Little Redd: the Lost Concept of Peace

by Boondock Panther

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Alternate Universe, Romance
Length: 30798

Chaos is a clever thing. It seeks you out from the beginning, and makes you believe the choice is yours to be made. Follow Little Redd and her silently burning hoofprints as she tears away from Discord's grasp and fights for her own redemption

Lost. What does it mean to be lost? Perhaps getting emotionally traumatized as a filly, then being brought up by the Spirit of Chaos and getting taught that nothing good is worth her time. If that is your definition, then Little Redd is lost… until she sees the results of what they've done firsthand.
And then of course, Hawk Eye comes into the picture.

*Rated Teen for Sexual References, Alcohol, and 'Special' Language. Sadly, I can't say exactly when updates will occur, as my life is too hectic to predict.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-08-29 03:04:17 UTC

Pinkie Power

Chapter Two

Pinkie Power

Another failed note struck sourly against the treble guitar, the drunken musician finding it difficult to keep her next few notes in mind.  Vinyl Scratch was frowning, adjusting the various volumes on stage to cooperate with the alcohol that had been snuck into the concert.  She had had a mug herself, but had realized what was going on with the mares on stage before she could finish her first, much less get her hooves on another.  She glanced up at Scootaloo, who was probably wondering why she couldn’t have any Apple juice.  But no, Vinyl soon confirmed, Scootaloo was freaking out trying to balance on Rainbow Dash’s shoulders while her drunken wings beat unevenly.  The poor kid probably wouldn’t want to fly anymore, much less try.  Once the dials were set, the switches flipped, and her ears once more enjoying the music, her attention wondered to the back of the crowd, where there was a bit of commotion building up.

“Pinkie, those—you—what—UUGH!”

Twilight’s eyes were bulging out of her head, looking like a pair of Pinkie’s balloons.  The alternative music was acidic to her patience, and her precious books being reduced to confetti, oooh.  Oooh.  No.  Last straw.

“How can—I can’t—how did—you can’t—you just—“

“I’m sorry…”

“NO!  Sorry doesn’t... cut…”

The fury faded from her eyes, and she threw herself back on her haunches, sighing.  She looked at Pinkie.  She was lying on her back, her forelegs tucked up at her chest.  Her pink friend’s eyes were huge, her mouth agape, mane completely flat.  But most of all, she was crying.  She wasn’t making a sound, her eyes following only Twilight’s.  But she was still crying, thin tears running down her cheeks.  She rolled to her side, curled up in a ball, and started sobbing.  Twilight was conflicted as to what to do.  She wanted to comfort Pinkie, but for some reason, her heart told her not to.  It wouldn’t let her stand, it wouldn’t let her move.  It just left her paralyzed sitting there, watching the aftermath of a rage that she’d never seen, much less felt.  Rainbow Dash came over, flushed, stumbling and tripping, giggling at nothing, and looked at Twilight, then Pinkie.  She made a face, and retreated back into the crowd.  Twilight couldn’t help but wonder what was happening.  Was it the cider?  Was everypony just in a bad mood?  And how in Tautarus did Pinkie make her books explode in confetti?

___________________________

Applejack once again left the house, feeling the cool moonlight wash over her.  Applejack stood there for a moment before getting an indescribable inkling to leave the farm for a while.  She headed off down the road, and out of nowhere, something smacked into her from above with a freaky buzzing sound.  Looking at the fallen load, she discovered Scootaloo lying across her flank.  Applejack’s jaw dropped.

“…Owww…”

“Scootaloo, did—did ya just fly?”

“I, eh, yeah actually.”

Scootaloo got up, and Applejack immediately followed.

“But… how?”

She flushed.

“Well, Rainbow Dash passed out mid-flight trying to dance to her favorite song, and I sorta just… flew.  It wasn’t something I coulda forced, I mean, I probably won’t be able to do it again, but…”

She fidgeted, pawing at the ground a bit.

“To be honest, I’m pretty thankful it happened.  The ponies were all acting sorta funny.”

AJ’s frown didn’t bother hiding itself.

“Uh… funny?”

“Something about apple juice.”

Applejack’s eyes widened.

“Apple juice as in, the Apple juice?”

Scootaloo didn’t really get the question.

“Uh, I guess?”

AJ sighed.

“Go inside, sugarcube.  Ah got some necks ta wrangle.”

_________________________________

Applejack raced through Ponyville, a dark expression across her face, her Stetson clinging to her mane by the threads of a miracle.  Her lasso was in her teeth, and all she could do was hope.

Please be there, please be there, please be filing through late letters, please don’t let it by anypony else…

Applejack burst into the Ponyville post office, eyeing her surroundings.  The lobby was empty, the leftward end of the back wall had a counter, and behind it, a deep brown stallion, writing poetry by the magic of his horn, of which was a deep red.  His eyes snapped to her before he swiped the paper into his lap.

“Good evening, Applejack.  Can I help you?”

Applejack hung her lasso on the door handle to let herself speak.

“Is Derpy available?”

_______________________________________

Henry picked up the blue mare purely out of recognition that she was Fluttershy’s friend.  Heaving her over his shoulder, he kept a gentle claw on her to keep her from slipping off.  The poor bear was beginning to see stars in his vision though because Fluttershy wouldn’t stop jumping and dancing on his head.  Henry found this new side of Fluttershy interesting, but painful.  Just as he was considering losing conscience, those infuriatingly loud things stopped making sound, and the ponies playing them left the platform.  All the ponies around him were now even louder, and he started twitching, his left paw cringed, and, looking don, he realized he’d accidentally cut the unconscious pony lying on his shoulder.  Her cutie mark was cut through and bleeding.  His eyes widened, and he turned around, looking for his other friend, before, with a good hard knock, remembering that she was on his head.  He walked to the back of the crowd, being careful not to tread on any ponies, and set the blue Pegasus carefully on the ground in front of the purple mare who he also understood as a friend.  He then gently grabbed Fluttershy, and set her down beside the two as well.  It took her a moment to realize what the bear meant.  After noticing the damage which, up close, was discovered to be a lot worse than originally anticipated, Fluttershy gasped, and immediately set to work on her injured friend.  The purple one just sat around, not really doing anything.  She saw that the Pegasus was hurt, she just seemed unable to act.  Almost as if she were honestly paralyzed.  Suddenly a roar erupted beyond the crowd, silencing everyone, even making Henry turn.

Applejack soared through the air, her lasso in her mouth, her eyes alight with fury, her nostrils flared.  Even the pair of derpy eyes a few feet below hers were intimidating.  Derpy alighted atop the nearest building, only about ten feet from the left edge of the crowd.

“NOW!”  Applejack got off of Derpy, standing on her hind legs.

“WHARE THA HELL IS MY CIDER!?”

Woah Nelly

Chapter Three

Woah Nelly

“NOW!”

Applejack got off of Derpy, standing on her hind legs.

“WHARE THA HELL IS MY CIDER!?”

She was continuously blowing plumes of smoke from her muzzle, her mane crazily waving about her face and her Stetson doing the same thing.  She had her lasso looped around her shoulder and under one arm.  Rainbow Dash jerked awake.

"I didn't take it!  Flutterhulk did it!"

She leapt to her hooves only for her weight to fall back from under her.  She yelped, and glanced down at her still-bleeding flank.  Fluttershy was taken aback.

"Well, now we know who the scape-pony is!" she said in her feeble whisper-tone.

Fluttershy, of course, had had her own fair share of cider, her bright coat failing to hide her flushed cheeks.

"Henry, take me home, please." she said, her nose in the air.

The bear grunted, carefully cradled the pony in his arms, and started back towards Ponyville.

"I'l see you when my hangover's passed, Rainbow Dash"

"...Geez, the venom..."

"HENRY!"

The entire gathering, including Henry, turned to Applejack, who hadn't lost a step in her fury.

"Keep her safe.  Get outta here."

The bear turned and went on his way.

"Derpy."

Immediately Derpy saluted AJ.

"Yes-ma'am-your-highness-ma'am-Applejack?"

Applejack glared at the four ponies before her.

"Round 'em up.  Be careful with Rainbow, Pinkie... just leave Pinkie be.  Get Twilight to the library; she needs some one-on-one time with a book or two.  Find Rarity and restrain her.  You know how she gets when she's drunk."

AJ handed Derpy her lasso.

"Why do I have to do so much?" she whined.

"Fer one, if Ah touch any of 'em, they won't live ta see tomorrow.  Two, ya don't."

The Pegasi of the mail team strode up behind Applejack on the roof, taking Derpy by surprise.

"Ah organized fer more than you, Ah jest didn't think one o' them would be able ta carry me up here.  You cooperate, Ah'll have Granny Smith make ya a traditional Apple family muffin."

Derpy gasped, nice and long, before hyperventilating.  One of the rarest things happened then.  Derpy's eyes straightened out, fixed on her targets, and commanded her squad with a seriousness.

"Secure the hostiles!"

The mail team leapt off the building in synchronicity, swooping down like dark blue eagles.  Just as a white Pegasus was about to snatch her from the ground, Rainbow Dash smiled.

"Excuse me."

And darted to the side.

He kept going, unable to slow down, until he smashed into the stone brick wall of another building across the street.

"I refuse to lose my dignity to you."

She turned to Applejack.

"Hey, AJ!  You mad at me alone, or somepony else too?"

"...Honestly?"

"You know it."

"Just you."

And, in a split-second, Dash was next to her, forelegs crossed, drifting to the roof.

"Then hit me."

A second passed.  Two.  Three.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because if Ah do, it'll be with a buck, not a cloppin'.  And if Ah buck you, those purdy magenta eyes o' yers won't be quite so purdy anymore."

RD laughed.

"You like my eyes?"

"Not anymore."

________________________________________

"She hasn't left for days.  I don't know why, I guess she was there when the fight occurred."

Lyra and Bon Bon gasped.

"Wow.  That's deep."

Applejack sat in room 211, on a stool beside Dash's bed.  The farmer had fallen asleep, once again, and was beginning to become too thin for it to be healthy.  She jerked awake as her friend stirred,  rubbing her head.

"...Hey...AJ."

"Mm?"

"You shoulda been there.  I have the worst hangover right now... it had to've been awesome."

"...RD, that headache probably isn't from the cider."

"I know Applejack.  Just trying to act like it never happened."  AJ's eyes fell.

"...Oh..."

The silence extended for at least ten minutes before Dash broke it again.

"Why?"

AJ frowned.

"Pardon?"

"Why're the Apples so possessive over their cider?"

Her eyes fell again.

"...Ah don't rightly know, sugarcube.  Ah've never... Ah've never been that angry before.  I don't get it.  It's just a drink, why'd I get so mad?"

Rainbow stared at her.

"I just asked you that question, Applejack."

"And Ah said Ah don't know!"

"Ahem."

They both jumped at the disturbance.  Little Redd shyly shuffled into the room, taking a seat at the second stool on Rainbow's other side.

"How're you feeling?"

"Like I've been bucked by an apple farmer.  How 'bout you?"

Redd cringed, at the subject of herself or a kick to the head, they couldn't tell.

"F-fine."

She turned to Applejack.

"Are you doing well?"

AJ avoided her eyes.

"No."

"Oh?  What's wrong?"

The farmer hesitated.

"...Ah- Ah've been gettin' angry flashes.  All day yesterday, and the day before, ever since Ah bucked Rainbow a good one."

Redd tensed.  Applejack didn't catch it, but Rainbow's attentiveness wouldn't let her miss it.

____________________________________________________________

"Just for the record, I'm fine."

Applejack wouldn't stop mentally kicking herself for bucking Rainbow Dash over the edge of a building, and Dash just kept saying that she was unscathed.  Her swollen eye was still in a pretty nasty state in contrast to the beautiful East Orchard behind her, but the hospital had let her out anyway the day before.  AJ simply sighed.

"Have you seen Redd around recently?"

"Pardon?"

Rainbow turned to face her friend, cocking her good brow.

"You know, Little Redd?  Have you seen her around?"

Applejack mirrored Dash's brow.

"No, is there somethin' you need me ta tell her?"

RD kept walking.

"Not really, just wondering if you'd seen her.  She's a little... weird, ya know?  Silent."

Applejack looked down, taking a sudden interest in her hooves.

"Yeah.  Ah know what ya mean.  She probably just has a history.  A dark past."

Rainbow Dash sighed, her wings fluttering uncomfortably.

"I guess.  Maybe."

______________________________________________

The mare in question was walking silently through the Everfree along the edge of the West Orchard, nosing through the thin path towards the top of a hill.  She had brought saddlebags and a cloth-covered wicker basket.  Sliding out from between the underbrush, she hopped the low fence and kept going into Apple property.  Reaching the crest of the hill, her stark white mane shone orange when seen by the morning horizon.  Her eyes, too, were stained a bright orange against the sun.  Her hooves were picking up high, cooperating with her unusual attitude, and she leaned back on her haunches under a large apple tree.  The saddlebags slipped off, the wicker basket with them, and gently touched the soft grass as she turned around, and set up her tablecloth.  She picked out a tin tray, four ceramic teacups and a steaming pitcher, organizing them in a simple pattern on the platter.  Then she took out a dandelion sandwich, her favorite.  Pouring her lone cup of tea, she took a bite of the sandwich and leaned her shoulder against the tree, for once at peace.

_________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash looked up.

"Maybe she's an orphan?  That would mess me up."

Applejack glared at her, still walking.

"It didn't mess me up, did it?"

Rainbow flinched.

"You know I didn't mean it like that, AJ."

Applejack looked ahead again.

"Ah know.  It still hurts though."

For a split-second, something reflected the sun's rays in her eyes a long ways off, but she couldn't really see anything through her apple trees.  She shrugged it off.

They were almost out of the East Orchard when they heard a scream in the direction of the farmhouse.

__________________________________________________

Redd sat leaned against the tree, eyeing the horizon without making a sound.  She had drank her fill of tea, eaten her fill of dandelions, and watched her fill of sunrise as she began to drift off to sleep.  Suddenly pain flashed through her left hindleg, and in an instant she was awake again.  A timber wolf had her hoof in it's jaw, thrashing it back and forth violently.  She screamed, kicked the beast in the head with her good leg, and rolled down the hill towards the sun.  Snapping back to her hooves, she gasped as her weight landed on the bleeding ankle.  She collapsed, and aimed her horn at the oncoming timber wolf, a weak beam knocking it back with a yelp into a tree.  She got back up, and limped towards the Everfree at an unforgiving pace.  She heard a growl as something pulled her tail out from under her, overbalancing her and making her fall on her side.  The timber wolf was smoking at the chest, and the smell of a fire filled the air around it.  It released her tail, and leapt at her neck.  She blocked the bite with her left hoof and beat it with her right.  More blood was pouring out of her foreleg by the time she shot the wolf in the head, and it still wouldn't let go despite the embers creeping along its cheek.

It swiped her cheek, and she felt the blood flow again.  She shot it again, blowing the right side of it's head into the fields.  It tore into her foreleg again with the few teeth it had left in its mouth, opening the wounds wider, before the remainder of the head was suddenly scattered across the field with a blur.

Rainbow Dash ran up to her, worry tracing her swollen features.

"Are you okay?"

"It's coming back!"

Redd screamed, attempting to get back on her hooves.  She groaned, buckled, and stayed on the ground.  She couldn't see around the bright blue Pegasus.

"The timber wolf is dead."

Despite Rainbow's statement, Redd could hear it rebuilding itself.

"No, it isn't!"

"Give her a minute.  Can you walk?"

"Her?  Who?"

A lasso shot out from behind Rainbow Dash, hauling a small dead sapling out of the ground before shooting back out of sight.  Redd could hear the weight smashing into the wolf, sending various sticks and twigs flying out from behind Rainbow Dash.  After a minute, a fire lit and Applejack trotted over, hardly winded.  She asked the same question.

"Redd!  Can ya walk?"

"I don't think so."

Rainbow Dash laid down.

"Help her on me, AJ."

Redd pulled her load onto Rainbow's back, Applejack nosing her the whole way.

Hospitality

Chapter Four

Hospitality

"I'm fine!"

"You are going to the hospital!"

Cresting another hill, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Little Redd were faced with the farmhouse and barn just a few hundred feet ahead.

"Just drop me off at the barn!"

Rainbow Dash glared at her.

"No."

Applejack ground to a halt, Redd shifting on her back a bit.  Having not expected the stop, Rainbow Dash kept going for a second before turning around and coming back.

"AJ, what're you doing?  She is bleeding out!"

Applejack's eyes locked with Dash's.

"If she wants ta stop here, she can stop here.."

Applejack looked at Redd's face hanging over her shoulder, who regarded her with eye contact.

Little Redd slipped off of Applejack's back and gasped as her weight hit her left side, wincing as she forced her torn muscles to function.

Turning to face her, worry worked it's way into Applejack's eyes.

"You sure 'bout this Redd?"

"Y-yes."

Redd started limping down the farm's path before turning back to the farmer.

"Applejack?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

. . . .

"Hey, what about me?"

__________________________________

Rainbow Dash hovered around relaxing on the breeze, giving commands to a few newbie Weather Team members.  To be honest, they weren't doing the best of jobs trying to eradicate the small storm Dash had blown up for practice.  Their form was off, they hardly knew what half the terms meant, and they weren't using the proper technique for certain clouds.  One of the stallions joining the team accidentally left somewhat of a charge in one of the clouds before preparing to break it, and Rainbow Dash decided to let him learn for himself why procedure was procedure.  He shot at the cloud, actually looking somewhat impressive, until he smashed into the ball of electricity with a hindleg extended.

CRACK!

The stallion ricocheted back in the direction he came, smoking a bit at the ears.

"Omigosh, Miss Dash, Bender just got electrocuted!"

A young mare who looked an awful lot like Derpy shouted before diving after Bender Breaker.

