightmare, there is no reason to contemplate this, it was futile to turn it around. She can't be the bad guy... Can't she?

Is he truly the bad guy? He felt ashamed for showing weakness in the cavern, but he was at her mercy at the time, or maybe Nightmare had a lapse in controlling how he felt for a second. 

Maybe he was conscious of his actions at that very time?

No, he was afraid to die. He needs to go forth, he thought again, all he was thinking was just her having got to him and such heinous ideas slipping into his mind through its cracks.

In the distance, the tip of the Carousel Boutique disappeared as he got closer to a house, increasingly darkening skies showing the signs of another round of rain.





Surprisingly enough, it did not rain, atleast the way Red thought it would

The alicorn only walked in very windy conditions, his mane flapping on the side of his neck and his tail flowing back to brush by his lower belly.

The dark clouds still hung over but oddly, the only rain that fell were small rounds of drizzle that posed no real problem for him.

Ofcourse, he would be slightly damp to the touch, but regardless, Rarity will probably forgive him for that. His earlier concerns were that if it actually poured and got him soaked that she would be so bothered.

He looked straight ahead, almost no ponies in sight. Word spread quickly, it seemed, but one can only guess that the others just took a hint that there was something in Ponyville that was big, bad and ugly.

He groaned to himself, he can't be that bad. He's got a pretty muscular body, good legs, wings, well toned. Not sure about his mane or tail though.

The mane and tail he had was rather short and ruffled up. Personally, he didn't really like long hair. It was a lot of work, an obstacle to vision, and in his opinion, tacky. Plus, it'd be uncomfortable in the helmet.

As he walked alongside a house, or rather a jeweler with a terrified filly looking at him before being pulled behind a wall inside, he turned a corner.

Only for his mouth to form an O.

It was so tall and majestic, it was almost like a building from Canterlot. 

The roof looked rather smooth, colored a light pink color with various patterns on it. To complement that, the base had blue walls with the windows having yellow curtains or covers slightly covering them with the roof spilling out over them with various metal shapes that he didn't know what were in reference to but appreciated them anyways.

The metallic decorations of pony silhouettes occupied the very top below the roof tip while one watched over the front door with refracted glass. Unsurprisingly, Red was wowed. This is something a citizen from Canterlot would be using as their house of merchandise. 

He trots up, noticing the tall, classical looking tents in the background. Merchants? Maybe just a market for those out of town who refused to pay for inn costs and preferred to live in their own tents? He'll have to ask.

Nonetheless, he approached the refracted glass, appeased by the way light bent as it shone through it. He looked about using different angles, seeing blobs of objects that looked to be fabric roll racks, curtains, dressers, and an oddly fancy couch?'

He looked up at the house number, giving a quick blink as he read it. 

"153" was what it said as he moved his hoof into position, ready to knock on the door with four strong, clear knocks, before noticing a small sign right beside the door. It was written in what could be constituted as 'cursive' in the written Equestrian language.

"OPEN" was what it said as it hung from its place beside the door. He blinks, before realizing he can go inside. It's just like those shops he saw in operation at Canterlot, people going in them to do whatever.

He was about to ask himself where the service window was, like in his times, where ponies would not be so inclined to have people inside of what would often be their own house and shop.

His magic grabs the knob of the door, opening it up. Halfway across the opening, a bell rings. His right ear twitches as his eyes snap to the source. It was a tiny golden bell that had some engraving on it. It looked to be the Equestrian sun.

His eyebrows bounce as he looks around the place, yet again taking note of the objects that he saw from outside the door but in a greater detail. The fabrics definitely seemed expensive and fine, their qualities almost seeming to radiate off them.

Such rich colors, it was really a foreign thing to Red. How could fabric, a usually very drab thing, become so bright and vibrant? Its the sign of the time, he could only assume. 

He looks over to a some other room entrances that were plopped in the main hall, as well as the littering of mannequins all about the area. Some of them were unclothed, others were clothed in extravagant dresses or suits, with large hats whose brims could be called roofs in their own right. 

However, a door clicks open above, and seemingly excited hooves were heard.

"Don't worry, darling, I'm coming!" the voice that was Rarity's thundered from above, or rather just sounded so. Her voice was really just soft, so it was only amplified by the fact that she seemed rather spooked and she was essentially on the uppermost level of the boutique.

"Rarity?" Red asked, and the clip clopping stopped. There were only two before the small head and well groomed mane of the cute little unicorn Rarity popped up from the staircase above him.

"Wait...Red Dusk? Here already?" he nods, the unicorn putting a hoof to her horn and sighing in relief, before sheepishly smiling at him.

"I'm sorry, I just was not sure of when you were coming. When did you get here?" she asks as her head disappears and the clip clopping begins again, soon accompanied with the added vibrating of the wooden stairs.

"Last night." he says simply as she walks up to him, looking at him with her side to him.

"How fitting. Why are you here? Were you looking for Twilight and Applejack? They just left with Rainbow Dash." the alicorn frowns while the unicorn only stands looking up at him.

"Wonderful. Well, I wanted to meet you again, and hopefully meet your sister, if she is here." Rarity is taken aback, before looking to the door.

