The Wizard Red

After enduring the horrors inside the Carousel Boutique as Rarity's prisoner, Fyron was finally able to get her to Twilight's library. Just as the sun was setting. The others were all waiting when the two arrived. Fyron shinned as he walked in the door, his coat clean and spotless, his beautiful hat had been mended with great care and looked fantastic, and he wore a stunning red cape that Rarity made just for him. Rarity followed right behind, pausing in the doorway, for dramatic effect, letting the glow of the setting sun setting her aglow, and sparkling.

“Finally, I was getting worried,” said Twilight to the two as they walked in the door. “Applejack should have never sent you in there looking as you did.”

“Ah didn't think it'd be no problem. He seems fine to me.” replied Applejack.

Fyron looked over the group, “It was no trouble at all. In fact it was quite a experience, and I got my hat fixed.”

“Alright then, we're all here. Girls, you've all met Fyron,” said Twilight. “Today we were attacked by a strange pegasus.”

As Twilight filled in the rest of the girls as to what happened at Sweet Apple Acres, Fyron thought back on the day. He would have to be gone by morning. It would take some time for Dominix to report his location, but he shouldn't endanger these ponies any more. He would get what information he could and then depart in the night while they slept.

As Twilight finished up explaining what happened she turned to Fyron, “How do you know this pegasus?”

Fyron looked down at the ground for a moment before looking up at the six ponies, “He is a agent of the one seeking to stop me. I will say no more, I will not endanger you any more.”

“Now don't be stubborn. We're your friends, and we're going to help you,” said Applejack.

“Truly, I appreciate the offer, but the best help you can give me is to provide me with information.” came a sad reply from the lavender unicorn.

“Oh! He is after information about the deepest parts of the Everfree forest. Have any of you ever been deeper than the princesses old castle?” asked Twilight.

“You know where the old castle is?!” blurted out Fyron, quite excitedly.

Rainbow Dash looked at Fyron funny, “Duh, it's only where I whooped Nightmare Moon!” she said as she jumped up into the air and gave a few jabs at a imaginary foe.

“Ah?” Applejack said, scowling at Dash.

Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head with a hoof and chuckled, “Well, where we whooped her.”

“Yes, we do, it's where we found the Elements of Harmony,” replied Twilight, looking at Dash's display.

Fyron's excited expression changed to one of dread. “You found the Elements of Harmony?” This is bad he thought. Timidly he asked “You are the Elements wielders?”

The group looked at him funny. “Well of course we are silly! Who else did you think we were! The French Royal court?” The group's funny looks turned from Fyron to Pinkie Pie.

Twilight asked Fyron, “Is there a problem Fyron?” she asked, wondering what had caused the sudden change in mood in the lavender unicorn.

“Nope,” he blurted. Quickly noticing the suspicious stares from those around him, he calmly said, “Nothing is wrong. I simply did not realize that you were the wielders of the elements.”

This is bad he thought. They are the elements wielders? Then they have a direct connection with her. He should leave before she finds him or they figure out who he is.

“Would you be able to point me in the direction of the princesses old castle?” Fyron asked the group in front of him.

“We'd be happy to show you the way tomorrow,” Twilight replied, the other ponies nodding in agreement.

“That's very generous, but unnecessary, I would like to set out tonight, and preferably alone,” Fyron said.

“Darling, why would you want to set foot in that dreadful forest at night, alone?” Rarity shivered as she thought about entering the forest at night again.

“This is something I must do alone,” Fyron looked at the ground, “I don't want anypony else to come to any harm on my account. There simply is no reason for it. I will take my leave alone, and at once.”

Rainbow Dash flew over to the door and blocked it, “You aren't going anywhere without us, and there is no point in arguing with us over it.”

Suddenly there was a loud belch from upstairs, and a moment later Spike walked down the stairs with a scroll in his hands. He unrolled the scroll and cleared his throat, took in a deep breath and loudly proclaimed, “Spike ple-” he cut off as he finished reading it to himself.

“What is it Spike?” Twilight said as she walked over to Spike, looking over his shoulder at the note.

Spike looked at Twilight, “do you think it's true?”

Spikes only reply came from Twilight Sparkles horn lighting up and a magical bubble encasing Fyron.

The lavender unicorn looked irritated, “What is the meaning of this?!” he demanded.

“I can't believe it. You've been playing us for fools all along!” she growled at him. “To think we thought you were our friend!”

“It is not as it seems, you are being lied to,” he said, his horn lighting up, causing the purple shield encasing him to pop like a bubble. “I have no intentions of fighting you, but I will defend myself if I have to.”

Twilight glared angrily at him, “You're right! We're being lied to by you!”

“What in tarnation!?” shouted Applejack as a beam of magic shot out of her horn, slamming into a shield that Fyron had brought up before himself.

“The Princess says that he is evil and that we must stop him at all costs!” she shouted as she fired another beam at him. Fyron fired his own beam, and they intersected in the air, causing a shocking explosion which caused everyponies hair to stand on end.