"He'll be fine.  He doesn't want to listen, he doesn't have to.  That doesn't mean he's gonna be babied and given chance after chance."

"But--"

"But what if this were a real job?  What if he was alone, like so many ponies have to be when there aren't any more to spare?"

"But--"

She deflated.

"Fine."

"Now, if you wouldn't mind, Mr. Knowitall needs a capable hoof to properly dispose of a storm cloud.  He's gonna be out of business for the rest of the day."

"I thought you said he would be fine?"

"I did.  I didn't say he wouldn't be broken."

The storm finally gone, Rainbow Dash dismissed the session and finally stopped controlling where the wind took her.  After a few minutes, she cracked an eye open to see where exactly she was.

Right over Sweet Apple Acres.  Seeing the farm below her made Rainbow Dash think about the encounter with Little Redd, the whole argument, and her ridiculous stubbornness.

What was she even doing there?

Out of curiosity, Rainbow Dash dove out of the sky, headed for the place of action.

Bottom of a hill, West Orchard, near the Everfree--

Dash facehoofed.

Duh.  She was probably in the Everfree and ran out in the open when she was being attacked.  But still...

Determined to see if that was the situation, she lowered her altitude until her hooves brushed the ground.  Then she slowed down and set her weight firmly on the grass, not missing a beat.  Looking out over the battlefield, she could see the sapling that Applejack had used as a bludgeon.  It was smashed apart, a large clod of dirt still attached to the roots.  Burnt sticks lay scattered across the ground, and a pile of ash marked the timber wolf's final resting place.  Then there was the blood wiped across the grass in places, making the green blades look like they had been the ones doing the cutting.  Stepping out of the shade of the trees, a glimmer of light caught the corner of her eye.  She trotted over to the shiny object to find a ceramic tea setup, a wicker basket next to it.  Another small patch of blood had dried under the tree.

I need to make it rain around here soon.

She bent down, and smelled the contents of the pitcher.

It's tea, but it's familiar.  Kinda flowery.  Where have I--

Her face quirked up.

"...Zecora made this..."

_____________________________

A magenta eye stared from around the darkness of a tree, zeroing in on Zecora through her window.

"And just as Daring Do was about to infiltrate the dark temple of Maessaeroic, suddenly a--"

"You know she can hear you, right?"

Rainbow Dash screamed, and clung to the tree she was hiding behind.

"Who's there?  Show yourself!"

"You know, I appreciate the gesture, but your crotch is in my face."

Leaping away from the tree, Rainbow Dash gaped down at a wide wooden face that looked like it had been carved onto the trunk.  Her features stiffened, and she bucked the tree in the nose.

"Oooow!"

"That was for being a pervert."

She kicked it again.

"Ooowwwwww!"

"That was for blowing my cover."

"Sorry, but you blew your cover."

She bucked the tree a third time, sending it's nose flying into the underbrush.

Zecora looked up from her cauldron.

"In your eyes, a conflict lies.  Unspoken, 'twill be your mind's demise."

"Well, not really... it's about Little Redd."

"What's up?"

Rainbow Dash jumped, toppling backwards off of her stool.  Redd stood in Zecora's door, bandages on her left ankles and scratch marks left on her cheek.  Her brow furrowed, and her eyes got large.

"Are you alright?  Did I frighten you?"

She became sheepish.

"I'm sorry..."

Zecora pursed her lips and moved for the door.

"To collect the willow's bone, I shall leave you two alone."

Redd stepped deeper within the tree to let the zebra by, and helped Dash to her hooves.

"Thanks.  So, "

Staring after Zecora, RD turned back to Little Redd.

"how did you two meet?"

Redd casually met her gaze.

"She knew my parents before she came here."

"Oh."

That was... vague.

Dash tapped the cauldron with her hindleg.

"Y' know what's in there?"

"Smells like jasmine."

Rainbow Dash facehoofed.

"I know what it smells like.  Do you know what it is?"

After a moment she shook her head.

"No.  Tea?"

Silence fell between them.

... Wow...

"You have a passion for that stuff, don't ya?"

Redd's brow cocked.

"I... suppose."

She shook the expression off her face, and became serious.

"Look, not to be rude, but if you just want to talk about my beverage preferences then I have other things I need to do."

Rainbow smirked.

"Okay."

They stared each other down for another minute.

"Alright."

Redd turned out the door, kicking the tree as it wolf-whistled.  She only noticed she was being followed when she heard a thud behind her, back-to-back with another yelp of pain.

"Son of a bitch!"

"That was for good measure."

Redd turned.

"Why are you following me?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged, looking innocent aside from the smirk that was beginning to burn into Redd's mind.

"Don't really have anything to do, so... why not?"

Like Stink on Brit'

Chapter Five

Like Stink on Brit'

"Go home."

"Why?"

"Because I need you to."

"Uh-huh.  Where did you say you're from again?"

Redd's eyes flicked to the pegasus behind her before focusing on the trail again.

"I didn't."

They were most of the way out of the Everfree, and Redd was beginning to become irritated at her uninvited partner.

"Why don't you go off and do some loops?  Or maybe pull some pranks on a bunch of other ponies?"

Dash snickered.

"I'm sure you want to see just how awesome I can be, but I don't just do aerobatics on command."

Redd stifled a laugh with her hoof, unable to contain a snort.

"Okay.  Haven't heard that before."

Rainbow Dash suddenly became defensive.

"What?  Are you being sarcastic?"

"No.  I've never heard an humble word uttered about, much less from, you."

They passed by the road to Sweet Apple Acres, and Redd turned to see an orange spot in the West Orchard, a red one in the East.

Turning back to the road, she kept walking for awhile until she entered Ponyville.

"This is boring... "

"It's not my fault you're here."

"Well it's not my fault you're ly--"

"Little Redd!"

Both mares turned their attention to the three fillies rushing over.  The one currently leading the two was an orange pegasus with an unkempt purple mane and tail.

Is-- is that... Scootaloo?

The one to the left of her was a snowy white with a pink and lavender mane, and the one on the right was bright yellow with a red mane and a pink bow in her hair.  The bow brought back memories of Redd's childhood every time she saw it.

"Little Redd!  Are you a spy?"

"N-no."

Scootaloo looked disappointed.

"Ah told ya she warn't no spy!"

Apple Bloom scolded.  Watching the younger version of her friend get back into arguing, she turned to the only place that she would be free of Rainbow Dash.

The spa.

_______________________

"Ooh, mmm.  Harder.  Harder!  Big Mac, you can-- ow.  Too hard.  Ow!"

"Applejack?"

"Ohhh, that's perfect… yeah RD?"

"Uh, what're you doing?"

Dash's voice was muffled beyond Applejack's bedroom door.

"Nothin'.  You can come in, if ya want."

Silence fell on Rainbow Dash's end.

"Rainbow?"

"I… uh, I think I'll pass.  L-later, AJ."

"Later.  Oh, that's perfect!  Hold it…"

Dash grimaced, and left the hall.

In Applejack's room, Big Mac shoved his weight into his hooves, working the tension out of AJ's back.

"Wonder what's on her mind?  Ow.  There's my spine."

Applejack stretched.

"Thanks, Big Mac.  That was sure relaxin'."

Macintosh was sitting on the bed shaking his forehooves.

"Your back is tense."

Applejack chuckled.

"That's why Ah enlisted ya, Mac.  That, and any other stallion's hooves'd likely start to wonder."

_______________________

Redd strode out of the spa, the only thing different about her the rosy scent dancing in the air and the little blue flower tucked behind her ear.  That, and the song quietly playing across her lips.

"I told my friends I would, dance with the wind.  I told tomorrow, thank you much.  I told my world, you're here for me.  I told tomorrow, leave me be."

I need to get a pair of headphones.

She stepped under the shade of the library, and, with a calm red shimmer, faded away.

Redd seemed crystalline for a moment before the glassy shimmer slid off her like fine silk.

She was again under the leaves of the library, but it was taken over with thick, vicious, thorned black vines.  These vines crawled amongst Ponyville, windows shattered and roofs torn through by the plants.  A thick canopy of cotton candy clouds rained chocolate milk, the fields occasionally faded into a checkered pattern, and pepper shakers plagued the few ponies outside at the moment.  But none of this surprised Redd.  She just kept walking as if Ponyville remained unchanged.

Lyra sat gloomily under a real cloud currently inhabited by Dark Rainbow Dash, trying to play a lyre whose strings were broken.  Upon closer inspection, the musician was silently sobbing to herself.

"What's wrong?  Not all the musician you thought you were?"

The demented pegasus laughed and stomped the cloud, sending a barrage of fat water droplets to the terrified green mare.

She winced at the miserable pony before her, though they weren't who she was looking for.

She kept walking the way she came in True Ponyville.

There, in the middle of the checkered street, at the edge of town closest to the Everfree, stood a comically tall throne.  It easily capped off at 15 feet.

"Hello, Little Redd.  I assume they suspect nothing?"

Her large dark eyes slowly rose to meet the lanky chimera's own.

"Yes, Discord."

The Elements of Discord

Chapter Six

The Elements of Discord

The chimera leapt forward from his seat, his hands clasped against his cheeks and an insane, hyperactive grin spread across his face.

"Brilliant!  Your peers should be here in a few minutes."

As was expected, just a moment later a cream-colored unicorn stallion appeared in Dark Ponyville with a green glow about him that faded almost immediately.  He was clad in a green uniform, had a slick black mane completely parted to the left, and a ridiculously small mustache.  The Swastika on his flank stood out like a blaring warning sign.

Redd still wasn't used to her uncle pulling figures out of time.

"Commander Hoofler, preparedt for action!"

He said, saluting Discord with his small green eyes alight.  Discord looked down at him, his large white brow cocked.

"That would be nice, Discrimination, if the four that aren't here were as well.  But they're not."

Hoofler's face fell a bit.

"But I eiven brought my own tank andt effrysing."

Despite his words, a tank had not, in fact, travelled with him through the fabric of dimensions.  Hoofler perked up, sniffing the air, and turned to Redd.

"You uszing new shampoo?  Eit smells lovfly."

He also had a tendancy to hit on various mares about Dark Ponyville.  Her expression remained unchanged.

"It's from the spa.  Nothing special."

She suppressed her cringe at his constant musk of lead and sulphur, and sighed for show.

"When're they gonna get here?"

Discord smiled at his niece.

"My my, such impatience.  You've only been here for what, two miliminutes?"

She looked at him with disgust.

"That's two 0.6ths of a second that've been wasted."

"You mean hours?"

"Depends on how you've set the terms at the moment."

Discord giggled.

"Oh, you know me so frighteningly well, Redd."

She smirked.

"I know."

The third party to arrive came along in a silky yellow haze, a huge light brown stallion in a tan camouflage uniform with a buzzed mane and a sandy colored, very short tail.  He had golden eyes, a strong jaw, and a golden star cutie mark.  A burn scar was slashed across his neck, disappearing under the shoulder of his uniform.

"Permission to speak."

Mimicking the soldier's previous authority with perfection, Discord responded.

"Granted."

Fear sprung in the stallion's eyes at hearing Ackeman's feminine voice, but recomposed himself.

"A Nazi tank was destroyed by the unicorn squad on guard at the time."

He turned to Commander Hoofler, who was baffled.

"There were no survivors."

Hoofler paid the bad news no mind.

"Eit vorked zis time?  Ja!  The Changeling, die verloren werden!"

He continued rambling to himself in Germane, possibly revising the plans for the imminent destruction of the Changelings so that they now included tanks.

Gilded Star, the Equestrian military stallion, turned to Discord.

"Your doing?"

He gasped, mocking surprise.

"Am I getting predictable?  I can't have that!"

He snapped his fingers, replacing the cotton candy storm with flying, crying orcas that occasionally screamed.  A far ways off, you could hear Pinkamina's cry of despair.

A gasp made Discord, Gilded, and Redd turn.

A young creamy colored stallion with a brown mane long in the front and a thin tail with big blue eyes was looking in the direction of Pinkie's wail, towards Sugarcube Corner.

"I think Auntie Pinkie's having a party!" Pound Cake exclaimed.

"That's unlikely, Pound," Redd stated flatly.

Pound Cake had grown up soft, still acting less like a stallion and more like a colt.  He had quite the foreleg on him though, and his wings gave him an advantage in one-on-one combat.  Another voice rose up from behind them, from the air.

"Sorry I'm late," a bright orange mare said, landing softly against the ground.  Her unkempt purple mane and pink eyes were a one-and-only combination recognizable to every member of Dark Ponyville.

"I had a score to settle."  She chuckled, and leapt to the top of Discord's throne with a cat's grace.

"I can see you've been doing well, Scootaloo."

Redd still had the images of filly Scootaloo playing through her head.

Scootaloo laughed, the cracking high-pitched tones not unlike Rainbow Dash's.

"Well of course, dummy.  I'm always good."

An blue glaze caught their attention, and an orange mare with a mane every color of the sunset glared at Scootaloo, the remains of the inter-dimensional spell sliding off of her.  Her irises were pinpricks, and she looked  like she was ready to strangle the purple-headed mare.

Redd turned to Scootaloo.

"What was that about settling some score?"

Sunset Shimmer cackled, and never moved her gaze from the pegasus's.

"Oh, it isn't settled.  Not.  At.  All."

Just as she leapt at the orange pegasus, a red wave of magic enveloped her, and slowly began lifting her into the air.  Somehow, Shimmer's angry blue eyes widened further, threatening to pop out of her head altogether.

"Redd!  Put me down!  I swear to Molestia, PUT ME DOWN!"

Her fear of heights was beginning to get to her, and she was beginning to have second thoughts about gnawing Scootaloo's head off, if she ever lived to safely see the checkered ground below her again.

"Redd, thank you kindly, but that is certainly enough.  We must give her her Element," Discord cut in.

Redd sighed, rolled her eyes, and dropped Shimmer.  Gilded caught her, and set her safely on her hooves.

Scootaloo looked over to Hoofler, who had a world map laid out before him and a red pen in his green magic's hand, marking out plans and positions.

"'ey.  Nazi."

His pen jerked, tearing a small hole in his map.

"I am Commander Hooflar!  Do not address me as a mere soldier, Scootaeloo!"

She raised a brow, and looked at him funny.  He didn't really know what to make of her.

"Vhat?  Vhy are jou laughing?"

"Relax, bro.  Come get your Element."

Discord opened the box, each of the Elements simpler than the Elements of Harmony, dangling by a black gold chain rather than an elegant pendant.  The Element of Chaos was constructed in a bracelet form.

Hoofler took the Element of Discrimination.

Gilded Star took the Element of Candor.

Scootaloo took the Element of Pride.

Sunset Shimmer took the Element of Fury.

Pound Cake took the Element of Innocence.

Little Redd took the Element of Chaos.

The Crosshairs Make Sense

Chapter Seven

The Crosshairs Make Sense

"Ohh, green world, don't desert, me now.  Made of you, and you of me, but, where are we?"

Redd had felt better immediately after leaving Discord's dimension, so she did something she loved: quietly singing songs to herself.  Reappearing right back on the hill she was on before, Ponyville was peaceful again, and everything once more joined hands and made sense.  She never realized how much she loved it, the peace.  The simple green hills, and simple cloud-driven rain.  Her thoughts once more went back to the idea of getting a pair of headphones, and she irritably realized that Ponyville didn't have any electronics stores.  Maybe Canterlot, but never Ponyville.  After a few moments, she shook the ideas from her head and tucked them away in her overflowing "think about later" folder.  Instead, she began singing a personal favorite.

"I told my friends, I would, dance with the wind.  I told tomorrow, thank you much.  I told my world, you're here for me.  I told tomorrow--"

"What're ya singin'?"

Redd jumped at the small voice; she hadn't realized that Apple Bloom was trotting along beside her.  Thinking about the frequent use of 'special' words engrained in the verses, she thought better of telling the filly.

"Nothing.  How's Applejack?"

"Applejack?  She never does nothin' but work and save Equestria."

Redd laughed.

"So, she's in the hills bucking trees?"

Apple Bloom smiled.

"Is Equestria in mortal peril?"

Redd's expression faltered the slightest, a dark feeling slowly filling her chest.

Not yet.

"I don't think so."

"Exactly.  Which prob'ly means my sister's workin' her flank off."

She sighed, a sad look overtaking her face.

"...Again."

Redd frowned.

"What's wrong, Apple Bloom?"

"Nothin', just..."

She looked out at Ponyville, happy citizens randomly dotting the streets, some pegasi seeking the refuge of rooftops.  When that didn't work, they darted into the clouds and gossiped there.

"...Scootaloo an' Sweetie Belle are busy, and Applejack's never there ta play.  She's always gotta do somethin', and can't really peel herself away from all the chores ta do nothin' with me.  It's almost like... like she avoids meeeeeee woah!"

Apple Bloom didn't really expect to be comforted, much less picked up and playfully tossed on Redd's back.

"C'mon.  Let me show you something."

Apple Bloom giggled, her spirits immediately lifted.

"Ooookay, where we goin'?"

Looking back at her, Redd smiled at the happy, giggling filly before her, so like her own childhood.

"Home."

She took off, leaving the town square in her dust.

Apple Bloom couldn't really see straight while she was on Little Redd's back.  Despite her name, Redd was actually taller than most other ponies by two or three inches.  Her long, slender legs softened the ride like suspension, but at those speeds, it was still bumpy.  She could hear Redd laugh into the wind, and that in turn brought her own smile back to her lips.

The gates' archway flashed above her head, and Redd ran past the house into the North Orchard.  Stopping at the top of a hill, she let Apple Bloom off excitedly, if not a bit dizzy.

"I haven't run like that for a long, long time."

"What-- what're we doin' back here?"

Grinning, Redd shook the flower out of her mane, where it had begun to get tangled from the wind.

"Do you think your sister wouldn't mind a few apples getting wasted?"