"No, she went to go with her friends and play in that rinky-dinky little tree house of their's. Its dusty and just... Eugh. Last time I went there, I got my mane tangled on a twisted nail head sticking out from the floor." 

Red chuckles as she finishes the sentence, the unicorn looking at him with a slightly annoyed face.

"Excuse me? How would you like it if your mane, taken care of so finely and with so much work poured into it, was pulled on and made dirty all of a sudden, ruining hours of curling and styling?" Red had another short laughing fit, his hoof going up to his mouth. 

"Well, I would not be so happy if that were the case, but, alas, that is not the case for me." Rarity, although albeit annoyed, raised an eyebrow. 

With a sly snort, the alicorn slowly walking off to better look around the house.

Walking over to a rack of rolled up fabric, he pulled up some of a green one that hung off the roll itself, looking over its near perfect crosshatched weave. He tugged at it, the roll of course rotating in correspondence to the force he put on it as he pulled. 

It seemed rather strong too, stiff almost, in comparison to the other fabrics above and below it. With the feeling of a hoof, he could conclude that they were high quality, comfortable pieces of cloth. 

Speaking of which, he remembers that he needed a more comfortable material for his gambeson, the thing was made using substandard cloth and he forgot to replace it. Just thinking about it prompts for there to be an itch all the way up from his right hoof to his knee.

Ofcourse, he rubs with his left hoof, and it goes away easily. But now all he needs to do is get a good black roll from Rarity and put it on his gambeson. He makes a mental checklist while there were hoofsteps behind him.

"Would you like coffee or tea?" she asked after a few seconds, with Red snapping his head back over to her and nodding shallowly after having looked around more. 

"Coffee. I am not too much of a fan of tea." he says shamelessly

She hums from behind closed lips as she trots over to the kitchen, already reaching over to an exquisite coffeemaker on the stove. As she does this, she looks over at Red, who slowly walked over to her with small strides, at least for his legs.

Looking back over, she puts in some water, new coffee grind, and starts up the stove, leaving the maker over the fire while she got some milk from out of the refrigerator and did her thing. 

As she worked, Red pulled a stool out to see underneath the tablecloth of the kitchen table, the floor clean and the table stand rather decorated. Everything in this house seemed to be arduously decorated.

Even things as simple as mugs had all kinds of well defined markings on them including little grooves forming shapes or images. He picks up one mug from the table, his hoof coming up to feel it.

It was very smooth, but obviously old, since the surface was beginning to flake off on the bottom. Overall, it was pretty nice. The handle was tall enough and just wide enough for a hoof to slither in and grab using the fetlock. 

"Oh, those mugs! I got them when I was at Canterlot a few years ago. I just couldn't resist buying them." the stallion looked behind himself to look at Rarity, who had a smile of glee while the coffeemaker bubbled and fumed. 

"Ah. They look nice, I must say, but I feel that they are-"

"Expensive, yes. Fifty Bits per mug, and I got six of them!" The alicorn's head recoiled. That was pretty pricey, even for these mugs. Then again, he's looking at her like she's just a town peasant, which she isn't considering this is way after his time.

"I assume you charge very much to fund your lifestyle considering it is so close to that of a noble?" She nods in confirmation as Red put back the mug, the unicorn pointing over to a mannequin that Red could see, albeit with some uncomfortable twisting of his head, wearing a blue dress with white and most importantly, gemstones sewn into it. 

"That one is for a mare in Manehattan, all the way to the east. She came down here to see our fields and the Castle of the Two Sisters, and we met. Darling, she is the sweetest mare I have ever met from the east. We had a little chat and everything was well." Red nods, taking note of the mention of the old castle. 

He remembers it still, just it had been abandoned after burning down along with the town built around it after his allies had laid waste to it through a siege.

"So, what do you intend on doing apart from greeting the girls?"

"Not much. I might simply draft up some letters in the evening to send to my friends in Canterlot, as well as to Celestia." Rarity smiles, before the sound of some coffee spilling out of the cup and sizzling right beside the burner attracted her immediate attention.

The coffee was left on the stove for too long. It always perplexed Red on how well talking wastes time, but nonetheless, it was quite convenient, at times.

"Oh dear!" is all Rarity says as she dashes forth, her magic turning the burner off. 

She grabs the coffee maker, swiping it up. Ofcourse, the stallion looked with a slight fascination at the unicorn working, or whatever you could call working.

She pours the coffee from the floating coffeemaker into the mugs who both stood there, looking at Red with their seals. These ones were different from the ones on the table, both holding seals for nations that he never saw flags for ever.

"Those mugs..." Rarity bends her neck with a short, questioning hum. A simple point is all that is needed as she nods and walks over with the mugs. 

"Two Griffon territory nations. You know the deal, darling, the entire place is full of small countries and some of the biggest ones don't even take up half of Equestria. These two ones are from North Griffoni and South Griffoni."

"Creative names." Rarity snorts, sipping on her coffee.

"I know, not ideal. But I digress, I went over there for the hilltop castles and their goat-cheese soups. Absolutely delicious." the words flow into Red's ears, eliciting a small resurgence in memory.