The two unicorns stared each other down. Twilight's eyes lit up as she floated into the air, building up magical energy. Fyron gritted his teeth, preparing to counter the attack. He didn't want to cause any more damage or harm than was necessary. They were clearly innocents in this. Twilight released the blast from her horn, it shown a bright white, focused directly on Fyron. Fyron, grit his teeth and focused on creating a shield from the attack, but it was far more powerful than he expected, and it pushed through his defenses, lucky only grazing his side, burring his right shoulder. Suddenly there was a strong kick on his flank that sent him spinning. He had been so focused on Twilight that he hadn't even noticed her. As soon as he recovered enough to stand straight and face the two, he was hit in the back of the head by a large cake, followed by a giggle. He once more had to raise a shield to block Twilight's attack once more, but was hit by Applejack at the same time, causing him to lose his focus and get blasted in the chest by the near full force of Twilight's blast.

Rainbow Dash swooped in and tackled him from behind, pinning him down under her. Twilight's horn lit up once more, her magic encasing Fyron in a tight bond.

“Rarity, focus on keeping him from using any magic,” the purple unicorn grunted, though her spell.

Rarity looked at Fyron, a single tear rolled down her eye as her horn lit up, focused on making sure any of Fyron's spells fizzled before they could get off.

“Applejack, help me tie her down.” Rainbow Dash said to the stunned earth pony.

As they each set about their tasks no pony noticed the strange things he was mumbling, suddenly there was a violent explosion of force, and all the ponies in the room were sent flying, the books all fell off their selves, the whole tree shook.

“ENOUGH!” the lavender unicorn shouted. “Your 'princess' is the evil one,” he spat. “I have spent my entire life fighting to stop her!”

The ponies slowly began to stand up. “You lie! The princess is good!” shouted Rainbow Dash.

“Why should we believe anything you say?” asked Applejack. “The Princess says you're evil, so you're probably lying to us.”

“I have no way to prove it,” Fyron said solemnly. “I can only tell you what she has done. Nothing more.”

“That so? Well what has she done that's so evil?” Rainbow Dash asked flying right up into Fyron's face.

“I have done nothing evil,” came a soft voice from the balcony above them. Princess Celestia stood looking down upon all of them.

The Elements of Harmony all bowed before the princess. “So we finaly meet,” she said looking at Fyron as she slowly floated down.

Fyron hastily started spewing arcane words.

“Oh, we'll have none of that!” said Celestia, almost playfully. Suddenly his mouth clamped shut. “None of that dark magic shall be had here. I've been hunting you for a long time. I'm glad to have finally caught you.  You've been a thorn in my side for far to long. You will no longer be able to interfere.”

“Princess, what is that?” asked the ever inquisitive Twilight.

“It's nothing you should concern yourself with,” she said, never taking her eyes off her prize.

“But it seems like normal magic? How can that be bad? Does that mean unicorns are bad? It doesn't make any sense,” she pressed.

“Twilight, my faithful student, not everything is meant to be known by everypony, and this is one of those things,” Celestia said, turning her stern gaze upon her.

Twilight looked at Celestia, she had never seen her act this way before. She was always kind and gentle. Even when Discord had attacked she didn't act this way. Something was wrong. She turned her gaze to the pony that was fighting to get his mouth open.

“I will be taking him to Canterlot castle, where he will be punished for his crimes. Thank you for your assistance in capturing him,” she said to everypony in the room.

The ponies in the room all bowed to her, as her horn lit up. In a bright flash they disappeared, leaving the 6 stunned ponies standing in the wrecked library.

“Now what was that all about?” asked Applejack.

“He didn't seem very evil.” said Fluttershy, picking up a book and placing it on a shelf.

“What about the pony that attacked Fluttershy earlier? He defiantly wasn't very nice, and who was the 'she' he was talkin' about?” said Applejack.

“I don't know girls. The princess would never lie to us, but there is defiantly something she isn't telling us,” Twilight looked around the destroyed library. “I will do some studying, but I don't think I have anything here that will help. We should all turn in for the night.”

The five ponies departed from Twilight's library a short time later, after helping place the books back on their shelves.

Spike walked over to his bed. “What do you think Twilight?”

“The princess said he was evil, so he has to be, right?”

“I guess,” Spike said with a shrug. “Doesn't make much sense to me.”

“Why would the princess not want me to know about this 'dark' magic? Is it dangerous? Is it evil? Can magic be evil? It doesn't make sense for magic to be evil. Magic simply is. It's not good or evil, good and evil is determined by who is using it. So if he was evil using magic, then...” she ranted as Spike covered his ears with his pillow.

After several more minutes, Spike said, “Why don't you go to the old castle in the woods? Fyron seemed rather interested in it. Maybe you can find some books there?”

“Spike! You're a genius!” Twilight exclaimed. “I'll have to get the girls tomorrow and we'll head out!”

Spike, just grateful for some quite, quickly fell asleep.