The ripe trees around her turned the autumn air around her into a fruit basket, overriding her rose shampoo.  Apple Bloom's eyes narrowed a bit.

"No, Ah don't think so, but what're ya plannin', Little Redd?"

Doing as she was told, Apple Bloom tossed an apple into the air.

"Throw them higher."

The apple hit the ground and disintegrated, becoming lunch for a colony of lucky ants.

Apple Bloom threw the next apple twice as high, but it too smashed into the grass.

"Higher."

Finally, she heaved, and threw the third as high as she could.  In mid-flight, it exploded.

"...Woah.  What did you do?"

"Throw another.  Pay attention," Redd said, grinning again.

Bloom threw the fourth apple into the air, but this time kept her eye on Redd, although looking at her still didn't really help all that much.  Once the apple stopped rising, Redd lowered her horn, released a bolt of magic with the speed of lightning, and was back in a casual stance before the target could begin to fall.  The apple was unfortunate enough to be that target, and was currently over there.  And there.  Not to mention the gutter of the farmhouse.

Apple Bloom was staring at where the apple was before exploding.

"...So that's what your crosshairs mean."

Apple chunks rained down on the two of them, Apple Bloom throwing six or seven apples in the air at a time.  Every time, Redd hit every one.  She never missed.  Ever.  She had reflexes, too.  At one point Apple Bloom had thrown an apple directly at her while she wasn't even expecting it, and it was still blown apart by her precision.  Eventually they were lying on the grass, talking and staring up at the stars that had taken over the sky.  Applejack came from the farmhouse, and had somewhat of a hard time finding them.  But it wasn't the sight of them, or even the conversation that gave them away.  It was the laughter.

She walked in the direction of the giggling, and noticed something somewhat alarming.  A few of the apple trees around here were bare, and there were small chunks lying across the ground.  Everywhere.  Every few feet, an occasional scrap of apple could be found, littering her farm like a monstrous salad.  She stepped out from behind a tree into a small clearing, where the mangled apples were more common, and she saw her sister lying on the grass next to a larger, darker shape.  Curious as to what it was, she kept coming closer until she saw the bright white mane tinted blue against the moonlight.

Little Redd was in the midst of telling a story.

"And you know what she said?"

Giggling a bit, Apple Bloom wasted no time in responding.

"No, what?"

"'Why are crumpets attacking my house!?'"

Apple Bloom laughed again, and Applejack stepped a bit closer.

"She never found out it was me.  Mum was livid."

"Uh, Apple Bloom?"

The two girls lying in the grass jumped, and Apple Bloom smiled.

"Applejack!  What're you doin' here?"

Glancing at the apple carnage before her, Applejack hesitated.

"What-- in tarnation happened ta all these apples?"

"Target practice," the filly said.

Again, it took Applejack a moment.

"Pardon?"

This time Redd stood.

"Apple Bloom was lonely, so I thought I'd give her a playmate.  Is that a problem?"

Redd didn't sound as much concerned as she was irritated.  Sensing the aggression, AJ narrowed her eyes at the dark gray mare before her.

"When that playmate destroys ten percent o' my labor, yeah, Ah think Ah do."

Apple Bloom stood next to Redd.

"Oh, come on Applejack!  She was shootin' them apples outta the air with, like, badass precision."

Applejack gasped, but Redd just cocked her brow and laughed.

"Apple Bloom!  Go to yer room!"

"Awww..."

Recovering from her laughter, Redd looked at Applejack, who was glaring at her.

"What, you think she got that from me?"

"Git yer ass off my farm," AJ growled low enough so Apple Bloom wouldn't hear.

Kill Your Heroes

Chapter Eight

Kill Your Heroes

"I met an old man dying on a train.  No more destination, no more pain.  Well he said 'One thing, before I graduate.  Never let your fear decide your fate.'  I say you Kill Your Heroes and fly, fly, baby don't cry.  No need to worry 'cause everybody will die.  Every day we just go, go, baby don't go.  Don't you worry we love, you, more than you know."

Redd was at the edge of tears, speeding into the Everfree from Sweet Apple Acres and repeating her childhood lullaby to herself.  Pain still lashed up her left legs every time she moved them, but she didn't really care.  All she was concerned with was the happiness she had felt while talking to Apple Bloom.  Her childhood before Discord.  The only part of her life she really wanted to remember.  All of it was reflected at her like a mirror every time she locked eyes with the filly.  The only things Redd held dear to her were her mother's possessions, and the few gifts she had been given for her birthdays.

Her dark red velvet ribbon was given to her on her third Hearth's Warming, and it bobbed on her head for two years.  It had been burned when her mother died in a house fire.  The only thing she had left of her mother was the golden loop she wore around her ankle, which had been a personal piece of her jewelery.  Now every time she looked at it she was plagued by that goddamn Element, dangling around like a tumor next to the brightest thing she owned.  She was angry at herself, because once again she had ruined what might have been a decent chance to have happiness again.  To have a friend again.

Zecora didn't count.  Redd knew that she was just making the potions for her because she was terrified of what Redd would do if she didn't.  What the zebra didn't know was that Discord, nor any of the other Elements, knew that she was trying to hide what she was.  Sure, they knew that she was, in fact, a spy, but they didn't know that she hated it.  They didn't know she despised being born to be destructive.  That she was considering poisoning herself.  That was always tickling the back of her mind, suicide.  But Redd knew that would disappoint her.

Her mother.  Deepest Care.

Zecora jumped at the sudden crack! of her door opening and smacking into the wall.  Redd stood there distraught and panting, a single tear moving down her cheek.  Zecora didn't say anything, she just stopped meditating and got the mare her mixture in a tea format.  Shutting the door behind her, Redd stepped into a dark corner of the room and laid down with her back to the room, her midriff occasionally spasming in silent sobs.  After a moment, the zebra could've sworn she heard the bits and pieces of a quieting song rising from the pony.  After two or three minutes, the tea was boiling and Redd had stopped moving.  Zecora walked over and silently placed a cup a few feet away from Redd.  She still didn't move.

"You're afraid of me, aren't you?"

Zecora's eyes darkened, and she stirred her cauldron.

"Indeed, you are a fearsome mare.  But you still reflect Deepest Care."

Unbeknownst to Zecora, Redd smiled as another tear slid down her face.

"Thank you."

___________________________________

Redd was calm again as she left Zecora's home, walking into the Everfree for awhile before shimmering away under her signature red coat of magic.

She reappeared in the Everfree, exactly where she was before, except there were crying orcas flying around above her.  Except now, they were covered in various colored polka dots, and crying snow.  And, they were upside-down.  Ever since Discord thought he was getting predictable, he'd been going a bit over the edge.

Why do you have to speak, Gilded? She thought shaking her head as the thought was replaced by Sunshine.  Literally.

"Sunshine, sunshine, it's fine, I feel it in my skin, warmin' up my mind, sometimes you gotta give in to when, I love the days when it shines.  Ohh, let it shine."

She suddenly realized she'd been singing the same four songs to herself all day.  Just the choruses too, besides the lullaby.  She decided to finish out the song this time.

"If I could, I would keep this feelin' in a plastic jar, bust it out whenever someone's actin' hard.  Settle down, barbeque in the back yard, the kids get treats and old folks get classic cars.  Every day gets to pass as a success, and every woman looks better in a sundress, the sunshine's an excuse to shoot hoops, get juice, sure improve those moves and let loose... "

She strode towards Dark Ponyville, and sighed as the mangled, familiar little village came into view.  Glancing off towards Sweet Apple Acres, another tear threatened to boil over her eyes as she saw Apple Bloom frantically trying to keep Rainbow Dash and Applejack from getting a hit on one another.  Even at this distance, Redd could barely make out a large rip in Bloom's bow.  She turned away from the scene, and looked down at her mother's bracelet, the Element of Chaos lying right there next to it.  Like a demon on her shoulder, the Element constantly urged her to do something, anything, to break her calm streak.  It was making the impatience, the fury, worse.  But she couldn't take it off.  She had been specifically instructed not to, and that if she did, her ties to True Equestria would be cut.  Yet, Deepest Care's bracelet had sentimental value, and the memories etched across it urged her to fight the chaos.  She had never known what she had to do so clearly, but she was utterly lost as to how to go about doing it.  She simply wasn't good at being good.

Pinkamina passed by her in the direction of Sugarcube Corner, likely to make more mud pies.  Rarity trudged by in a bathrobe with a cold cup of coffee in her hand, looking like she'd just rolled out of bed.  Fluttershy could be seen across the square, swatting bugs away in the sweltering heat of the orca-tear-snow.  Then Redd saw her opposite stepping out of the library, her hooves dragging across the ground.  Twilight Sparkle had lost faith in friendship long ago, her depressed gaze showing no signs of life or emotion within.  Her faded colors were barely even there, just so you could tell what color she was supposed to be.  Nearly brushing shoulder with her, Twilight passed by Redd without a glance.

"Hey, sis."

"Hullo... Twilight."

Redd's head lowered, her eyes closed, and fury began to build within her chest.  Zecora's potion was only able to sedate so much.  Her ankle burned where the Element of Chaos came in contact with her, but she didn't care.  She didn't care about anything right then.  Her jaw set, her dark eyes flashed open, a crack of red invading her pupil.

"... I can't let this shit happen."

Rolling With Hogs

Chapter Nine

Rolling With Hogs

Redd pounded through Ponyville on a mission.  Rather than a note or lyric playing, she was desperately going over what it would take for the princesses and the Elements of Harmony to believe that Discord was back in full force.

Twilight, I have an urgent message to deliver to Princess Celestia.  Discord isn't reformed.  He's created his own Equestria to live in, and he's going to use both the Dark Elements of Harmony and the Elements of Discord to--

Once again, her anger had gotten in her way and clouded her thoughts to the point that she almost missed a ridiculously obvious and crucial point to the speech.

Little Redd was an Element of Discord.  She couldn't let them uncover that secret, but she had to tell them, otherwise they wouldn't know what they're up against.

God dammit!  Why do I have to be imperative in EVERYTHING?

She stopped outside of the library, her mind still erupting in plumes of smoke from utter frustration.  She turned around, then around again, and kept slowly spinning in her strange pacing habit.

How can physical accuracy help now?  It can't!  That's my problem, I have absolutely no pony skills.  I'm just a turret with a brain!

"And a temper."

Redd jumped, and glanced to the sky.  Of course, that smirk was there to meet her.

"You were talking out loud.  Is there something bothering you?."

Looking around her, most of the ponies in sight were looking her way.  Her body followed the potion, shying at all the attention.

Rainbow Dash's brow quirked up, and she rubbernecked to see Redd's eyes.

"Uh, you okay Redd?"

Redd's natural attitude clashed with the shyness potion, and her mind began to freak out, unsure of how to react to the eyes peering her way.

"Redd?"

Dash's voice was alarmed, and the last thing Redd clearly saw was the sunset disappearing beneath the horizon before her body failed, collapsing in a spasming heap.

As soon as she came to, Redd rolled to the side and unleashed the wrath of nausea on the dirt next to her.

"Ugh.  Let it all out, limey."

Redd felt a gentle hoof pat her back, releasing another wave of vomit from her stomach.

"Let it all out."

Redd stopped convulsing, and rolled on her back again.  As it had been many times before, she silently yearned for her mother, and glanced at the golden halo faithfully occupying her ankle.  The piece of jewelery was all she needed to gather the strength to stand.

"You okay?"

Redd winced when her bandaged ankles bent, but pushed through it anyway.

"I-- ow... I'm fine."

She got to her hooves, and met Rainbow Dash's eyes, which seemed like they were about to pop out of her head.

"Can... you see well?"

Redd cocked her brow, wondering what was wrong.

"Yes, why?"

Dash continued to hesitate.

"Your eyes're like... shattered."

Redd gasped, and shuffled nervously.

"I-- I, uh, gotta go."

She took off toward the Everfree.  Along the way she avoided eye contact with everypony she passed, turning her face away from them.

Applejack trotted along happily, humming some random tune she pulled out of her flank.  A gray mare rounded a bend of trees and ran passed her.  Applejack turned around just as the dust thrown into the air obscured her vision.  She frowned at the Unicorn, and turned again as a sonic roar reached her ears.  A cyan blur blasted through by her wings, leaving a rainbow streak and a ''sup' behind her.

"'Ey!  That's mah Stetson!"

Rainbow Dash shook the hat off her face, and gained some speed.

Way faster than I gave her credit for.

The ground between her and the pony in question was quickly closing, and RD picked up some altitude before tackling Redd to the ground.

The air was shoved out of Redd's lungs when she hit the dirt, her left ankles protesting in pain.  The two rolled for a moment, quickly losing the monstrous momentum that Rainbow Dash had generated.  Once they had stopped, Rainbow held her down.

"What's your problem!?" Dash screamed, her voice cracking.

Redd's face contorted in a grimace as she felt the creeping darkness fill her chest.

"Leave.  Me.  Alone!"

Another crack appeared in her eye as she reared back and bucked the Pegasus off of her, pushing that feeling out of her chest through the kick.  She leapt to her hooves and kept going, glancing back at Dash to see if she was following.  Unable to find her, Redd whirled back around as Rainbow tackled her again.

Again, they tumbled backwards with Rainbow Dash ending up on top penning Redd down.

"If you'd just tell somepony what's wrong, we might get the chance to actually help you!"

Redd rolled and threw the other mare underneath her weight, trading places.

"I can't!  It's none of your business and you wouldn't understand if I did!"

RD mirrored the Unicorn's previous move, spinning in the opposite direction.

"You don't know that!  If you would stop for a minute and think in the present, you might realize that we've been nothing but open to you!"

The roll went back the other way.

"You think I haven't considered you!?  I'm having so much trouble because I considered you in the first place!"

"Well that doesn't mean you always gotta be such a bitch!"

Set on Repeat

Chapter Ten

Set on Repeat

Redd looked at Rainbow Dash, who's eyes were still glaring back at her.  She got off the Pegasus, turning away from her to look out at Sweet Apple Acres only about a half a mile away.  The moon had begun to rise, already clear of the horizon as stars turned to face the world below.  She heard Dash get up, though they both remained still.  The only thing that stirred around them were the crickets and occasionally, her wings.  When she finally spoke, her voice was soft, edging between true speech and a loud whisper.

"You want to know why I'm impatient?  You want to know why I never go more than twenty-four hours without drinking a glass of herbal tea?  When I was young I had a ribbon.  A dark red ribbon given to me for my third Hearth's Warming by my mother because she couldn't afford much else.  I wore that ribbon every day, I wouldn't let her wash it, I would rarely take it off to sleep."

She turned around, locking those magenta eyes with her own.

"One day I forgot my bow, and when I was coming home from school, I found my home in flames.  My mother had been asleep when it started.  When I ran into the home to find her, a firepony caught me and held me back.  I thrashed and struggled, but it was no use.  So, when I was in his grasp, I teleported for the first time.  I reappeared inside the house, just down the hall from her room."

A tear streamed down her cheek, though her expression remained hard.

"When I got into her room, she was already dying.  Laid across the bed, she was gasping for a breath, too weak to move.  The last thing she said to me... "

Her voice began to tremble.

"... the last thing she said to me, was 'Never let your fear decide your fate.  I love you, Little Redd.'  Then that same firepony pulled me out of the house, kicking and screaming, begging for my mother."

She looked down at Deepest Care's bracelet.

"After her funeral, Zecora brought me this.  I had seen my mother wear it all the time, so I was overjoyed to have it... "

She looked back to Rainbow Dash, who had her own tear threatening to boil over her cheek.

"It's the only thing I have left of my previous life.  Of her."

She scoffed.

"And ever since she died, my life has been fake.  A living hell."

The seconds drug by, and a frog joined in the night life chorus.

"... Redd, I--"  Dash's voice cracked, finally losing her grip on the tear as it rolled down her cheek.

"... I'm sorry.  If I knew, I--"

"Stop.  Just go home."

Redd turned, and walked back to Zecora's.

A dark brown Pegasus with a fiery red mane strode across the paved walks of Trottingham, her dark red eyes beaming at the excited filly bouncing on her back.

"This place is huge!  Why haven't we come until now?"

Deepest Care smiled at her daughter, and kept walking.

"Becaaaause, I've been too busy working.  The only reason I was able to come now is because the transportation fees were paid for by Photo Finish.  You know, she's known for photography, but she knows her fair share about painting."

Redd's first vacation faded into flowing green hills, two colts running on either side of her.  Party Hard's bright blue coat and darker mane shone in the gleaming highlights of the sun behind him.  Irish Cream's golden eyes, mint green coat and mane, and white stripes shone in the sunlight with a strange iridescence.  The saddlebags thrown across his back were crushing his wings and brushing the ground a bit, but he didn't mind.  The fields were cut off by a small dirt road, a small cottage sitting with a triumphant air next to it, as if it was never coming down.  Buildings kept going on past here, into East Riding, Redd's hometown.  Irish Cream left the saddlebags on the front lawn, and hid around the left corner of the cottage along with Party Hard.  Little Redd vanished behind the opposite corner.

A spark of magic erupted from her horn with a funny belching sound, and slowly drifted under the lid of the saddlebags to reach the contents.  After a moment, the saddlebags shook and burst open, biscuits spilling out.  An old mare stepped out onto her front porch, squinting at the green saddlebags for a moment, before the biscuits bounced onto the porch and stared wrecking the scene.

"Oh!  I-- oh my!  Why are there crumpets attacking my house!?"

Unable to contain it any longer, the foals burst out laughing, Irish Cream snatched up the saddlebags, and the trio made off.

Running back over the hills, Party Hard's eyes locked with hers.  His familiar magenta eyes were replaced with a dark red hue, and they had a pained glint hidden in the lifelights.

"Never let your fear decide your fate.  I love you, Little Redd."