"The Valley of the Two P---" he is cut off, the unicorn looking straight at him with a small grin.

"Princes! Yes..." she tilts her head at Red, who takes in a breath of air, drinking his coffee.

"Yes, The Valley of the Two Princes. Its an old tale, at least for you." Rarity's head recoiled back as she heard the name. As she does, she takes a sip of coffee, noticing her guest had already sipped up most of his mug. 

Her's was only half down, but that was good. She could stretch out the drink for the story she hoped to experience.

"Oh... So..." 

"Do you wish for me to tell you all that I know?" Rarity nods, though with a slightly confused expression, while Red puts his right knee on the table to support his head as he looked into the ceiling, searching for words.

As he did so, a cat came up from behind him, looking up at his tail that hung from the chair and then to Rarity. Rarity shakes her head with a slight anger, swatting her hoof in a way that would mean "vacate", and fortunately for Red, the feline disengages.

Another time, it seemed to say as it walked away to a safe distance from Red and sat down on it's haunches, looking at Red with its green tinted eyes, just as he snaps out of thought.

As Red postured himself to begin speaking, Rarity slid forward, lightly sipping her coffee as the alicorn began to speak.
> Chapter 24 - Grey
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rain came down in droves, every few minutes stopping and every few minutes beginning yet again.

The water had made almost a sheet, rather a curtain, with which one could not see through, with it fluttering every few seconds as the rain surged and went back to a constant, steady pour. 

The lightning was but a reassurance that there was, indeed, light in the land with which the weather had grabbed hold of forcefully and with great vigor, knowing that it would not hold on for very long.

Atleast, this is what a bored alicorn thought of as he looked out the window, sitting on a cushion, staring outside.

Behind him, Rarity listened in on her radio, a weather warning which said something about a "Everfree stormsurge.", with which the mare had responded to with a worried sigh and furrowed eyebrows.  

The Everfree was always so famous for its unpredictable weather that came and went at the clip-clop of a hoof. Yet, it was so interesting to the alicorn, so fun too to dance in the open sometimes in full kit, to wash himself and his armor of whatever impurities laid upon him or it.

Yet, for him, dance is used loosely. He never had time to learn how to dance like all the others on Earth, like those who would perform to him when he entered such towns that supported him, deep in the frigid North, deep in the hostile forests of the Southeast, and scattered about in the sands of the desert.

He showed interest, but yet again, it was downplayed by...a 'compulsion' that was forced upon him to keep on training, to focus on one thing and one thing only. The most he can do is tap, and that was it. 

Another bolt of lightning lands not too far out from the Boutique, and it was at this point that Red could hear hooves walking upon the kitchen tile. 

He looks behind him to see Rarity taking a receiver from a phone port right outside the kitchen's entrance arch, upon a small, stout table with a drawer. 

With her hoof, she dials some random number, each press emitting an annoying beep, before it floats up to her ear to leave the mare to wait uneasily.

She notices Red staring, the unicorn giving a quick wave with a barely genuine smile before turning around, the cable laying itself on the back of her neck.

After a few seconds, the low sound of somepony talking can just be heard in the white noise of the rain's drone against the house. 

"Ah, yes. Applejack, is that you?...Yes, he is here, I doubt he'll have anything to say to you regarding ehh...What? You found who?... Oh he'll definitely understand..." Rarity looks over her shoulder to see Red, whose straight face had not changed, except for the fact his lip twitched a bit. It better be a good reason for their disappearance.

"Darling, if you don't mind me asking, is Sweetie Belle over there?...She is? Oh thank Celestia! I've been so worried about her the last thirty minutes, being out there in the rain, bound to get a cold and get dirty...Whats that?...Oh...Yes, ofcourse..." Rarity looks over her shoulder once again to see Red looking at her, periodically looking at other parts of the room, outside the window, anywhere of some interest.

"Can you get her back here? She...Okay...You'll be over soon? Alright...Well, goodbye, Applejack... Stay dry, yes, goodbye..." Rarity puts down the receiver, the piece making a click as it docked with the home set. She looks over at Red, who still sat, doing what he had been doing the last time she looked. 

He blows out through his nose, blinking, the rain continuing to provide a white noise for him to think more clearly. What was he thinking about before Rarity got on the phone?

He frowns, his brows furrowing as he tries to remember something from a few minutes ago...

He huffs, disappointed. Maybe it'll come to him later, when he's walking in the rain.

Speaking of which... He looks over at Rarity, who was nowhere in his sight from his position at the kitchen window. He gets up from his cushion, doing a light stretch and walking over to the kitchen's arch.

He walks into the center of the structure, looking up to see the two other upper levels of the building, a rather dark part of it by now, the only lights on being the ones at the base level. 

He looks around, looking for the distinct alabaster unicorn to pop out at him in midst of all the different colored fabric rolls, dresses, and brown figures, but alas, he saw nothing of the sort. 

But what he did see was a lit-up room underneath the staircase, with a small poster board beside it. On it, there were reminders for getting specific types of fabrics such as Hashmir wool, grocery lists, many of them crossed out, and even a June calendar which had a Friday seemingly erratically circled with marker: that was yesterday.

Red quickly browsed throughout the board with his eyes, before bowing down his head to go underneath the overhanging staircase, going inside of the room to see a rather cluttered desk with a lamp overhanging a bunch of different documents and design concepts for dresses and such.

There was a computer on another desk in the back, a notably newer and smoother looking model in comparison to the one that Red was shown by Shining at the castle. Right beside it was an old camera, a ‘Kikon’ camera that showed some wear and tear. Odd for something in this ‘perfect’ world that resided inside of the large, cavernous house.

However, Red had most importantly found Rarity, sitting at the cluttered desk, writing on a notebook with what seems to be an antique fountain pen. She notices him, looking up at him from her sitting position on a low stool.

"Oh, Red! Uhm... Do you need anything, darling?" she asks, eyes slightly widened, but other than that, she seemed relatively calm, albeit startled. The alicorn simply shakes his head, looking out the door with a glance.

"I believe I will be taking my leave, Rarity. I just wanted to inform you." he says in a usual blank voice, the unicorn taken aback. She snorts.

"But Big Macintosh is coming back over here with Sweetie Belle. Don't you want to meet her, him aswell?" she asks, putting away the notebook that had half a paragraph of cursive Equestrian on it. He shakes his head, an ear flickering as thunder booms from outside.

"Nay. I already met Big Macintosh in the orchards after I had gotten out of Fluttershy's house about two hours ago." the burgundy stallion takes a glance at a clock with a squint, not always being so good reading them, but he could vaguely see that it was around twelve fifty. There was alot more things to do, but nopony would want to be with him in the rain.

"It's raining out there, though... You could wait out the rain." the fashionista argues, another thunder bolt making its distinctive clap outside, rather close too, the unicorn flinching. 

"I'd rather leave and come back at a better time. Maybe you can talk to Big Macintosh and tell him to tell the others to meet with me at Fluttershy's cottage some... time later this week." he stutters, thinking up of a better idea right then and there. 

"Why not tomorrow?" Rarity recoils, blinking. 

"Primarily to get myself settled in, hopefully get my tools and armor by then, get to know my hostess at the cottage, make myself useful." the alicorn explained, as he looked up with his eyes, thinking up of things. It was all true, he needed atleast a week to get settled in... But he also needed a week to venture into the Everfree and find ingredients and such for his plan.

Ofcourse, his plan assumes that he has not forgotten which plants to use and which plants are useless... And that he doesn't get caught while harvesting them or that deep in the forest, either it by a curious townpony which he can probably catch up to and knock out or by wildlife.

"Well... If you insist." He breaks himself off from thinking as he hears Rarity begin to speak once again. She points over to a long vase with a bunch of different umbrellas, each one a different size, color, and handle. Some were rounded, some had accomodations for a hoof in the middle of a straight handle. Some were cool colors, others hot. 

"Please, darling, take the big purple one there." Red sees it, the large purple umbrella towering over the others with a straight handle with only a rubber grip. 

With his magic, he pops it from the others with barely any effort, realizing just how  big it was. It almost went halfway up his legs, to the base of his neck, he notes. 

"You know, I'd imagine ponies like Shining Armor to have this, not ponies like you." he deadpans, looking straight at Rarity while the umbrella bobs in its position, hovering next to Red. 

"Eh, I thought the same thing. A friend came by a month or two ago and accidentally left it here. She said I could have it, but I have not used it as much, too bland." she points to a picture in a frame with a tall, rather skinny light cyan mare besides Rarity.

Behind the two in the picture was the carousel, a bit blurry too. He glanced to the corner of the picture, seeing a line of light red numbers. He squints to see them, the light red almost blending in with an orange wagon that seemed to be parked right there at the time of the image being taken.

"4/18 1995"

A date it seemed. They were only five years away from the beginning of the new millenium, Shining told him when he first showed him a calendar up in Canterlot.

He remembers it being this particularly 'insulting' picture of a mare splayed out, showing all her body. He blushes thinking about it before he shakes his head when Rarity was looking away, a yelp coming from her as a small cup full of pencils fellover.

"What umbrella do you use?" Red cocks an eyebrow, getting his answer with a point from the unicorn to behind him. A small, petite looking umbrella with some kind of design on it featuring some subdued blues, a bit of grey, and some purple. 

"Huh." he simply says, before looking back at her, "So, when shall I return it?"

"Return...?Oh! No no no, darling~" she chuckles, shaking her head,"~it's your's." 

Red blinks. He's only borrowing it, is he not? Maybe he misunderstood. 

"It's mine?" He asks for clarification, emphasizing rather heavily on mine.

"Yes, darling. Don't worry about me if that's what is bothering you." Rarity simply responds again, Red looking back at the umbrella.

Its just an umbrella, a rather mediocre gift when you think about it. But in the big picture, it’s very useful. He looks outside the door to a window all the way across the building, to faintly still see the light grey ‘filter’ the rain made on the darkness outside. The summer did seem to be a wet one, atleast down here.

A small smile appears on his muzzle before he finally walks out.

“Well, I shall be going.” He says as he walks out from the office, the unicorn looking after him with a gleeful grin.