She gasped. and her eyes flew open.  She was sweating and breathing hard, and after a moment realized she'd been crying in her sleep.

... I need to quit sobbing like this.

Glancing over to the window, she saw that it was still night out.  Redd stood, and walked over to the door.

"Nightmares?"

Redd jumped and turned.  Lying nestled between the inactive cauldron and a bag of herbs was a colorful, furry little slice of the sky.

"I thought I told you that you wouldn't understand."

"And I thought I told you that you don't know that."

Dash stood, her determination having returned.

"You're in pain.  I get it.  But you can't expect to get anywhere if you don't spill your problems to somepony every now and then."

Redd had turned back to the window.

"It's not that simple."

"Why not?"

She sighed.

"Because if I 'spilled my problems to somepony every now and then,' I'll be thrown in prison."

Rainbow Dash scoffed.

"That's only a worst case scenario--"

"That's a best case scenario.  Worst case?  I'm no longer allowed to exist here.  And if I don't exist here, the... chances... "

She trailed off, her eyes on a dark splotch in the sky.

"Is that... smoke?"

Applejack frantically ran around the outside of the burning farmhouse.

"Apple Bloom!"

No response.  Nowhere.

"Apple Bloom!"

From the direction of the column of soot rising into the sky, both Redd and Rainbow Dash could tell was coming from Sweet Apple Acres.  Rainbow was trying to fly low, what with the Unicorn dangling in Dash's grasp by her underarms.  The barn began to lean towards the house, and Redd's horn ignited.  She pointed and shot a few rounds at the barn as it began to fall, shattering the danger in a fiery red explosion.  Redd heard Dash utter something above her head.

"Woah."

A grim line set across her lips, Redd leaned in to the Pegasus's neck.

"Get Twilight."

And she slipped from Rainbow Dash's grasp, heading for the ground like a charcoal missile.

No stranger to determination, Dash kept flying.  She pulled out of a wide turn and shot towards Ponyville as a falcon, her wings clasped tightly to her sides in a dive.  Unable to slow down in time, she did the next safest thing: aim for a window and brace herself.  By her personal standards, blowing through a window, a pony, a railing, a floor, and a mountainous pile of books was considered a safe landing.

Sadly for Rainbow Dash, Twilight didn't have the same view on things.  She literally needed glasses.  The Unicorn, who had just been thrown out of bed by a crashing Pegasus, was crumpled under a bundle of cyan fur and history books.  After the various book titles around them stopped spinning, her senses returned.

Although she still only heard the last words of Dash's sentence.

"--Acres is on fire!"

After wincing under her friend's volume, Twilight clopped her nose.

"Ow!"

"Not so loud.  What?"

Rainbow Dash failed to change the magnitude of her voice, which was currently only a few inches away from Twilight's muzzle.

"Sweet Apple Acres is on fire!  Redd's trying to stop it, but I didn't see anypony else!"

Redd fell about fifty feet before hitting the grass, tumbling, and getting back on her hooves in a single swift motion.  As she ran towards the house, Applejack ran from around the rightward corner of the building.  She ran to the front door and bucked it down before leaping inside.

"Apple Bloom!"

Redd froze as her burning home flashed through her mind.

"Oh.  Ohh, no.  This has happened once."

She lowered her head as her left eye cracked, a dark red abyss replacing the black spot entirely, and glared at the building.

"It won't happen again."

She leapt into the farmhouse with one pony in mind.

Inside the Fire

Chapter Eleven

Inside the Fire

Apple Bloom.

Redd leapt through the front door, treading where fire had yet to take over.  Suddenly, her past hit her head-on, and screamed for her to get out.  But she didn't listen.  The only thing she could hear was Apple Bloom's laughter from yesterday echoing through her mind.  Bloom was so young, so like Redd.  Despite the mask of completely different lifestyles, they were so alike it was almost as if she finally had a sibling.

She wasn't going to lose Apple Bloom to the same thing that took her mother away from her.

As she moved through the house, she would occasionally get licked by a thread of fire, singing her charcoal coat to a darker shade.  Redd pounded up the stairs, recklessly disregarding the structural weaknesses caused by the inferno.  She didn't know where Apple Bloom's room was, but that'd be a good place to start.

The door exploded off the hinges, red fire licking across the frame before Redd leapt through.  It was a bedroom, but it was empty.  She went through it all, under the bed, the closet, just in case the filly was frightened.  Nothing.  She skidded across the hall and blew another door off its frame, stepping through the fire like a dark entity.  Still nothing.  Scrambling back into the hallway, she heard something.  She paused and listened, waiting for it to come again.

Coughing.

The attic.

She charged to the end of the hall, looking for the entrance.  She couldn't find it through the smoke.  Suddenly, her eyes brightened, and she shimmered into Dark Equestria to see about the state of things there.  No fire.  Quiet, aside from the sounds of a fight in the yard, Apple Bloom screaming for it all to stop.

She scanned the ceiling, and located the pull-down at the opposite end of the hall.  She ran over, took the bit in her mouth, and yanked it down, stepping out of the way of the sliding stairs.  She went up, stood in the middle of a mass of boxes, and shimmered back into True Ponyville.

Fire exploded from her surroundings, and she could faintly make out the yellow shape huddled in the corner through the smoke.

"Apple Bloom!"

She burst forth, and cleared the boxes to skid to a stop beside the filly.

"Little Redd!"

Bloom hopped on her back, and the ceiling suddenly shifted.  Turning to the exit, a pile of flaming beams occupied the path to safety.  The attic shifted further, slowly warping into the house.

The shimmer passed over them with only a few seconds to spare as the ceiling fell where they had been.

Apple Bloom's first reaction was to stare.

"Am Ah dreamin'?"

She hopped off of Redd's back, testing the secure floorboards of the Apples' attic wearily.

"Sadly, no.  We need to get you back home as soon as possible."

Apple Bloom looked at Redd like she was losing it.

"Uh, Redd, this is my home."

Redd was looking out the window at the fight between Rainbow Dash and Applejack.  She couldn't believe that they'd been fighting all night.  Their faded coats were beginning to get light from the sun.  Dark Apple Bloom was on the sidelines sniffing to herself, trying to ignore it as she waited to see if her sister would survive.  Behind the scene, you could see Dark Ponyville, vines exploding out of random buildings and overturning the ground.  Overhead an orca screamed.

"No it isn't."

She turned back to Apple Bloom, who was walking to the same windowsill.

"This is the Dark Apple family house.  You can not let anypony here see you.  Dark ponies look different from True ponies.  They would be able to instantly tell you don't belong here.  Come on."

Apple Bloom was horrified at the fight going down, and Applejack was in bad shape.  Not much else could be said about Rainbow Dash either.

"I want to go home!"

Redd smiled to try to comfort her.

"We will.  We need to get out of the house or we'll come back and-- well… yeah.  Come on, let's go."

Redd stepped to the attic door as Bloom decided to follow, and pushed down on it a bit.  It wouldn't budge.

"Ballucks."

"What?"

Redd shied.

"I, uh, nothing."

"Got it.  Not around my sister."

"Well, not at all, if you can help it."

"As fer the door, it don't open from the inside."

"I can tell.  Step back."

Understanding the situation, Apple Bloom retreated a few steps while Redd blew the door into the hall.  Hopping downstairs, they failed to noticed an insomniac Granny Smith eyeing them.

"Apple Bloom?"

Redd froze, her eyes snapping to the elderly farmer.  Despite her obvious joy at seeing her granny, Apple Bloom remembered what Redd had said and became weary.

"Y-- yes, Granny?"

After a moment, Granny Smith relaxed and sat back in her rocker.

"Oh nuthin', jest thought you's outside, is all.  Evenin' Li'l Redd."

Wiping sweat from her forehead, Apple Bloom followed Redd into the West Orchard.  Which was currently occupied by eggplant trees.  That made no sense.  Above them, orcas populated the sky, raining tears down and occasionally screaming for no apparent reason.  Now that they were in the sunlight, Apple Bloom could see how many burns Redd had earned trying to get to her.  There was melted fur across her legs, and bandages barely clung on to her hooves.  When they were a good ways into the orchard, the red glow came over the two again, and they turned to the burning building.  Rainbow Dash and Twilight were trying to put out the fire with storms and magic, while Big Mac tried to comfort Granny Smith on the sidelines.

Apple Bloom's frowned.

"Wait a minute.  Where's Applejack?"

"Oh, ballucks."

Redd sped across the landscape towards the Apples, where she dropped off Apple Bloom.  Then, against the protests of Rainbow Dash and Twilight, she leapt back inside the fire.

"Applejack!"

Redd ran into the kitchen, where she found Applejack unconscious, her hind legs buried in a collapsed portion of the ceiling.  She took hold of the rubble and lifted, but turned up short.  She ran back outside.

"Macintosh!  I need your help!"

Big Mac charged up the yard, and Redd led him over to Applejack.  He slipped under the chunk of flooring and heaved his weight back on his hooves, making it ideal for Redd to slide Applejack out from the danger and get her on her back.  They left the house, and laid Applejack down next to the rest of her family.  Big Mac stepped up for resuscitation.  He pumped her chest a few times, then performed the rescue breaths.  The sun's edge cleared the horizon as Applejack coughed and spluttered, rolling over in the grass.

"Ah think mah legs're broke."

Venom

Chapter Twelve

Venom

Once Applejack was out of the building, Rainbow Dash soared over to see how she was doing.  She had gotten there as Big Mac performed the rescue breaths and roused Applejack.  She squirmed in the grass, and the pain shooting up her hind legs took her breath away.

"Ah think mah legs're broke."

She coughed again, and raised her head bleary-eyed.

"Where's Apple Bloom?"

Bloom leapt on top of her, burying her muzzle into her older sister's neck.

"Right here, sis."

Applejack lowered her head again, resting it softly against the grass.

"You're safe.  Oh thank god you're safe."

Her eyes closed, and she smiled.

"Thank god you're safe."

"I'm just gonna go back over here," Rainbow Dash said, walking in the direction of the farmhouse for a minute before realizing she'd abandoned Twilight to see if AJ was alright.

"I'm coming, Twi!"

She took flight, and continued helping her friend put out the remains of the barn, the house, and one or two trees.

Redd sat off to the side under an apple tree, watching the reunited family with a sad glint in her eye.  Big Mac walked over and sat beside her.

"'Sup."

Redd kept watching the sisters' embrace, and looked at her mother's bracelet again.

"Just wondering where I'd be if I had a similar outcome."

He didn't really know what she meant, but he didn't bother asking.  She liked that.  He wasn't as nosy as everypony else around here.

"Well, if it warn't fer you, the Apples'd be two short of a basket."

He looked at the fading cracks in Redd's eyes.

"And that basket still ain't full."

Apple Bloom came over and turned to Redd.

"Applejack wants ta talk."

Redd got up and let the little filly lead her over to Applejack.  She wasn't in the best of shape.  Half of her tail was blackened, her Stetson had been eaten at by flames, and she had a terrible burn slashed across her neck and shoulder.  Immediately, Redd was reminded of Gilded Star's fire scar.  Her hind legs didn't look broken, though she was still probably going to be out of farming for awhile.  The red string that usually held her mane together was gone, the blonde strands falling freely over her shoulders.

"I'm sorry."

Surprisingly, Applejack hadn't been the first to speak.  Her confusion showed that much.

"Fer what?"

Redd looked at the fire, mostly gone by now.  Her dark eyes then moved to Applejack's, a heavy guilt laid on her shoulders.

"Yesterday.  When I snapped."

Applejack began to chuckle, but stopped herself with a wince as the prominent burn reminded her that laughing wasn't the best of ideas.

"Now, look here, sugarcube.  You may be ornery.  You may have a temper.  But let me tell ya what you ain't.  Unreliable.  Disloyal.  Cowardly."

Redd backpedaled.

"I-- I don't--"

"And ya definitely ain't thick in the head."

A crowd of fireponies rushed up the trail and dismissed Rainbow Dash and Twilight, who came running over to Applejack.  Twilight had just now gotten a good look at the farmer.

"Holy mother of Celestia.  Are you okay?"

Applejack smiled.

"Ah'm fine, Twi."

Despite her words, a medical team picked her up on a minty colored bed of magic and got her into a cart, which promptly headed towards Ponyville.

"Uh, later y'all, Ah guess!" she called.

When offered transport to Ponyville Hospital, Redd turned it down.

"I'm fine.  Just a few burns."

An autumn breeze blew the smoke away from them, and ruffled her burnt mane.  She looked down, and slowly peeled the battered and singed bandages off of her ankles.  The sight beneath them wasn't the best, but it was better than no treatment at all.  Her legs were scarred and hardly healed, but the gauze was falling apart anyway.  A few of the wounds had reopened, and were leaking dark drops onto the grass.  She got up, smiled at Apple Bloom, and walked back to Zecora's in silence.

When Redd stepped through the door, Zecora had returned from her not-so-mysterious trip with a bag full of Poison Joke, and was bathing in the cure before it could do anything vile.  The zebra gasped.

"Redd, you are burned!  Where did you go before I'd returned?"

Despite the pain lancing up her body from her burns, the corner of Redd's mouth was turned up as she rewrapped the bandaging over her legs, adding a few across the worst of her burns.  The last one she applied went over her left flank to cover her crosshairs, which were slashed through with an irritable patch of skin.

"Nothing big."

Her smile widened as she remembered the relieved look spread across Applejack's face when she'd held her sister.

"Just keeping the peace."

Little Redd trotted along happily, humming and sniffing the Autumn air every time a breeze came along, carrying the leaves with it.  The telltale buzzing of insects was gone, replaced with the smell of pine and that snipped feeling that only the changing of seasons could bring.

"You seem cheerful."

Redd jumped, and glared at Sunset Shimmer, who apparently had just traveled from Dark Equestria.  Her fiery mane hung low as always, reflecting the seven o'clock morning sun.

"Just because you're a thin line doesn't mean everypony else can't enjoy their life."

Sunset rolled her eyes, and an edge of venom traced her voice.

"Whatever, I don't have time for this.  Discord's looking for you."

She faded under the glare of the sun, going back to wherever she came from.

Redd's demeanor lost it's previous spark, and, with a sigh, she followed her cousin into Discord's personal kingdom.

Plundervines exploded out of the city, orcas replaced with impish cherubs, fields fading into random patterns, a hot snow still falling.  As a new addition to Discord's arsenal, Pegasi had become Earth ponies, Unicorns became Pegasi, and Earth ponies became Unicorns.  Unable to cope with their unfamiliar horns, the Earth ponies were accidentally releasing spells with a simple thought.  Unicorns were doing their best to stay on the ground, but the natural need to fly kept overwhelming them and sending them into a crashing situation.  The Pegasi just felt useless.  The only ponies that were unaffected were the Dark Elements of Harmony and the Elements of Discord.

Couldn't have his puppets going AWOL in frustration, could he? Redd thought bitterly.

This place was already getting to her head again.  She came over a hill, went back down, and caught sight of Sunset Shimmer as she joined the rest of the other Elements at the top of the next hill.

"Aaand, the limey's finally here," Scootaloo said somewhat impatiently.

Gilded Star nodded to her, Pound Cake did a little hop, and Shimmer continued to ignore her.

Commander Hoofler's attention snapped in her direction from a map and trusty red pen, and, putting his supplies in his saddlebags, he shuffled a bit closer.  Discord once again impersonated Gilded's previous authority, Commander Ackeman.  She had yet to be born to Spitfire at the moment, but was somewhat famous in Equestrian militia's distant future.  Her voice rang out across the chaotic landscape.

"Lieutenant, you're late."

"Hullo, Discord.  Glad to see you're chipper."

His trademark hyperactive grin spread across his face, his single fang jutting out crookedly.

"Oh, yes.  Because I have the most amazing news!"

Redd cocked her brow, and everypony else but Pound smirked.

"The attack on Equestria is going down Saturday next week!"

Redd's eyes shrunk to pinpricks.

Oh, fuck all kinds of duck.

Forever Hold Your Peace

Chapter Fourteen

Forever Hold Your Peace

Twilight didn't move.  She just looked at Redd, the same way she had been the entire time she had spoken.  Rainbow Dash broke the silence.

"So are we done yet?  Can we banish her someplace now?"

Applejack glared at Rainbow.

"We ain't banishin' nopony."

"As much as it would make sense,"

Twilight finally spoke.

"we can't.  She hasn't done anything that we could object to, besides lie and work with Discord.  But there's one question I have for you."

Her gaze narrowed at the dark red eyes before her.

"Why come out now?  Why would you hide from us and try to deceive us, but then suddenly decide to throw yourself under our mercy?"

Redd sighed.

"Because I never finished.  This morning, Sunset Shimmer came to me with news that Discord was looking for me.  From there, I traveled into Dark Equestria and discovered that your dimension is to fall by next Saturday, and I didn't want to watch this beautiful land die.  As far as I know, Commander Hoofler has the plans, including mapped out positions and strategies."

Scootaloo scoffed.

"Sorry to interrupt, but the Nazi ain't got shit in his saddlebags, save a hard time."

She stepped out of the bundle of mares and trotted over to a dark purple pair of saddlebags in the corner, from which she drew a long, rolled piece of paper held together with a piece of dark green ribbon bearing a Swastika.  Redd smiled.  Scootaloo still had some cunning hidden behind all that ego.

"This's brilliant!  How'd you get it from him?"

The Pegasus scoffed again.

"Don't know if you've realized this or not Redd, but Hoofler has a soft spot for mares."  Twilight's jaw dropped.

"I never thought you'd grow up to be a charmer, Scoots."

"I didn't.  There's just a few idiots out there who can't distinguish between 'I want you' and 'You have something I want.'"

Rainbow Dash snickered.

"Like Snowflake?"

"You saw that?"

RD's expression went blank.

"Actually, I was talking about the time I... how old... ew.  You're nasty."