“Oh, bye! Stay clean and dry, darling!” The alicorn hears her call out to him from behind just as he gets to the front door. He looks behind him, over at where he came from, before looking back at the door, his horn dimly glowing, holding the umbrella to his side and grasping the knob of the door. 

Another lightning bolt strikes relatively close as he cracks open the door, a strong breeze moving in to make his mane slightly waver. A slight mist of rain was felt on his face, a result of all the little droplets falling at almost the same exact time, so much water in the air.

He steps out, quickly closing the door behind him. He sighs, breathing through his nose as he searches for the release button. 

A little, plastic button with a metal lever inside of the umbrella pole itself was what he was looking for, his magic quickly depressing it. 

The umbrella flips open to begin to block rain...

And slap Red in the face, the alicorn growling while he quickly jerks his head off from the path of the umbrella, the part and the associated limb springing back up just to where his ears would’ve been.

He hangs it over himself, looking around while still holding the umbrella, before finally walking right, going into the town as his hooves make their characteristically heavy clip clop on the hard road.
> Chapter 25 - Think
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Sir Dusk? Are you alright?"

"Sir Dusk?"

"He must be in a daze from the teleportation, sir."

A clink and a small, insignificant force on Red's armor rouses the stallion from his thousand yard daze, the alicorn shaking his head and looking down at the culprit: A gruff Thestral stallion with the typical amber eyes and dark purple mane, looking up at him in his armor, chainmail and all.

"Oh, there he goes." the stallion says as he blinks, backing away as another, more wiry Thestral stallion approaches, adorned in a cloak whose hood went over his head, covering his mane and ears. His lighter, lemon yellow, slit eyes looked up at him.

"Sir Dusk, are you alright?" the small cloaked Thestral asked, the alicorn also noticing a book in the pit of one of the other Thestrals, a familiar black book. He squints at it, before looking back down at the cloaked stallion.

"I am fine, Initiate Mythic." his voice, deep and almost wise sounding, came out almost without Red even thinking about it. How did he know this pony's name, he asks himself as he looks over his legs, all coated in his signature armor, chainmail running along his body everywhere and many little plates covering it. They all jingle as he shakes his leg.

"Well... Are you ready for the four hundredth twenty eighth Feast of the Moon, Sir?" asks the armoured stallion, attracting the other cloaked Thestrals as Red blinks, almost in surprise.

The four hundredth twenty eight Feast of the Moon? he thought explicitly to himself, almost voicing his thoughts out loud. He looks around to see that it's his personal throne room in Hollow Shades.

Eight large, midnight purple banners bearing the simple yet powerfully symbolic white Crescent Moon adorned the wooden room, hanging from rafters leading from the big, decorated oaken doors to Red's throne.

Red's throne was that of aged, darkened wood with muted burgundy padding and a small stand for his halberd and another for his helmet to the sides of it, all three resting just beyond the final of three wooden steps. The throne was engraved with all sorts of runes and old Equestrian characters, with the back rest holding an iron moon to the sky.

All along the walls were stained glass with various shades of blue, purple, and violets that communicated stories of the centuries, mostly about Nightmare moon, but some about him.

Those about him had extra color to them: burgundy's and crimsons, two of which are the most common colors used to describe him, atleast color wise.

The pillars behind the banners were just as decorated as the stained glass, throne, and door. Many of them were actually engravings about Him, Red. He was the one supporting Nightmare Moon's regime, so it's only obligatory.

The one banner that got him was his. His banner, a sign of his nobility, a herald of his presence, a warning to all who opposed him in his own courts and land.

It held his sharp, diamond like helmet on the lower half, its vision port a dark abyss that stared down viewers of the banner. Most importantly, his recognizable, red four pointed star reigned supreme in this banner, its brighter red contrasting with its darker brothers.

Ofcourse, the banner itself is a tribute to Nightmare Moon. the crescent moon decorated the edges with its own purples and violets, a constant reminder of who was truly in charge, all the way up there.

It all flooded back. This dream is must simply be memory, a natural reminiscing of the past. He looks at all the different weapons and spies even more Thestrals, all wearing the same heavy armor as the other stallion - His Guard.

He bites his lip as he looks down again at the pony.

"Indeed, yes. Just ehhh... One question... Where's Grace?" the lesser pony is taken aback, and turns around, speaking in Prench, a few of these ponies being foreigners from around the region, while Red himself is surprised yet again by the lack of control he has in his own mind, but it is a memory at that.

Who was Grace? Red asked himself as he thought, before shaking his head,  giving up. No matter, anyway, for he should atleast be optimistic in spirit when the feast, the good part of this memory he hopes, begins.

"No idea, Your Majesty Sir Dusk, but do you wish to have some more time before the festivities start?" Red shakes his head 'no' and the stallion beams. The gruff stallion barks, yet rather quietly, at the other guards, who with bared teeth of anxiety put on their helmets and run behind him.

Red moves himself to align with the center of the door, the opening in the middle of his vision. Two guards, notably unicorns in their helmets with visors down, take places on two sides of the double door.

Looking behind him, left to right, he can see that the guard has four of themselves escorting their alicorn leader in a square formation, while the cloaked ponies are still in the back, conversing with eachother before making their way and surrounding Red.