Scootaloo quickly averted further conversation, spreading the monstrous map across the floor.  Various red lines, words, and arrows depicting travel adorned the surface, a hole with a streak of ink torn near the middle and taped together again.

"This is the plan.  They enter this dimension in the center of Ponyville, and then they attack.  Very simple."

Twilight threw up one of her hooves.

"Wait, woah.  I keep hearing things like 'our dimension' and 'this dimension.'  What are you talking about, dimension?"

Scootaloo and Redd shared a glance, though Redd was the one to speak up.

"Discord has granted us the ability to travel inter-dimensionally, originally so that we could keep an eye on things in True Ponyville, that is, your home.  Therefore, we can move between here and there as if we were sliding into a lake.  Initially granting us direct access to Discord and his men, including the rest of the Elements."

It took a second for Rainbow Dash to respond from behind Twilight.

"... Huh?"

"We can kick Discord's ass out from under him," Scootaloo translated.

"Oh."

Celestia was baffled.  She hadn't heard of any other dimensions existing before now, and suddenly she had to destroy one.

"I say we do like Scoots over here just said.  Rush in and take 'em all out at once."

Rainbow Dash was beginning to worry the princess.

"That wouldn't be the best approach," Redd cut in.

"Hoofler's learned how to transport tanks inter-dimensionally.  That, and he has an entire Germane army over us."

"How am I gonna deal with Pound Cake?  He's hard enough as a baby, and I gotta take him down as an adult!?"

Pinkie was frantic, Rainbow was bloodthirsty, Celestia was worried, Applejack was mangled, Twilight was skeptical, and the others... the others were simply nervous.  Scootaloo and Redd seemed to be the only ponies in the room with their heads on straight.  So Redd adopted a blank expression, turned around, left the room, and came back a moment later with a certain Captain of the Royal Guard.  Shining put on his war face, and hardened his tone.

"Attention!"

Everypony quieted down and turned wide-eyed to him.

"Little Redd has explained the situation.  If we're to get through this, we're going to need the Elements of Harmony equipped to their respective owners at.  All. Times.  Including sleeping hours."

He turned to the side and began to pace, a nasty family habit.

"Ditzy Doo, the Ponyville Mail Team Captain, has been instructed to gather a messenger team and discreetly spread the word of Discord's return.  Her target being other Guard Captains scattered across Equestria."

He locked eyes with Applejack.

"Let your grandmother know that she needs to start baking.  The rest of you need to formulate a plan, as I have little to no experience working with the Elements, harmonious or not.  Meanwhile, my Guard will be undergoing preparation with a plan of their own: defend the Royal Family at all costs."

His usually bright gaze then fell upon Twilight.

"That includes you, Twilie.  All of this, the Mail Team, the Guard, your own plans, needs to be as discreet as possible.  We cannot, absolutely can not have any disruptions regarding daily life.  Discord could very well realize he's had a mole, and will likely stop at nothing to track, target, and eradicate them.  In this case,"

He regarded Redd and Scootaloo, standing off to the side next to one another.

"that would be you.  You must continue playing on his side of the board.  During your time in True Equestria, you will be monitored for safety reasoning.  If at any point Discord discovers that we know... "

Finally he met Celestia's eyes.

"... It'll be over."

Heavy Relations, Part Two

Chapter Sixteen

Heavy Relations, Part Two

Zecora greeted them, and slid a cup of herbal tea towards Redd across the zebra's small table.  The Unicorn looked at the cup a moment before gingerly taking a sip.  Zecora turned to Scootaloo.

"And you are whom?  For some reason, you remind me of Apple Bloom."

Scootaloo looked down at her forelegs, currently crossed and laid flat across the table.

"I was one of her friends.  A long time ago."

Zecora cocked her brow.

"She's also an Element of Discord.  Scootaloo's made some... mistakes, and lost Apple Bloom because of them," Redd explained.

Zecora nodded, and continued.

"Which Element do you represent?"

Scootaloo hesitated, and her voice caught, like she'd been crying.

"Pride."

The zebra looked back to Redd.

"So, why do you bring her here?  Did I not make my conditions clear?"

Zecora's words from a few days ago ran through Redd's mind like a movie reel.

Expose my home you musn't do, as the rest are of a darker brew.  Bring them here, or even near, and you will leave by a lonesome tear.

Redd sighed.

"That brings me to my point.  Scootaloo's like me; she's lost the will to burn the Princesses' land.  Discord doesn't know about her rebellion any more than he knows about mine.  And, both of us have come out to Celestia.  Scootaloo actually managed to get there before me.  She's friendly, really."

Zecora glanced out her window, and sighed.

"Fine.  But bring nopony else to this home of mine."

She stood, and moved for the door.

"To collect some herbs, I must be gone.  And stop kicking Jakkyl!"

She left the two expecting another rhyme as she walked out the hut and shut the door behind her.  Scootaloo's gaze followed her curiously, her glasses crooked again.

"Jakkyl?"

Redd sighed for the thirteenth time that day, looking up at her friend with a bit of humor in her eyes.

"The tree outside.  I'm not sure how she got him, though."

Redd got up to leave, Scootaloo following suit.  The humbled tree mumbled a quiet 'Later' as they passed, Redd's opinion of him unfaltered.

Perverted bastard.

Hungry, the pair decided that Scootaloo would take the pick as to what resturaunt they went to since she had lived here most of her life.

"There's this place called Cafe Du Mane right there around the marketplace that's got the best multi-lingual cuisine in Ponyville."

She snickered.

"And the only multi-lingual cuisine in Ponyville."

Redd cocked a brow, and realized Scootaloo was serious.

"What?  It's a small town, okay?"

"I've gotten that by now, Scootaloo," Redd said, smiling.

As they walked past the first few buildings of Ponyville, Scootaloo stopped, took off her glasses, and stowed them in her saddlebags.  Used to the fact that Scootaloo often had fun poked at her because  of her near-sightedness, Redd stopped and patiently waited for her before they continued along through the village.

Scootaloo picked up several looks on her way to Cafe Du Mane, and after some nervous thought figured that it was her appearance.  She looked exactly like she had at a younger age, save her fully grown wings.  The fact that her cutie mark was a flaming wheel didn't help quinch passersby's attention.  Having arrived outside of the resturaunt, suddenly, Scootaloo squinted at something in the middle of the marketplace and gasped as she leapt into a bush.  After glancing questioningly at her friend, Redd saw the problem.  A moment after Scootaloo concealed her presence in the foliage, the Cutie Mark Crusaders came trotting along happily currently led by Sweetie Belle, perhaps to Rarity's boutique.  The three exchanged greetings before Apple Bloom stopped, looked back at Redd and smiled, before picking up the pace to catch back up to her friends.  After they'd rounded the corner, Scootaloo sadly stepped out of the bush.

"If only they knew what I'm gonna end up putting them through..."

Redd smiled.

"You'll find them again, Scootaloo.  Just make sure you don't get swallowed by your ego again."

With that, they stepped inside, where they were greeted by Bon Bon, who was wearing an apron.

"Hey... Scootaloo?" she said, her eyes widening.

Scootaloo's gaze flitted about the room, and she stumbled over her words.  Thankfully, Redd filled in for her.

"Actually, this is Hot Wheels, a distant cousin of Scootaloo's."

The orange mare brightened, and grinned angelically.

"Oookay, I didn't know Scootaloo had a cousin, but that's fine.  What brought you to Ponyville?"

Again, 'Hot Wheels' ears flattened.

"I... uh..."

"A visit, since she hasn't seen Scootaloo's family in a while.  She's gonna be going back to Las Pegasus soon though, probably in a few weeks."

The smile once more split across Scootaloo's face, and Bon Bon's brow cocked.

"Uh huh.  Well, if you'll follow me, we have a few more booths open."

Bon Bon picked up a pair of menus before pausing and putting them back down.

"How many?"

"Just the two of us," Redd replied.

Bon Bon noddd, and picked the menus back up in her teeth before guiding them to a window seat in the far corner of the room.  After they had seated themselves, Bon Bon smiled.

"If you guys need anything, just ask.  I'll be back to check on you in two to three minutes."

Scootaloo nodded.

"Thank you," Redd replied.

Bon Bon made off, and Scootaloo dropped the smile she had plastered across her face.

"You're getting really good at that."

Redd glanced up at her.

"What?"

"Fibbing on a dime.  I mean, it was enough.  I obviously haven't had much practice at it, but..."

She leaned forward, Redd coming into somewhat of a clearer focus.

"'Hot Wheels'?  Really?"

Redd shrugged, and opened her menu.

"It's better than 'Actually yeah, I'm from the future because Discord pulled me out of a lonely situation and sent me on a collision course with the need to destroy everything good Equestria has to offer, regardless of the fact that I'm still worried that my old friends won't accept me back as co-leader of a club I helped start when I was eleven.  But you know, I'm pretty much totally harmless.'"

Scootaloo looked at her incredulously.

"That's basically what you told Zecora."

"Yeah, because she's my godmother.  She's literally known me since before I was born.  She knows I get who's in the right and who's not."

Redd put down her menu just as Bon Bon came back.

"I can take your drinks now, but if you need more time I can come back."

"Oh no, it's no bother.  I'll have a medium sweet tea--"

She cut herself off, pausing.

"Actually, I think I'll just have some coffee.  Completely black, please."

"Yes ma'am.  And you, Hot Wheels?"

At the mention of her poorly crafted cover name, Scootaloo shot Redd a nasty look before placing her order.

"A Monster, if you have them."

Bon Bon nodded.

"Yep.  Sure do.  I'll be back again in just a sec with your drinks, and if you're ready then I'll take your order, 'kay?"

Bon Bon trotted off towards the kitchen, unaware that Redd was staring after her.

"I can't believe she's so happy.  This is the first time I've spoken to her outside of Dark Ponyville.  Even then, I never really got to know her."

"Just another reminder of what exactly we're up against," Scootaloo added darkly.

Redd's eyes fell to her bracelet.  Not the Element of Chaos, but Deepest Care's golden halo, wrapped independently around her ankle as if it were never going to leave her side.

I'm with you, Little Redd.

I know, mum.  I know.

Heavy Relations, Part Four

Chapter Eighteen

Heavy Relations, Part Four

... Wow...

Redd couldn't believe that Scootaloo was still hungry.  She watched hear tear into a jalapeno sub, taking a few sips of her nearly empty Monster from her previous meal.  Hawk was surprised as well, as he had seen them dining through the window, but he didn't say anything.  In the small amount of time that Redd had spent with him, she could already find a label for several points to his personality, although she had to admit that it was unique.  The sun played across his bronze mane, making it difficult to ignore.  His eyes were hardly blue, the color of a midnight sky.  His jaw was narrower than most stallions, but he still had that definition.  The entire time she studied him, he stared out the window, undoubtedly at the rocket about to be launched into the air.  Redd turned as little Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle lit the fuse, the launch pad suspending the rocket about a foot in the air.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders Rocket Scientists!  Woo!" they cheered, high-hoofing as the fuse met it's end.

BOOM!

The rocket exploded before it could move at all, singing the three fillies, who were still in mid-cheer.

"... Or not..." Apple Bloom groaned, toppling back into the grass before her mane, now free of her ponytail, fell over her shoulders.  She gasped as her ribbon slowly fluttered to the ground, eaten through the middle and blackened.

"Mah bow!  It's ruined!"

She scrambled to pick up the pieces, one end of it aflame.  Her lower lip trembled as she got them together.  Scootaloo got back into a standing position and walked over to her.

"Relax, Apple Bloom.  We can get you another."

Inside, Scootaloo gave a start, her attention turning to the CMC's situation.

"I remember that... " she said, swallowing another hunk of jalapenos, Italian herb bread, and cheese.

Apple Bloom scrambled to her hooves and wiped her eyes, taking the burnt pieces of ribbon in her teeth.

"Ah'll be back later."

She ran towards Sweet Apple Acres, her mane bouncing across her shoulders.

Redd turned back to the table, and once again focused on Hawk's features.

"So, the hay're we here if we aren't gonna talk?" Eagle asked.

Hawk snapped out of his reverie, and locked eyes with Redd for a moment before scowling at his brother.

"Don't rush them."

He turned back to Redd.

"So, what do you know about me?"

Startled at the question, she mentally thrashed her thoughts straight again.

"Well, I... "

She cleared her throat.

"One of the first things I picked up on with you is that you're competitive, particularly against him," she said gesturing towards Eagle Eye.

"Another thing I saw is that you're... uh... "

She flushed, glancing away for a moment.

"... Handsome, and a bit humorous."

He suppressed a grin, and looked up as Bon Bon came back with his food.  Redd frowned, realizing that she hadn't noticed him order anything.

"Dandelion quesadilla with extra jalapenos, and our legendary caesar salad," she said, sliding the quesadilla to Hawk and the salad to Eagle.

Hawk Eye couldn't help but notice Redd's brows shoot up.

"What's up?  Besides those, I mean," he didn't bother laughing at his joke, no matter how intentional the atrocity of it's existance was.  Silence extended a moment longer.

"Laaaaaaame," he added silently.

Redd looked at him from behind her mane, a grin slowly spreading across her face before she laughed, Hawk suppressing another smile.  She sat up, and attempted to look at him with a straight face.  The corner of her mouth wouldn't stop twitching, and it was beginning to bug her.

"Nothing, it's just that I didn't know that you liked dandelions."

Eagle Eye scoffed.

"If they're offered, he'll hardly eat anything else."

Hawk looked around nervously, pawing the spot in the table between his helmet and his quesadilla.

"Okay, this is starting to get a little awkward... " Scootaloo noted.

Eagle nudged his brother with an elbow, and gave him a smirk.

"Come on, bro.  Open up a bit."

Hawk nudged him back, and cleared his throat.

"I'm pretty sure you know this, but my name is Hawk Eye.  I run the Forage Protection Squad, a large group of various ponies tasked with the protection of things like lumberjacking crews, large inter-city shipments, etcetera.  Apparently, the Captain approved of my average performance and sent me here, as your personal bodyguard."

"He asked to be here," Eagle Eye cut in with a snicker as Hawk's hoof connected with his side, the black stallion's expression untouched.

Another disgusted grunt came from Scootaloo as she smacked her face into the table.

Striding along beside Redd, Hawk opened the door for her as they left Cafe Du Mane.  The sun had nearly set, and an autumn chill attacked from the breeze.  Scootaloo came out behind Hawk, closely followed by Eagle as they witnessed Celestia's work dip below the clouds.  After a moment of aimless walking, Hawk turned to her.

"I know this's a touchy subject for most mares, but exactly how old are you?"

Redd snorted, her mouth twitching again.

"I don't mind.  I'm twenty-one, twenty-two in December."

He grinned.

"Ooh, somepony's got a birthday coming up.  What're you planning on doing?"

Redd frowned.  She hadn't considered her birthday.

"Well, I usually don't celebrate it.  Never really came to mind until now."

Her mother leaned over, and planted a kiss just below Redd's horn.

"Happy fifth, my little angel.  I love you."

"... really huge one, right in the ballroom."

Redd came back into reality a few seconds too late as the last words of Hawk's sentence found her ears.

"I'm sorry, what?  I, uh... "

"Tuned out?"

The corner of his mouth was lifted.  Again.  He never stopped smirking.  Except it wasn't an overconfident smirk, just the way he laughed within himself.

"... Well, yeah."

This time he let the grin spread.

"Relax.  Happens to me plenty.  I was talking about the party.  Maybe Princess Sparkle can arrange something for you, and we can bring all of our friends and family.  Throw it in the ballroom."

Redd's jaw dropped, and her eyes began flitting between him and where she was walking.

"I-- I don't know if that would be necessary, I mean, it's a simple matter of being a nuisance."

He laughed.

"Believe me, Celestia wouldn't care.  I'm not so sure about Luna though.  She'd probably get her attire in a wad worrying about the Hearth's Warming decorations."

Redd shot him a long look, and once he realized he was being watched, he smirked again.

"What's up?"

"You two bring the princesses into everything," she said, gesturing to Eagle Eye.  He trailed along behind his brother, idly exchanging chatter about sports with Scootaloo, who was living up to her career in Aeroball.  Hawk Eye looked down.

"Sorry.  We've been in somewhat of a life-long fight over which princesses are better, and when Princess Sparkle joined the family, that sparked the argument all over again."

He met her eyes again.

"But it wouldn't be that bad of an idea, to see about throwing your own personal gala in the castle."

She flushed, and nudged him.

"Well, when you put it that way... "

Her playfulness was replaced with a questioning look as he frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"We're getting dangerously close to the Everfree."

Looking back to the road, they were still a few fields away from the treeline.

"We're still pretty far."

He shook his head, his eyes losing that spark he had before.

"I've seen some terrible things happen, Redd.  Timber wolves are particularly active around sundown.  To be honest, we shouldn't go any closer."

She frowned.

"I... I'm staying with my godmother right now.  She lives about a mile past the treeline."

His features hardened, suddenly serious as he stopped walking.

"Then I'm going to have to insist that you stay with us for the night," he stated plainly, gesturing towards his brother.  Eagle's eyes snapped to the back of his brother's head.

"Wait, what?"

He came up beside Hawk, and whispered something in his ear, which twitched in agitation.  Hawk shoved his brother away and turned his attention back to Redd before being cut off in the middle of speaking.

"At least have a hoof-wrestle to make it fair."

Hawk sighed, and, rolling his dark eyes, turned to Eagle.

"Fine.  If I win, she stays with us.  If you win, we pay her way into an inn."

Eagle looked off to the side for a second before meeting his brother's eyes again.

"I was actually thinking that if you won, we'd let her stay, if I won, she'd stay with her godmoth--"

"She is not walking through the Everfree.  That's final."

"I appreciate the concern... "

The two of them turned to Redd.

"... but I can survive a moonlight walk through the woods.  Believe me."

Hawk's eyes moved to the various bandages wrapped around her, those on her hooves lightly stained red.

"I'm not going to leave your side 'til you're safe."

This earned a dark look and a facehoof from Scootaloo, who turned back towards Ponyville.

"I'm going back for a drink."

Eagle's attention snapped in her direction.

"Actually, I think I could use one of those too.  Mind if I join you?"

Scootaloo shrugged as Eagle fell into step beside her, getting back into their previous conversation.  Redd stood wide-eyed and flushed, Hawk's gaze solemnly reading her through her eyes.

She stepped into the forest, Hawk Eye on high-alert beside her.  His ear twitched, and he suddenly entered a protective battle-ready stance in front of her, only to relax and let her by a moment later.

He really takes his job seriously, she thought, her eyes moving to his legs.

They kept going like this for a while, and Hawk Eye's humor began to slowly return.  If at any point however, he detected danger, he would enter that same position, between the foe and Redd and ready to beat the living dung out of it.  Soon, they pressed through one last wall of underbrush as Zecora's home presented itself to them.

"I'd be careful if I were you."

The two of them jumped, and Hawk reflexively attacked.  He relaxed, however, when he realized that he was about to hit a tree.  His jaw dropped, and be backed down from it for a second.

"She's on a hair-trigger, that one," Jakkyl continued, gesturing to Redd with a brow.

That's... a first, he thought, making a conscious effort to close his mouth.

Redd was somewhat surprised as well.  If anything, she figured Estavon would've said something like "Ooh, what have we got here?  Second base tonight man, second base!"

Uh...

"H-hullo, Jakkyl."

"Good evening, Redd.  You two should get indoors.  It's getting somewhat brisk out here."

Hawk slowly nodded, dumbfounded at the tree giving him advice on how cold it was outside.  He shook it off.

Come on Hawk, you've seen weirder, he thought to himself, turning back towards Redd.

"He's right.  Let's get you inside."

He marched forward, Redd following a step behind him, until they reached Zecora's door.  Which was promptly opened by the herbalist, a worried look across her face.  She immediately engulfed Redd into a hug.

"I was worried, for it was dark.  I feared the timber wolves, or perhaps a land shark."

She drug Redd inside, but Hawk Eye remained in the wind.

"Goodnight, Redd," he said, bowing.

When he stood back up, he met the disapproving gaze of the zebra.

"You shall not venture through these trees alone.  In the morning your corpse will be all but bone.  Come in."

His eyes widened, shying under her stare.

"I... can't ma'am.  I must return to Canterlot as soon as possible.  Goodnight... ?"

"Zecora.  Be careful."

"Yes ma'am," he said, turning back into the night.

Zecora shut the door with a sigh, and began to brew Redd's tea.  She looked at her daughter, who had begun to re-wrap her legs and the few bandages on her torso that had come loose.

Zecora stepped through the underbrush, saddlebags catching on a briar, before entering a clearing.  A wyvern sat in the center, it's shoulders' bronze scales quickly rising and falling with every heavy breath.  It's ear twitched, registering the shuffling foliage, before it looked over it's shoulder and gazed straight at her.  It was exhausted, it's dark blue eyes riddled with defeat.  It wasn't hurt, not physically.  But Zecora could feel that it was emotionally broken.

That he was emotionally broken.

Zecora watched him a moment longer, and he never moved.  Eventually his breathing slowed down to his normal pace, and she stepped forward. He didn't react, aside from following her eyes. He could feel her studying him, taking in every detail. His ears sat where any normal pony's would, flat against his head in submission, and the moonlight played across his scales beautifully. He had thin claws at the ends of his hands and feet, and a long, scaly tail interrupted at the tip with a jet black puff of fur was tucked around his side. His head was smaller and more petite than his Draconic cousins', and again roughly resembled a pony's structure. His fangs jutted out from his upper lip, continuing about half an inch below his jaw before ending in a sharp point. His mane hung in his eyes, the same color as his tail hair. His underbelly too, was blacker than the night sky, his leathery wings tense at his sides. Altogether, he was at the adult stage in his life, his height only surpassing the average pony's by an inch or two. Eventually Zecora got close enough to gently place a hoof on his muzzle, a relaxed breath sending steam out of his nose. "Everything will be alright. There is nothing left to fear tonight." His shoulders sagged, and he closed his eyes. "Now," Zecora continued softly. "Who are you?" And just like the dragons, his wyvern tongue held no trouble with Equine words.

"Hawk Eye... "

Heavy Relations, Part Five

Chapter Nineteen

Heavy Relations, Part Five

He acted like he didn't know me.  He's cleverer than he lets on, Zecora thought.

The tea came to a boil, and she poured a glass and made her way over to Redd before realizing that she had already fallen asleep curled up in the corner.  She couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her face as she set the cup to the side, and made her way onto her cot.  She wished Redd would accept her bed, but she was nervous that she would be overstaying her welcome if she did.

A thin blade of sunlight made it's way from the sky, became filtered by the trees and magnified by Zecora's window before landing directly on Redd's slumbering lashes.  Her eyes fluttered open and she stretched, releasing an unearthly groan.  She stood and yawned before taking a step outside, suddenly at attention.

That odor.  That gut-wrenching odor.

Timber wolves.

She burst forth, charging her horn and following her nose through the Everfree.  After roughly a minute of running, she began to hear them.  Snarling, something breaking, the sound of hollow sticks flying into trees.  Their howls and yelps were stacked, at least six or seven times.  On que, she exploded into a clearing, a large wooden body flying in her direction.  Releasing the inferno she had built up, she incinerated the wolf, no fiber nor ash to prove it was ever there.  What was beyond took her breath away.

A dark black stallion spun in the air and landed on one of the wolves, smashing it's head into the ground before reflexively bucking away one from behind and leaping to the left, narrowly dodging yet another attacker from the front.  He landed on the side of a tree, pushing off with incredible force and drilling through another of his foes.  Redd leapt forward and shot down the two of them that were coming to him from behind.  At the sudden burst of dark red light, Hawk Eye's head turned in surprise, just long enough for an enemy to strike him from the side.  They rolled for a moment, both of them snarling, until he managed to physically tear the creature's head off.  Shoving the body off of him, he watched the final wolf take a fine spray of ranged fire from Redd, who slowly progressed with a dangerous look on her face.  Once it was smoking and down, she charged a final shot and pressed her horn against it's forehead.

BOOM!

A large charred crater with no plant life to be found within resulted, the enemy completely gone.

Hawk Eye wasn't in the best of shape.  He had several cuts laced across his body, his armor oddly missing.  His rear left leg harbored a limp, and his ear had a small cut along the edge.  His nose was bloody, and his cheek was slashed across with claw marks.  Out of pure curiosity Redd's eyes wondered to his cutie mark, no longer hidden by his armor.  A thin bronze dragon curled around a dark black sword, also outlined in bronze.  At the hilt, a dark blue gem was enlaid, making the entire image seem to come alive.

Redd's eyes met his again as he approached, avoiding putting weight on his hind leg.

"Are you okay?"

Redd felt great.  Pissed, but great.

"Shouldn't you be asking yourself that question?"

He smirked.

"If you weren't here, I would be," he said, stepping around her to the edge of the clearing.

He retrieved his armor from a bush, mangled and no longer fit to be worn.  It looked like Hawk had used it as a bludgeon.

"If I weren't here, you probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to wonder that."

He grinned.

"Indeed, my little badass.  Indeed."

He turned around, his armor slung across his back.  She flushed at the compliment, and her eyes widened in surprise.  That smile was still there, and it didn't do anything to slow her heart down.

"C'mon.  Let's get you home."

"Hawk Eye, there is nothing wrong with you," Zecora said, wrapping her hooves around his neck.  This gesture surprised him, but he didn't move.

"You just don't know what to do."

He sighed, looking at the ground.

"I'm... a monster.  I dread the moon... "

Fury suddenly built up in his chest, and he turned to the night sky.

"I hate it!"

"How did you know I was in trouble?"

Redd smiled at the ground, casually walking alongside Hawk Eye through the trees.

"I smelled them, and just followed my nose."

He nodded, and winced as a root snagged his limp.  Redd immediately felt guilty, but knew that if she tried to heal him it would probably make his leg explode or something.

God damn chaotic nature.  God damn it all.

After a moment, she heard something.  Soft melodies.  It took her a second to realize that Hawk Eye was humming.  They continued along, and she noticed that she had never heard his song before.

"What're you singing?"

He froze, and his eyes widened.

Shit.

"Uh... "

She smiled at him.

"It's kinda embarrassing... "

Her smile spread into a grin.

"Go on."

He sighed.

"It's a song I learned when I was a colt.  But it's, uh... We're Gonna Be Friends by the White Stripes."

She giggled, and leaned closer to him.

"I'm sure we will, Hawk Eye."

His eyes widened again, and he flushed.

They kept walking, and eventually she nudged him playfully.

"You going to keep singing, or are you shy?"

She loved how she could make him nervous, red shining through the dark coat on his cheeks.

"I, uh... can't really... sing.  Well."

He cleared his throat.

She's choking me up, he realized incredulously.

She laughed, and looked back at him with a glint in her eye.  He couldn't place what it was, but it was there.  It struck a chord in him, urging him to at least attempt.  He sighed and looked into the sky, the sun hitting the 10 o'clock mark.  Then he started humming to himself, slowly escalating in effort until he eventually formed words.

"Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school, ring the bell.  Brand new shoes, walking blues, climb the fence, books and pens.  I can tell that we are gonna be friends.  I can tell that we are gonna be friends."

He began slightly bobbing his head, signifying a rhythm.  Redd smiled at him.

"You lied to me.  You're a wonderful singer."

He smiled back, but didn't answer her.

"Walk with me, Susie Lee, through the park and by the tree.  We will rest upon the ground, and look at all the bugs we found.  Then safely walk to school without a sound.  Safely walk to school without a sound."

This time she simply looked at him, sure that another verse was coming.  She wasn't wrong.

"Well here we are, no one else, we walked to school all by ourselves.  There's dirt on our uniforms, from chasing all the ants and worms.  We clean up and now it's time to learn.  We clean up and now it's time to learn... "

Those She'd Wronged

Chapter Twenty

Those She'd Wronged

Hawk's lips were soft, slowly deepening the embrace.  Redd's heart fluttered, and they slowly broke apart.  Both of their eyes were large, blinking a few times before they shied away from each other.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn'tve-- " she began.

"No, no.  I kissed you.  I was too headstrong, and I didn't... "

Hawk Eye slowly smiled, and nudged her playfully in the shoulder.

"Call it a draw?"

Redd burst out laughing, and she shook a dry leaf out of her mane.

"Agreed.  But, you, uh... "

She flushed.  He cocked his brow, sharing her grin.

"'But I, uh,' what?"

"... You're a, uh... brilliant liplocker."

He smirked.

"You mean 'kisser'?"

The shade of red playing across her cheeks deepened, and she glanced away.

"Yeah.  That."

His smirk spread into a grin.

"Well, that's wonderful to know, because that's the first time I've ever kissed a girl."

She stared at him.  Suddenly what he said clicked in his ears, and he flushed.

"N-- not that I've kissed a guy before, just thought that, uh, well, you're beautiful.  And you're a girl... I don't know why I had to throw that in there, it just felt right, but I can swear that I've never-- "

He was interrupted by her laughter, and he shot her an incredulous look.

"Are you getting off on this?"

She looked at him, that spark that had persuaded him to sing earlier present in her eyes.

"You could say that.  Or... "

Redd smiled the insecure look on his face.

"... you could experience it."

She leaned over and kissed him again, still walking along the road as they left the Everfree.  She suddenly yelped as she tipped forward, and he caught her, maintaining the kiss the entire time.  Pulling out of it, he opened his eyes, and wrapped his arms around her.

"You need to watch where you're going."

Nopony besides her mother had really been concerned for her well-being enough to scold her for tripping before.  That, and she had hardly been picking her hooves up at all, walking along dreamily.  She wasn't used to being in love, nor was she used to being loved.  This realization baffled her as the two made their way into Ponyville, the morning sunlight bouncing across them like a giddy child.

Hawk Eye kept stealing glances at her from the corner of his eye, a strange mix of emotions equipped within his chest.  Affection, intrigue, happiness, and of course protectiveness.  It was during one of these glances that he accidentally locked eyes with her.  His gaze snapped back to the road, and both of them flushed.

Was she watching me too?

"What's up, bro?"

Hawk and Redd jumped, and turned to find Eagle Eye trotting up from behind them.  His armor was absent as well, his snow white coat standing in stark contrast to his jet black mane.  Like his brother his mane was long and unkempt, but he had a cowlick that kept it out of his eyes.  His cutie mark was very similar to Hawk Eye's; an ocean blue bird of prey curled around the golden blade of a sword.

Eagle cocked a brow, a humorous expression laid across his face.

"Did I interrupt you two, or am I just quieter than I thought?"

Hawk Eye hesitated.

"I... no, what's up?"

The fact that Hawk's tongue kept stumbling over itself didn't help his situation.  Eagle's cocky grin widened, and he shrugged innocently.

"Nothin'.  Just thought I'd tell Redd that I now know that Scootaloo is not by any means an egghead.  She's a good counterbalance for you," he said, nodding to Redd at that last part.

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"And, may I ask, what is that supposed to mean?"

Eagle swallowed, and he could feel a bead of sweat develop on his forehead.

"I-- I, uh, not that you're a nerd, just saying you two make good friends, and you should probably, uh... stick with her."

She smiled, letting the intimidating mask vanish.

"Although I appreciate the observation, Eagle Eye, I already know that."

He released a breath that he hadn't realized he was holding, and wiped his brow.  Hawk Eye laughed.

"Never, never in my life have I seen you so worked up."

Eagle Eye nodded.

"She's a keeper," he said, winking at Hawk and turning off towards the marketplace.

Redd rolled her eyes, and returned her attention to the dark stallion striding along beside her.

"So what do you want to eat?"

Hawk shrugged as his brother ran back up to them, panting.

"Oh, and Scootaloo said that if I saw you to let you know that Discord wants to meet," he said, lowering his voice.

"Later!"

He trotted off, going back in the direction he came.  Redd sighed and kept walking.

He's probably sick of waiting, right along with everypony else that's there.

She scowled.

Especially Brook.

Finally her obligations outweighed her current desires, and she sighed again, turning to Hawk Eye.

"I'll be back in about an hour.  You should probably go see the Captain about preperations while I'm gone."

She closed her eyes, and felt the red coat slide over her as a distant be careful reached her ears.

Thankfully, the landscape of Dark Ponyville hadn't changed since Redd had left the day before.  She stepped onto an unfamiliar road, suddenly realizing that she had gotten lost before she came here.

Ballucks.

She stepped through the overgrown streets all too weary of the potholes and bumps in her path, courtesy of the plunderseeds strewn across the road thousands of years ago.  Her hoof snagged on one of the thorns, and she yelped as her bandage was torn away.  Droplets of blood hit the street and she swore again, gathering the stares of the few ponies in the area.  Glancing up, she locked eyes with Ditzy Doo, the only pony she knew out of the small group around her.  The former mailmare was broken, to say the least.  She sat in the rain leaned against a decrepit barber's, the occasional tear blending with the raindrops on her cheeks.  Put simply, the wingless Pegasus was dead inside.  Faithless.  Hopeless.

Redd turned away, biting her lip.  The rain drowned out her whispers, though Ditzy could still hear her.

"I'm sorry... "

Redd continued down the road, paying her bleeding wounds no mind as she watched the empty souls around her.

Wretched.  Damned.  That's what I am.  I am a demon.  I am a coward.

She knew now wasn't the time to beat herself down, but she couldn't stop the thoughts from blasting through her mind like a locomotive, carrying steam and fury with every stop it made.

Destructive.  Heartless.  Reliable.  Painful.  Deadly.  Accurate.  Loyal.  Beautiful.  Brave.  Definitely ain't thick in the head.

She gasped as Applejack's voice rang through her ears, and she was suddenly reminded of why she was here in the first place.

To help those she'd wronged.

By the Flight of Night

Chapter Twenty One

By the Flight of Night

Redd shimmered away, an iridescent red shine passing over her.

"Be careful," Hawk said, taking a step toward her as she vanished.

He sighed and turned, only to be met nose-to-nose with Eagle Eye.

"Well, somepony's got a laaadyfrieeend," he chided in a sing-song voice.

Hawk Eye shoved him back and shot him a dark look before walking back the way he came, towards the Everfree.

"It's nearly eleven, Eagle.  I don't have time to waste right now."

Eagle Eye fell into step beside him, visibly pondering what his brother meant.

"Oh, right.  Sorry, I forgot you're on your period."

He received another look from Hawk.

"That's an... oddly observant way to put it."

He let a humored smirk crack across his face.

"Although accurate."

Laughter echoed across the streets, Eagle unable to maintain his composure.

The foliage parted, and a jet black stallion stepped into the clearing closely followed by his brother.  Zecora sat in the center, meditating with a small leather pouch on a string around her neck.  She flinched, leaving her trance with an ungraceful yelp, before standing and brushing a few leaves off of her flank.

"Once you wake, the hour will be nigh.  To remain unseen, do not fly too high," she grunted irritably.

Hawk nodded, smirking at her state of disarray.

"I've done this enough to know that, Zecora.  I'll be fine."

Eagle Eye scoffed.

"Always so sure of yourself.  Be humble for once."

Hawk's expression remained rigid as his hoof launched into Eagle's side, knocking a satisfactory grunt out of him.  Hawk Eye walked over to Zecora, who took the pouch from around her neck and opened it.  A sweet aroma greeted him as he lowered his nose and took a deep breath of the pollens inside.  Almost immediately, his eyes crossed and his legs buckled, his body hitting the ground with a thud.  His breathing became erratic, slowly calming until his eyelids closed, and he fell into a slumber.  Once he was down, Eagle Eye and Zecora watched him for a moment, before locating and lying under their respective trees.