One of the cloaked ponies, Mythic, carries a bowl of burning incense in his mouth, with a crescent moon hanging below it, the moon's concave shape pointed up at the bowl as it hangs by small chains. His four pointed star hangs below, in red copper.

Finally, the gruff stallion takes center, standing right infront of the alicorn before stamping his hoofs four times.

The doors open, white aura's of the two unicorns taking hold of the handles and pulling them, revealing a large, long hall with all the banners of both Nightmare Moon and Red Dusk. Multiple pots of fire illuminate the hall, the table and the guests sitting at said table.

Guests of all races, classes and gender sat in their respective seats, all looking at the opened door and therefore, Red Dusk. Servers walked about with amphoras full of wine, pouring the red liquid into the goblets of those who had just come in or those who had downed their's before Red appeared.

At the head of the table was Red's dining throne, as he liked to call it. He had his sitting throne, his thinking throne, and even his porcelain throne as 

The entire group escorting Red began to walk as he did so himself, coinciding with how the entire thing happened going by memory. The cloaked Thestrals whispered amongst eachother, the guards remained stoic as they moved, their hooves making metallic clip-clops.

He stops beside the throne, looking up and down both sides of the table, seeing his guests, before looking to his right side.

He could see three guards walking past the table with some of the initiates running past, going forth to the kitchen. The guards all stop, each one taking position at a pillar beneath a banner, their visors lowered. He could feel their eye's staring at him through their slits.

The alicorn, then looks down to his section of the table before stepping aside into a position in front of his seat, prompting a younger initiate to push in his chair for him to sit down, planting himself in its plump, comfortable cushioning.

The guard captain quickly takes his seat to the stallion's left, looking directly at him.

His armor clangs and his chainmail rattles, before all is silent in the feasthall, except for the cold wind outside and the cracking of the torches that illuminated the hall.

All eyes were on him, each with a different emotion to the other beside them. Some of them were nervous, new friends of the knight. Others were patient and comfortable, usually the older, more acquainted colleagues of Red's.

The silence is broken as a door being opened could be heard, along with the sound of hurried clip-clops. An initiate canters over, a unicorn, holding a black, metallic amphora holding the crescent moon on it, with stars and white on its edges.

She hurries over, Red glancing over to see her blue eyes. She seemed nervous to be this close to him, filling his large goblet, filling it with a dark, purplish liquid; wine of a special make. 

She finishes pouring it in, the initiate bowing her head and muttering a prayer of sorts under her breath, before wheeling about and going back to the kitchen, the door closing with a rush of air and a slam.

It was quiet once again. Someone sniffles at the other end of the table, maybe some one has gone down with a cold? He wonders, but he rises, goblet in the cleft of his hoof.

He clears his throat, remembering how to do his royal Equestrian voice. A useful skill for talking to guests in a big room, he supposed.

He smacks his lips, before beginning.

"Welcome! Esteemed guests of Hollow Shades, rightful territory of Her Excellency, Nightmare Moon! I trust that your journeys to here have been safe and wrought with good fortune, considering you are here and intact, and I also trust that you are warm and comfortable with what amenities my castle staff have been able to provide you."

A synonymous "Aye!" comes from those sitting at the table, the alicorn smiling to himself, before shivering as a small draft blows in before the sound of a door being closed is heard.

Everyone's head turns, before a tall pony in a dark purple cloak with a crescent moon, escorted by two initiates, walks in. 

The pony shakes off its hood, before revealing it was another Thestral, but with lime green eyes and long, drooping hair. Her eyes wander over to meet Red's as she walks over to a seat to his right.

It's the religious matriarch, Grace. Young, but he liked her, less zany than the one before. She looks up at him, before nodding for him to continue. He exhales shakily, jittery from the sudden cold.

"As I was about to say, I hope that your stay here has made this holiday worth your time. I know most of you have kingdoms to rule, armies to command, and taxes to collect, and I understand if you had to forgo being here for that. However, if you are here, even with such responsibilities, then I thank you. It is all very swell to have such friends of The Empress by my side. Now, let us eat! Luna resurgemus!" he raises his goblet into the air sharply, a drop of it spilling out before he takes a nice sip of the sweet nectar. His tongue flicks in his mouth as it takes the nice, sweet taste of the brew as he sits down, everyone chanting the phrase almost at the same time.

The hall descends into them talking between eachother and the drinking of wine as Red sits down, looking around. The Matriarch snorts, before looking over at Red.

"How has the North been?" she asks inquisitively, the Thestral taking up her own cup of wine and sipping it, putting it back down.

"Cold, snowy, brutal. I lost four men to winter's bite, but we were able to reach the castle. Except it was not a castle. Just, rubble." she raises her eyebrow, shaking her head.

"What do you mean rubble? Those were one of our best strongholds, that has held all of our scrolls and texts since you came around three centuries ago. Were there any left?"

He swishes his wine around, sighing.

"None. They found the vault and took everything, including burned a sizable portion, judging from a pile of ash in the corner." he speaks with dismay, seeing Grace fume with anger, the mare huffing before taking a nice long drink of her wine. Red rolls his eyes, before continuing.