Glancing up at the moon, Eagle confirmed that it was only a few moments before it would strike midnight.

Just a couple more minutes...

Zecora followed his gaze into the sky, and nodded.  Suddenly, Hawk's unconscious form exploded in a white wave of fire.  A bronze blur erupted from the rising flames, soaring into the sky with a speed previously unaccounted for.  It slowed down, tipped backwards, and fell into a dive towards the trees.  At a split-second's brush with death, Hawk Eye opened his wings, pulling out of the dive and leaving the autumn trees, mere inches below him, bare in his wake.  He did a barrelroll, tilted to the side, and let the wind redirect him back to Zecora and Eagle Eye.  He hit the clearing hard, overturning grass and leaving long claw marks in the soil, before turning to his companions.

He was glowing.  Absolutely, positively glowing.

"I've been waiting for ages to do that!"

Eagle grinned through his jealousy.

"I just wish I had enough of dad in me to join you," he said, stepping towards his brother and wrapping his foreleg around Hawk's neck in a bro hug.

Hawk's nose pointed into the air, and his pupils visibly dilated under the moon.

"Strawberries," he hissed, shaking Eagle's arm off and darting into the foliage.

Eagle stumbled through the bushes after Hawk Eye and his hoof caught on a root.  An audible growl erupted from his throat as he hit the ground cursing.

"Bucking trees, bucking roots, bucking bugs, bucking... "

At a loss for further targets to buck, he growled again as he got to his hooves.

"Where the hell is he going!?"

Hawk Eye leapt over yet another bush, navigating the Everfree as if he'd been born there.  The sweet aroma of strawberries was getting stronger, but he had never been this deep in the Forest before, and that fact was worrying him.  His ear twitched as he heard a faint roar, not of a creature, but rather that of rain.  The strawberries were in the same direction, but he stopped and continued cautiously despite the overwhelming urge to break back into a sprint.  The terrain was rougher here, more stones hidden in the leaves and large boulders outsizing him by several feet.  The trees became less than favorably dense, and he'd smacked his muzzle into a trunk more than once.  He was beginning to wonder if all of this was worth it as he pushed through another shrub and promptly stared in awe.

Yet another clearing stretched out before him, a monstrous, grassy stone overhang extending from a hill in the opposite end he had entered from.  From this overhang a waterfall poured into a crystal clear pond, reflecting the stars with a semicircle of strawberry bushes along the left side.  From the right side of the water a large oak tree stood at a diagonal angle, providing shelter for about a tenth of the glassy surface.

Hawk Eye snapped himself out of his stupor and walked across the twenty foot gap of grass between the edge of the trees and the pond, before taking a mouthful of strawberries and further exploring the oasis.

The bottom of the pond was bare stone, rays from the moon dancing across the rocks like the Northern Lights.  The oak tree was young and in great condition, serving as only the most perfect of lounge space.  The waterfall mostly added to the beauty of the area, but he tested it out and it nevertheless stood as the most amazing shower he had ever been in.  Living up to the Autumn name, the water was freezing cold, yet oddly refreshing.  As for the strawberry bushes?

Couldn't have built this place better myself, Hawk thought, happily chewing on a berry while relaxing in the oak tree.

He popped another in his mouth as his ears picked up a frustrated howl.  Eagle Eye stumbled through the foliage closely followed by Zecora, who was more graceful in her efforts.  Picking himself up off the ground, Eagle's coat was matted with sticks, thorns, leaves, and stained with topsoil.  He took in his surroundings for a moment before his eyes landed on Hawk, and he stiffened.

"Why'd you just get up and go like that?"

Hawk Eye snickered, popping another strawberry in his mouth.

"You mean to tell me that you can't keep up?  Come on, bro.  Lighten up.  Enjoy the fragment of heaven that's befallen this forest."

He was about to throw another berry in his mouth before his form suddenly shifted, and he slipped out of the tree into the water.  Eagle didn't bother hiding his laughter as he shook the debris off of himself.  Hawk resurfaced, and swam back out of the water in his familiar black coat and bronze mane.

The Raw Side

Chapter Twenty Two

The Raw Side

Redd faded back into True Ponyville next to the Golden Oaks Library, the tension immediately leaving her slender frame.  Looking down at her irritated ankle, she decided that now was as good a time as any to attempt a healing spell.  Her horn ignited and her hoof became immersed in red magic before suddenly bursting into flames.

"Ballucks ballucks ballucks ballucks... " she yelped, shaking her leg free of the dark red fire and blowing on it.  A magenta field surrounded the burnt hoof, and Redd looked up to see Twilight Sparkle focusing her attention on her ankle, her horn active.  The pain faded along with the copious amount of cuts and burns, but the fur remained bare where the lacerations previously were.  Twilight relaxed, and her magic vanished.

"I guess all those accidents didn't leave you unscathed."

Redd's jaw was hanging open, astonished at the random act of kindness.

"I... suppose not.  Thank you."

Twilight smiled.

"If you come inside, I can heal the rest of you," she continued, gesturing to the multitude of bandaging about Redd's body.

Suddenly realizing just how broken she was, Redd nodded and followed her inside the library.

Her jaw dropped again as she stepped through the front door.  The Golden Oaks library was spotless, the gargantuan shelves neatly organized between hundreds of authors and categories.  Spike still boasted a thick black mustache as he stood several feet up a ladder, sliding monstrous hardbacks into the History section.  He still had six or seven titles in his arms when they walked in.

"Where'd you go, Twilight?" he asked, unable to see them through his work.

"Just outside for a minute.  I need you to get a pair of scissors, Spike."

Twilight began to trot up the stairs, but stopped when she noticed that Redd was still standing near the door.

"Make yourself at home.  We have nachos in the kitchen."

Redd blinked as the lavender unicorn disappeared upstairs and, after a moment, sat in an armchair.  Spike, on the opposite side of the room, slid down the ladder and caught a glimpse of the guest for the first time.  She sported a strange look of bewilderment, surveying the room carefully and relishing in every detail.  Twilight came back down the stairs with a pair of scissors bobbing alongside her in a magenta bubble.

"Nevermind, I found them."

She frowned, noticing how distant Redd seemed.

"What's wrong?"

Redd's gaze leapt to her, and a sad look darkened her eyes.

"Nothing, really, it's just... "

Her attention swept across the shelves again, dusted and beautiful, before locking once more with Twilight's.

"Where I come from, you've... given up.  Lost your light.  The library here is beautifully groomed, but in Dark Ponyville it's a bloody wreck."

Twilight's eyes widened, and Redd quickly corrected herself.

"In terms of slang, of course."

Nodding, Twilight gestured to the pristine coffee table a few feet in front of Redd.

"Lay down, please."

Wincing through her burns, Red stood and laid face up on the mahogany surface.  The scissors moved from her neck down and cut a neat line across the gauze around her chest.  Then they snipped the wrappings away from her left flank.  Four minor burns were slashed across her torso, but the irritated gash through her cutie mark proved itself severe.  Redd felt the warm presence of magic grace her chest as Twilight kicked off the conversation.

"Not to pry, but why did you light your leg on fire?"

"She did what?" Spike asked from another armchair, laughing.

Twilight shot him a dark look as Redd smiled.

"To be honest, it is absurd.  I was actually trying my luck at a healing spell."

Twilight's face quirked up, and Spike laughed again.

"I guess it backfired.  That's a common thing for healing and teleportation."

Redd shook her head, and she suddenly felt frustrated.

"I've never been able to heal.  I can teleport, and shoot, and levitate.  I just can't heal."

Twilight cocked a brow, and surged more power into her spell.

"Well that doesn't make any sense."

Redd smiled, and winced as a tender spot mended.

"Now what's the fun in making sense?"

Twilight scoffed.

"Wouldn't this be a problem?" Spike interjected.

Upon the questioning looks of Twilight and Redd, he continued.

"I mean, one of a Unicorn's greatest strengths is the ability to heal somepony at the turn of a bit."

Twilight shot a deadly look his way and he backpedaled.

"What?  Just sayin'."

Redd felt the magic leave her torso and resurface on her flank.  She yelped, the sudden pain of hyper-regeneration lancing up her leg in a hot strike.

"I like to think that what I lack in diplomacy, defenses and recuperation I make up for in force, accuracy and dexterity," she gasped, struggling to keep her leg from recoiling.

Spike shrugged.

"Makes sense."

By the time Twilight had finished, Redd's heart was pounding against her chest like a sparratic drum.  She slid off the table, no longer restricted by her pain threshold, and stretched her rejuvenated muscles.

"Thank you, Twilight.  I really, really needed that."

Twilight smiled and picked the scissors up in her magic from the table before levitating them to Spike.

"Upstairs, green dresser, top drawer.  Not bottom."

The dragon sighed, and left the room with the scissors in hand.

"Anytime, sis," she continued.

Redd froze, and slowly turned to meet Twilight's eyes.

"What?"

Twilight backpedaled.

"I just thought that, since we're opposites-- "

"Nevermind, you're fine.  It just struck a chord in me."

Redd picked up her bandages on a bed of magic and coiled them neatly into the rubbish bin across the room.

"A... chord?" Twilight muttered under her breath as Redd was turned.

"Did somepony mention chords?" Spike asked, descending the stairs again.

Upon the confused look from Redd, Twilight giggled and gestured to an upright piano nestled in a dark corner of the library.

"He's taken a liking to playing the piano.  Honestly, he needs somewhere besides here to practice.  I can't think, and he keeps making me drowsy."

Spike chuckled nervously, and scratched his mustache.

"I play quiet, okay?  Whats wrong with quiet?"

Red smiled and sat back down in her armchair.

"Nothing, it's just that I'm the same way.  Except I usually don't play, just listen."

He perked up, and stopped stroking his hair.

"You know the Moonlight Sonata?"

"Doubtless one of the greatest works in classical history."

"What about We Three Kings?"

She scoffed.

"It's a Hearth's Warming carol.  Come along, I know more than that."

His brow furrowed and he leaned against the wall, thinking, before a sly grin slowly spread across his face.

"Hands Up?"

Redd laughed, flicking her hair out of her eyes.

"A personal favorite, though new no less."

He facepalmed and sat down at the piano.  After a few tight moments, soft notes began rising from the keys as his fingers slid across them, striking a beautifully unfamiliar hymn.  After a few more calming minutes in the library, the keys slowly faded.

"Heard that one before?"

Spike turned on the piano bench, awaiting her response.

"I know an original when I hear one," she said, smiling.

The Condiment and the Philosophy

Chapter Twenty Three

The Condiment and the Philosophy

The streets of East Riding were dreary as they often were, the fog settled on the horizon refusing to disperse.  The sun was entirely blotted out, leaving the dirt roads a strange tinge of brownish-purple.  The dark setting failed to shake the festive air, however, as a light blue stallion with a thicker stature saw the door of a pub fade into render at the corner of McKinley and Jackal street.  The bouncer, a dark green stallion with a brown unkempt mane sporting a pair of sleek black shades, was leaned against the wall next to the door, chewing a clover.  The blue guest nodded to the bouncer through his violet mane, the gesture returned with no small amount of a grin.  The green stallion opened the door for the other pony, who was immediately greeted with blaring Celtic music reverberating across the cobblestone and wooden walls.  The bar was entirely occupied, save for a single seat directly in the middle.  That seat had a brass plaque imbedded along the edge.  The words engraved across it brought a smile to the stallion's lips as he stepped through the crowd and approached the bar.  He sat on his own personal seat as the bartender slid a sleek glass mug to him and stood across from his friend.

"Three parts whiskey, four parts lager, three parts Heartstrings Irish Cream," the bartender said smugly through a thick Irish accent.

The customer threw his head back with the "Hard Earned" custom combination and smacked his lips together, feeling the taste of the beverage inside and out.  After a moment a smile spread across his face, and he took another draw of the glass.

"That's perfect," he laughed, attracting a similar reaction from the mint green stallion across from him.

Party Hard's love for Heartstrings Irish Cream wasn't an uncommon occurrence amongst the residents of East Riding.  It was built from scratch at every angle by the Heartstrings family, from the scotch to the cream.  Irish Cream himself, despite his name, was only talented at preparing the drinks he sold and knew no more about the aging process than the Western members of his family.  This generally disgruntled him, and he was determined to learn how to go beyond the borders of the counter.

Party Hard leaned against the small back of his seat and stared intently at his glass of Hard Earned.  Irish Cream couldn't help but worry about his friend's behavior, far too out of character to ignore.  Hard would usually be gambling, singing drinking songs or dancing as soon as he walked into the pub, and hardly stay in the same place for a few minutes at a time.

Cream recalled Party Hard's half empty glass and slid it under the counter, and the blue stallion shot out of his lax composure.

"Come along now, Cream!  I wasn't finished with that!"

Irish Cream gave him a humored look, and left the drink out of sight.

"Come off it lass.  There's something on your mind."

Hard sat back in his seat, staring incredulously at the bartender.

"Did you just call me a woman?"

"Well that's what you act like.  Now tell a soul why you're so quiet."

Despite the therapeutic tone that only a bartender can harness, Party still hesitated.  Eventually the Celtic music in the background faded, and as the band broke back into song he cleared his throat.

"Do you remember Little Redd?"

Cream laughed, scooped the drink out from under the bar, and slid it back to Party Hard.

"I'm surprised you remember her, what with all the hangovers and bar fights you've gotten yourself into."

Party scoffed, kept a secure hold on his Hard Earned glass, and remained silent for another few seconds.

"Where do you think she is?  How she's doing?"

The spearmint stallion's brow cocked, and he shrugged.

"How am I to know something like that?  I haven't heard from her since she left for Equestria."

Party Hard slowly nodded, and figured his next question would be predicted.

"I'm gonna find her."

Of course it came out as a statement.  Everything he did managed to be a statement.

Irish Cream, who had poured himself a glass of cherry wine, coughed and sputtered a fine spray across the bar.  He wiped his mouth, picked up his towel, and swiped the wine off of his counter before tossing the rag back on the shelf under the surface.

"And how do you plan to accomplish that?"

"How else?  I'm taking a ship there."

The bartender's brow cocked, and his wings rubbed together.  This earned a similar expression from Hard, who waved a hoof at his bare sides.

"Hello?  Earth born here."

Irish Cream laughed.

"I have an itch because I haven't preened all day.  You planning to go alone?"

Party Hard smiled.

"I was hoping you would ask.  It really depends on whether or not you have the ballucks to join me."

Cream smirked.

"That really depends on whether or not you have the ballucks to go without me."

"To ballucks, then!" the customer laughed as they smacked their glasses together.

"Is it just me, or does Spike seem to be getting older?"

Twilight cocked a brow.

"What do you mean?  You haven't been around to see him otherwise."

Redd shrugged.

"This him, yeah.  But he's grown a lot."

"How long have you been here?" Twilight asked, surprised.

Redd frowned again.

Wow.  How long have I been here?

Shrugging, she shook her head in her own disbelief.

"How long have I been working with Discord?  Fifteen years.  How long have I been working on this with Discord?  Maybe three."

The scholar's eyes widened.

"And you've been in the field how long?"

"A week.  This is the first time I've been back home since I was seven."

Of course, Twilight's jaw continued to drop.

The band finally finished their last song, and Party Hard stumbled back to the bar.  Everything the drunken blue idiot spouted came out in slurred lines and showers of drool.

"Ineydah--" he belched, "Riiide back."

Cream, who was used to seeing his friend in this state of mind, nodded and made his way through the crowd onto the stage.

"Oi!  It's that time of morn' again, friends!  The Heartstrings Ghrúdlann is now officially closed!  Go and spill your troubles in the privacy of your homes!"

The crowd cheered for him, and, relatively speaking, quickly left the pub.  A monstrous mess remained, alcohol spilt across tables and mugs scattered across the room.  Irish Cream left Party Hard at the bar and stepped through a door behind the counter.  The room beyond often reminded him of a medical wing, about thirty feet long and twenty wide.  Twin-sized beds laid on either side of him, night tables between them lit by a single candle apiece.  At the end of the room, several wardrobes lined the far wall, most of which's doors lazily left open to reveal extra bedding on a top shelf and an empty closet space for clothes.

In the last bed to the left, a light brown mare with the trademark spearmint mane and tail slashed through with white stripes laid asleep.  A clover with white feathered wings adorned her flank, and her right foreleg twitched every few seconds.

"Wake, Fae.  I need to retire."

He prodded his sister awake, took a matchbox in his teeth from his own bed across the room, and left the building with Party Hard slumped across his shoulder.  He kept walking down McKinley street for a few minutes, and turned right onto Relic avenue.  From there he made a left turn Northbound onto St. Mackey street, and finally turned another right onto Westwing court.  He passed a few buildings, quaint cottages seemingly out of place in the darkness of the fog.  Finally, just before the roundabout at the end of the street, he made a right into his driveway and pushed through his door.

Immediately after walking in, an upright piano sits against the wall opposite the door.  A dark brown suede couch facing the rightward wall towards a small fireplace took on Cream's load as he dumped Hard into the cushions, and continued forward through the archway leading into his kitchen.  The table sat to the left, taking up roughly a fifth of the room, and a grounded rustic cabinet sat to his right.  The sink on the opposite wall of the archway, the counter was cobblestoned with two open shelves running the length of the wall.  Past the cabinets and to the right sat a wood stove, and past the table and to the left, set into the wall, was his refrigerator.  He opened the matchbox, pulled out a clover, and started chewing on the stem before tossing the pack onto the counter.  He then walked back into the den and pushed open a door to the left of the fireplace.  His bedroom was small, not much more than a bed, night table, candle, clock and wardrobe adorning the edges.  A wooden pan flute sat next to the clock, carelessly balanced near the edge of the table.  Irish Cream collapsed onto his bed, and gave a tired sigh as his eyes drifted closed.