"We found the frozen bodies of all our troops there and it was obvious Captain Topaz was there, along with Celestia.  Most of the bodies found were officers, and out of five hundred as reported, we only found four hundred fifty eight, meaning she took some prisoner." he takes another sip of the well crafted wine, swishing it around in his mouth before looking up to see that some of the initiates were arriving with food.

"She's a bitch, plays with her food." his guard captain starts, his goblet resting on his lips by the time Red's eyes coast over to lock with his.

"I'm not surprised she took our men, she wants information on where Hollow Shades is and she also probably wanted information on the whereabouts of my army. She knows that we're about to make a move, she can feel it." the alicorn continues, looking into his goblet as the waves begin to get smaller and smaller from movement. A shake of the table changes this, the waves coming from the edges once again as it shook.

"I just wish we could get done with these wars and control Canterlot already. We've lost thousands of men over the course of decades to her armies, a miraculous achievement for them." the captain whines, before he's alerted to the arrival of an initiate with food.

He lays down the tin plate in front of him, a salad with potatoes, some radish, carrots, just a general variety of cut up, steamed vegetables including a wedge of gorgonzola cheese. 

Red gets his own dish, a small tin platter with it's edges decorated in a shiny, polished copper.

The food present on the plate consisted of breaded river trout, a salad with some potatoes, bread, a sweet dressing, squash, you name it. Red's tongue pops out to lick his teeth, before his fork floats up to impale a piece of the fish, putting it into his mouth.

At the corners of his eyes, he could see both his captain and Grace shift in their seats uncomfortably while looking at him. He could not blame them, the practice of eating meat in Equestria as a pony is taboo, and this carries on to Hollow Shades, his home turf.

"Anyways... Lord Dusk, have you had any confrontations with Celestia over the last few months before you went North?" Grace asks, her fork laden with spinach and blue cheese.

The alicorn nods, taking another bite before beginning to speak, "Several. Though... Last one was, strange. Instead of actually meeting me, she just stalked me, studied me. It was when I was moving to the Everfree Forest castle ruins when I saw her silhouette against the night sky." Grace begins to lean in while he takes another bite, pausing.

"I felt a flurry of emotions as I tried to process why she wasn't down and doing what she usually did, which was to fight me..." He shakes his head, biting his tongue behind closed lips. 

He sighs, taking another bite as he felt something, almost a pressure, weigh in on his head metaphysically. It was gone by the time he gathered up some food with his fork.

"Like I said, she plays with her food like a cat. She's one for mind games, watching from afar."

"True. But this was unlike any other time. If she pulled this before, she would've attempted to get me to do something, try to trigger me to do something. But no, she just stood there... Unmoving... For about, twenty minutes" He blinks, looking at Grace as he goes for another bite of trout. She seemed concerned.

He looks away, his eyes scanning the table and his guests. The hall itself was alive with chatter and laughter from both sides of the table, with his own initiates fueling it as they brought in more wine.

Closest to him sat some of his most trusted allies, mostly warlords, rogue nobles, or opportunistic monarchs eyeing for a piece of the Equestrian cake. 

He recognized many friends in this section of the crowd, many of which were Griffons, one of which was a princess from a Northern Griffon state. He forgot her name, yes, but he remembers her even after all those years.

A dark feathered, slim man killer of a woman. Her amber eyes darted around the feast hall, before locking with his own. She smiles, the tension in her face loosening up before she looks back to the other side of the table.

He purses his lips, before looking further down the table, bringing up another bite of his fish, coupled with some of the salad components.

His army majors, merchants, mercenaries,  even defectors of Celestia's regime. All conversing, laughing and telling stories between one another. Only thing was, he wasn't talking with them.

Sure, he spoke to them after the feast usually, but the talk rarely led to anything objectively 'friend-like', such conversation s popping up regularly with his closest allies and even then, it's quick, straight to the point...

His head began going alive with thoughts, going so far as to begin warping the dream itself. Why could he not hold actual friendships with those he cared about apart from the problem that was ageless-ness? He always felt disconnected yet connected, despite his trying to make friends and liven up his admittedly miserable life.

Infact, why is he even continuing to fight this war? At that point even in the dream, he distinctly remembers being exhausted, tired of the constant fighting, the monotonous routine that was the missions for the Empress, his constant juggling of catering to her every whim be it following orders on Earth or serving to her needs on the moon.

The only times he felt true joy was when it just popped up after he completed missions, like a treat to a dog... or when he actually had a semblance of control over his life on the ground. He looks to his hooves, the scratched up underside of his sabatons showing a history of constant abuse, punishment endowed by their creator in his constant efforts to please an almost ungrateful controller who was with him, even on Earth.

As the thoughts grow deeper and deeper, surprisingly unimpeded, the alicorn suddenly feels somewhat of a sensation travel up his spine in a second. His eyes widen, his gaze darting to Grace. She seemed to be focused on her food, about halfway done, it seemed. 

He looks back down to his hooves, raising an eyebrow, only to see something of a 'tear'. A white that sparkled, almost snow white, that looked as if the floor was cloth that had been ripped.

He looks behind him, only to see something unexpected: he only saw snow, and a thick, white fog, as if it were snowing. 

He looks back to his front, to see that it was replaced with the same thing: nothing but snow. At this point, the noises of the feast hall had withered away, and he realized that he was now standing up, still in his armor.

Taking a step forward, the snow crunched underneath his right hoof while more snow fell down. He blinks as a snowflake falls down onto his eye, the cold stinging the moist ball.

His eyes open as fast as any usual blink, only with one final difference: he was in his helmet, he was in full plate.

The only vision he possessed was that with which the wide V of a vision port allowed him. He looks around, the helmet's lower edges rubbing against his neck plate.

It was oddly calming, peaceful. The air was chilly, yes, and the alicorn shuddered, but there was no breeze, and he felt no rush to get warm, for it felt as though his undergarments were just about enough.

The only question was... Why? Why is he here? Why did he suddenly-

A ghastly wail came from the distance infront of him. His blood froze, a sudden panic beginning to rise within him as another wail goes out.

Whispers from inside his helmet began to make an appearance, rising in volume as yet another wail goes out, this time closer. 

"Run. She's out to get you. Run." He slowly begins to wheel around to go in the other direction, the whispers growing in volume, before he hears yet another sound.

The sound of hooves beating on snow. 

Red immediately began to feel the need to run just in another direction from where he used to be facing, but at the same time, an almost garbled command to 'halt' entered his mind, from a familiar voice, one he heard recently.

The command to stop kept on filling his mind, but meanwhile, the command to run, fly, sprint, and bolt fought with it for control. Halt became less of a command said by a confident mare, but now by an uncertain one, almost one of someone unsure of what they had stumbled into but certainly aware of Red's presence.

He struggled to move as he attempted to process the sheer amount of information that was feeding into his head, before he saw it.

A black void in the shape of a pony, a unicorn it looked, was walking towards him. It's mane bounced and flowed as it comes to a stop infront of him.

All the whispers, commands, everything went silent. The only sound was Red's panicked breathing as he looked down upon the rather tall equine.

It looked up at him, turning his head before it spoke.

"Are...Not scared?" its voice echoed in his mind, the dream, his helmet. His ears lay flat against the flat top of his helmet in an involuntary yet desperate attempt to shut themselves out from the perceived 'physical' sound. He takes a big step back, groaning in pain.

The pony seemed startled by his scream of pain, looking to the ground, almost in shame. He looks back up to see this, the sound having gone. He takes this time to study it, before it throws its head up to look straight into his eyes. 

"Hurt?" the voice suddenly became a bit clearer, not to mention less ear piercing and more identifiable as a mare, with a familiar deep voice. He takes a step forward, moving his head to look at his flanks before looking straight at 'her'. He nods shallowly.

He begins to notice that 'her' body was flickering, almost as if either she was an anomaly, a mistake by his own mind that seemed to manifest itself in the bigger mistake... or an intruder that he was not meant to be here and is being removed by none other than...

In the time it took for him to think, the 'mare' took it upon herself to get his attention more directly. She pokes him in the helmet, pushing it back for it to fall back and rattle all the buckles and straps that helped keep it from slamming into him during times of heavy movement. 

The simple touch made a sizzling sound and an odd smell of... something he couldn't put his hoof on. Almost akin to the smell of an acid making contact with something and 'burning' it. It must be the paste that coated the surface of his helmet, like it did on every other plate that made up his suit of armor. 

"Eh?" The sizzle and the push was enough to break Red out of his stare, for him to notice that she was alittle closer, almost in his face. Where her eyes would be were staring right into his vision port.

She backs up, before extending a hoof.

"Touch..." she says, the alicorn looking at it, then back up to her. He points with his own hoof at her's.

She nods, her body flickering yet again.

"Why... Not?" he says to himself, picking up a hoof and slowly bringing it towards hers.

Quickly, the whispers and commands come again, flowing into his ears, from inside, outside, everywhere. His mind went alive with a demand.

"Stop!"

However, he felt a curiosity unlike any other, to touch... Just a prick. He blinks, his mouth hanging agape as everything else seemed to not matter except touching her hoof.

"I order you to cease! She is a false prophet!"

His lips slant as the true voice of the Nightmare in his mind took hold, her voice replacing every whisper, every command. Thousands of versions of her phrase echoed in his mind as his leg seemed to get heavier and harder to move every second.

His eyes began to water as he stared at her hoof, his hoof just milimeters away. He's so close...

Finally, his hoof makes contact, everything silent once again.

Was that all? he thought to himself, disappointed.

Suddenly, in an instant, the mare explodes into thousands of tiny black shards, filling his vision, but not before he saw one last thing.

A flash of blue.





The alicorn whips up in bed, panting. His body was covered in sweat as he looked around his dark room, terrified.

He looks at his hooves, before bringing one up for him to nip on the skin.

A sting of hard pain comes from it. He blinks, rubbing it on his blanket to feel it's nice, textile surface, a relief.

He was back in reality, but at a late time, it seemed, judging from the lack of light coming from under the door. He slumps back to allow his head to rest on his pillow, closing his eyes.

"Just a bad dream, just a bad dream..." he whispers to himself, attempting to assure himself as he mentally and physically prepares himself to get out of his bed.