Eyes on the Moon

Chapter Twenty Four

Eyes on the Moon

Hawk Eye shook himself off, paying no mind to Eagle's dismay, and picked another hoof full of strawberries.  He suddenly remembered his marefriend, who was probably wondering where in Celestia's name he was at that particular moment.

You would be so much more enjoyable if she were here, he thought as he began to retrace his steps back to the clearing he visited a dozen times a year.  He stopped.

I'm talking to a clearing.

He rolled the thought around his head for a few more seconds before blinking and stepping back into the trees.

The starlight was completely blotted out by the heavy deciduous forestry and ancient, moss-covered boulders tossed about as if giants had a hearty game of marbles.  Hawk kept an ear out for Eagle Eye and Zecora to detect any misdirection from his trail.  Nothing but anguished cries of frustration emanated from his sibling as he scuffed himself on various annoyances such as briars and rabbit holes, and Zecora moved silently only a few paces behind Hawk Eye.

"You're gonna wake the dead," the bronze-headed stallion growled irritably at his brothers inability to cope.  He heard Eagle pause a second before quickly trotting back over to re-close the distance that had resulted.

"I see you've forgotten that I'm like twice your size," he said, rubber-necking from beside of his brother to look him in the eye.  Hawk Eye shrugged with a half-lidded, nonchalant gaze, avoiding eye contact.

"You seek companionship, yet argue like colts," Zecora suddenly said from behind them, making Hawk Eye jump.  He had forgotten that she was there.

She's too silent.  It's creepy.

He glanced at his brother at his side, also with a startled look on his face.  Eagle cleared his throat, and began watching leaves pass by beneath his hooves.

The trees thinned and the boulders eventually stopped recurring entirely as Hawk Eye came across the oddly comforting clearing, continuing to traverse the more familiar area.  Finally, after an hour's walk from Hawk's oasis, the trio came to Zecora's front door.

"I assume you have a bed to lay in tonight?" Zecora asked as they stopped.

"We'll be alright," Hawk said, Eagle Eye snickering.

"You rhymed together."

Zecora and his sibling turned to face the bleach-white stallion with identically cocked brows, taking a moment for a surprisingly awkward silence to settle at the childish remark.  Eagle looked down and to the side.

"Sorry."

A grin slowly spread across Hawk Eye's face as he chuckled and shook his head.

"You're an idiot."

Zecora smiled, and nodded to the brothers.

"Goodnight."

"Reflected," Hawk said, smiling, as his brother returned her nod.  She turned and entered her hut, the light of a single candle temporarily flooding the stoop.  Hawk caught a glimpse of long, pearly red and white mane curled in the corner, and nearly called a greeting to the sleeping form of Little Redd as the door closed and he was again left in darkness.  He heard movement, and he turned to find Eagle walking back towards Ponyville.  He looked up at the moon, bathing in the cool blue light and listening to the crickets.

"Hey bro."

Eagle's hoof falls became silent, and Hawk kept his blue gaze on the moon.

"Yeah?"  He patiently awaited an answer, though it was several expectant seconds wasted as his brother continued to watch the sky.  Eventually he turned to continue down the road, startled by Hawk's delayed response.

"I'm gonna hang around here a while longer."

Eagle turned around again to find Hawk Eye already continuing deeper into the Everfree, down the thin path they had left a few moments before.  Alarm sprang up within Eagle Eye, as he had never known his brother for his eagerness to explore the Forest.

"Hawk Eye!"

The black stallion paused, already practically invisible within the foliage.  He looked over his shoulder, his dark eye urging Eagle to continue.  Eagle's brow furrowed as he finished his call.

"Are you okay?"

Hawk Eye didn't blink as he looked forward again.

"I'm fine."

"Hawk Eye!"

This time he didn't respond, vanishing within the Everfree as if he had merely been an illusion.

Hawk Eye walked back, his pristine memory proving itself as it guided him back to his pond.  The waterfall drowned out the crickets and sparkled like a shower of diamonds against the light of the late moon, bringing a calming feeling over him that blotted out the pain he continued to harbor from the previous day's wolf encounter.  He sat by the glistening pool, ignoring the temptation to pick more strawberries, and just kept gazing at the sky.  Left only to his thoughts and the silence of the forest, the sensation of helplessness came over him.

The world was whizzing by, spinning in confusing circles.  Events that would bring his home to its knees that had had no control nor power over stopping.  He kept his eyes on the moon with these thoughts in his head, searching for anything, any sign of a spark.  He didn't know what he was looking for, but he knew that he would need to be able to summon the darkest corners of himself for the long war ahead.  Before he knew it, the moon was nearly gone over the horizon and the morning had begun to wash over the Everfree.  Finally, he looked to the pristine blades of soft grass beneath his hooves before turning with a disappointed sigh and walking home.

A simple black space.

"Void of anything, aside from nothing."

His voice chuckled, echoing through the area infinitely before dying out.

"Well, obviously."

Suddenly a foreign sound invaded the bleak peace, a quiet ringing that slowly grows in intensity until it's making the void vibrate.

"Bloody-- what is that?"

The echoes faded, replaced with the accursed ringing of a bell-based alarm clock and a red-orange space instead of the previous black one.  Irish Cream peeled his eyes open, squinting under the sunlight of his open-curtained bedside window.

Fucking curtains.

He groaned and silenced the clock, knocking it off of the nightstand.  Sitting up, he stretched his wings and considered preening them.  He had lied to Party Hard the previous evening; he actually hadn't preened for a couple of weeks, and it was beginning to show in both his wings' appearance and the nonstop itching that accompanied them at the moment.

It'll take awhile.  Fae'd be put on overtime.

He looked up, avoiding the light from his window, as he recalled his previous work hours.

I've taken overtime more than once this week for her to go out.

He shrugged as he stood, stretched again, and threw his curtains closed.  Picking up the clock and placing it back on the table, he walked out of the room to find his front door partially agape and sounds of retching coming from outside.  Continuing into the kitchen, he retrieved a teapot from his rustic cabinets, and filled it with water before striking a fire in his woodstove.  Party Hard stumbled inside as the pot was set on the stove, his eyes red and watering.  Cream turned around to face his friend, an amused look on his face.

"You alright there?  You look a bit distraught."

Hard teetered, and suppressed another gag as he looked at the green stallion.

"Never let me drink like that again," he replied, collapsing on the couch.

"You wouldn't listen last night."

Despite their lack of eye contact, Cream was sure his friend was glaring through the back of the couch.

"I don't give a shit what I say.  Keep me out of that god-forsaken bar."

Shaking his head, Irish Cream's spine shivered as the itching in his wings intensified.  Sighing, he sat on the armchair next to the couch and brought his right wing around to his front, analyzing it thoroughly.  The feathers were uncomfortably, sometimes painfully crooked, held in the wrong place by the rest of their kind.  He grunted as he stretched his wing; he hadn't flown for a few weeks.

I need to get back in the air.

He made a futile attempt to somewhat straighten his feathers with his forehoof before letting go of his wing, yet leaving it extended.  He took his feathers in his teeth and gently began straightening them, flexing his wing and flicking it every few minutes.  Far too soon, the teapot in the kitchen began to whistle, and Party Hard groaned, jamming his hooves in his ears.  Sighing, Irish Cream broke his concentration to walk into the kitchen and take the pot off his woodstove, pouring a cup in one of his surprisingly few alcohol mugs.  Despite his profession and heritage, the stereotype that the Irish drink ungodly amounts didn't click on Cream's silhouette.  He brought the mug, now with a tagged string hanging over the edge, to his coffee table and set it down.  Sitting back in his armchair, he watched his friend reach for the mug and take a drink, immediately sending a steaming spray of tea across Irish Cream's extended wing.

"Hot as ballucks!"

"Well, what'd you expect, you bloody knobhead?"

Between A Rock and A Hard Place

Chapter Twenty Five

Between A Rock and A Hard Place

Redd stirred, wincing as she stood and the after-effects of sleep rolled off of her.  She was an early riser, remarkably quick to fully wake.  Glancing outside, the day was new, probably about 5:00, 5:30 in the morning.  She turned over her shoulder and found Zecora's cot empty, the thin cotton comforter slung unceremoniously over the edge of the bed.  Smiling, she laid it back on the mattress and straightened it out.  Zecora had been an early bird as well, yet failed to show any signs of happiness until she'd meditated for a half-hour or so.

She stepped outside, smiling as the sweet scent of Zecora's herbal garden reached her and tempted her to close her eyes.  She did, her chest puffed out in an oddly confident stretch, before a twig snapped behind her.  She whirled just a moment too late as she was tackled to the ground, foreign hooves darting to her sides and warranting a squeal from her as the tickling ensued.  She twisted on the ground, cackling with all that she's worth, unable to stop the hooves from racing up and down her sides vigorously.  Tears had begun streaming down her face as she barely managed to gasp for air.

"P-please!  Stop!"

Her pleas were ignored for another endless moment, before the pony left her alone.  She heard a heavy thump, but let herself leave her eyes closed and ride out her laughing fit, before sighing and looking over.

"Are you stalking me?"

Hawk Eye grinned crookedly from a few inches away, bags noticeable under his eyes as he met her gaze.

"Well, that is my job, but I was actually just passing through when I heard the door open."  His eyes widened as he remembered a fact he was sure she'd be wondering about.  "Zecora's in a meadow a few miles deeper into the Everfree.  I can take you there if you want."

"Nah," she replied, giving a single turn of her head before facing him again.  Suddenly his lips met hers, surprising her and bringing her cheeks aflame, however well her dark coat hid it.  After a moment he pulled away, his dark, tired eyes half-lidded and somewhat dreamy.  He blinked a few times, caught in the stillness of the moment.

"Have you slept at all?" she asked, her brow furrowing.

His expression remained unchanged for a moment before his brows suddenly raised and he pricked an ear.

"Pardon?"  This made her face harden, a disapproving look coming over Redd.  She stood, giggling unexpectedly again at the tensing of her muscles, and offered him a hoof.

"Move along.  You need to come to bed."  He yawned, slowly getting to his hooves before looking away.

"I'm fine, honeybuns."  She blinked, an incredulous look forming on her face.

"What?"

"What?"

"Get in here," she grunted over her heart in her ears, grabbing him by the forehoof and dragging him inside Zecora's hut.

"So," Irish Cream said, leaving his feathers alone for a moment.  "where's this ship you propose to use?"

Hard glanced at him, holding the mug close to his lips like he had for the past ten minutes and blowing on it.  He paused.

"I've got connections.  You can't party hard like Party Hard and not have connections after a few years."

Cream laughed into his wing, still preening the morning away.  His brow furrowed as he continued attempting to concentrate on fixing his feathers.  Eventually his friend's outspoken nature compelled himself to continue.

"She's kinda dark.  Poetic.  Silent."  Cream paused, raising his head from his work, before glancing up at his friend.

"Is it that new mare?  She moved here for the scenery a while back?"  This made Party scoff as he finally took a sip of his tea.

"Yeah, as if the scenery of this place is something to be appreciated."  Cream looked away a moment before reconnecting his eyes with Hard's.

"What was her name?"

"Mud," Party said after another gulp of the pain-numbing brew.  Cream's memory suddenly clicked as memory often does, and he sent his friend a humorous look.

"Don't you mean Maud?"

"Yeah, yeah, her." he replied, dismissively waving the hoof with the mug in it.  "Shit," he murmured through the still-hot tea spilling over his hoof.  This time Cream didn't move from his preening, ignoring the spill and simply remaining silent.  After another moment the light blue stallion swung his hind legs over the couch and set the mug on the coffee table, leaving to the kitchen for a hoof-towel.

"She's got herself a lovely apartment at the end of Jackal street."

He came into the room with the towel around his neck, dumping it off in the floor and beginning to scrub the rug with his hooves.

"Near your place."

Cream's teeth paused long enough for him to talk.

"How is a mineralogist gonna get you a boat?"

Party Hard stood, with the rag in his teeth.  He walked into kitchen before hanging it over the edge of the sink.

"Maud isn't exactly the 'sailor' type, I.C." he replied, leaping over the back of the couch to land in the cushions with crossed legs.  Very odd posture, a trait he had gotten from close proximity to the Heartstrings family for so many years.  His statement left Cream frozen, turning the other sentences over in his mind before responding.

"I thought you said she would get you a boat a moment ago.  You need to talk straight, friend."  This warranted a grin from behind that messy mat of violet hair, Hard's hooves laid casually across the back of the couch.

"Maud is a connection, Cream.  I'll actually be riding with Burnes, her grandfather.  I'm gonna have to go to Germaney to get the boat though."  Irish Cream's brows arched on his forehead, once again pausing his preening to speak.

"Does the man travel, or is he Germane?"  As you can imagine, Cream's attention immediately delved back into his wings, the unruliness of them hardly dented.

"He's Germane.  Y'know, Maud's actually related to one of the Elements of Harmony."

"Rings a bell."  Irish Cream's right wing fluttered, a bit more pleasant than previously noted, before tucking itself behind his shoulderblade and his attention shifting to the left wing instead.

"The Element of Pranking, or something like that."

"Pinkamina Diane Pie, Element of Laughter."  Her title rolled off his Irish tongue like rough silk, his memory serving it's master well.  Hard shot his friend an incredulous look, which he noticed, but ignored.

"How in crimany do you remember all this stuff?"

"Because I'm sober more often than not.  It'd be of use for you to try it out."

Redd stepped outside, taking another breath of the fresh air after having bunked Hawk Eye on Zecora's cot.  She probably won't mind.  It was difficult not to note that the days were changing quickly, this morning bringing a chill up her spine as she walked towards Ponyville.

Everything was going according to plan.  Nothing was out of the ordinary at all, though there were a few cold-natured ponies wearing scarves this morning.  She smiled, knowing that the True world stood something of a chance.  She walked into the village, passing by the library in little more than a few minutes.  Yet, as she walked past, the door was yanked open and Twilight's voice rang out across the marketplace.

"Little Redd!"

Redd turned, and found Twilight trotting up to her looking relieved.

"I was wondering where in the world you were.  Celestia wants to see you."

Redd's eyes widened, and she shivered as a breeze blew.  Her horn glowed a moment before a small fireball slithered out of the tip, hanging in the air next to her to provide warmth.

"Okay.  Thanks."

Twilight smiled, and turned back towards the library.

"No problem sis," she said casually, trotting back indoors.  Despite the earlier use, the pet name still struck Redd as odd.

"Guess it's just her thing," she said under a sigh.  She averted her previously aimless path and made for the train station, the adorable little fireball bobbing alongside her.

Little Redd

Chapter One

Little Redd

KA-BOOM!

"Derpy, watch it!"

"Sorry!"

Rainbow Dash soared through the thick clouds, repeatedly kicking out the electricity within before being able to safely dispose of them.  Derpy worked above her, and as another bolt of lightning came dangerously close to Rainbow, she darted out of the way and began work above Derpy to avoid the ridiculously powerful Pegasus.  She could work quickly, she was just dangerous when she did.  She was simply unaware that apologizing couldn't heal a lightning burn.  Dash finished clearing the sky and, alongside Derpy, made her way back to Ponyville.  Along the way, the air between them filled with repeated apologies and reassurances.  Eventually, they left the fields north of Ponyville and landed in Ponyville Park.  They went their separate ways, with Derpy going to Sugarcube Corner for muffins and Rainbow Dash to Sweet Apple Acres to try to talk some cider outta Applejack.  Or Big Mac, whoever came first.

Rainbow Dash took off with less speed than usual, as she was feeling particularly lazy at the moment.  She drifted over the village, gazing down

on everypony with little concern for keeping a sharp eye on things.  Bon Bon was trotting around with Lyra, doing the usual whatever they did.  Rarity was just heading into the spa, and Dash shuddered at the sheer prissiness below.   Her attention turned towards Pinkie Pie, who was bouncing out of Sugarcube Corner with Derpy on her back chewing on a muffin.  Dash watched the buildings begin to thin before they vanished from her line of sight entirely, instead taken up by two dirt roads.  One wide and well used with ponies of all shapes and sizes using it for inter-city travel, the other of which drastically thinner and less trodden.  She followed the thinner path, keeping an eye on the ground directly below her, until she saw the front gates of Sweet Apple Acres through her mane.  She dipped down, and nearly collided with a tree as her hooves hit the ground a little too hard.

"Applejack?"

When no response came, she got a little louder.

"Applejack?"

A quirked expression met her features, and she approached the front door.  She opened it completely, met Applejack's eyes, and started talking.

"Hey, Applejack, could you-"

She stopped as she realized there was a scene playing out before her.  Applejack, Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and Granny Smith were currently having lunch at the Apples' dining table.  But that's not what irked her.  An unfamiliar dark gray unicorn about her age with a mussed white tail and mane was mid-bite to a half-eaten daffodil sandwich, her deep red eyes focused on Rainbow Dash.  A thick streak of matching red ran from behind her right ear down through the center of her mane  A brown crosshairs adorned her flank, and she wore a golden loop over her front left ankle.

After a moment, RD broke the silence.

"Uh, hi, I'm Rainbow Dash."

The other mare, now composed, put down her sandwich, stood, and extended a hoof to Rainbow.

"Hullo, I'm Little Redd." she responded, smiling.

Rainbow Dash accepted the hoof-bump, only to recoil in surprise as Redd's Eastern accent reached her ears.

“You’re from Trottingham?”

Little Redd’s smile faltered the slightest.  If RD didn’t have naturally attentive eyes, she probably wouldn’t have caught it.

“Actually, I’m from a smaller town...”

Her eyes matched her voice as they trailed off a ways past Dash into the yard, before she turned back to Applejack.

“I must be going on now.  Thanks for the lunch, Applejack.”

Applejack’s attention had been on them the entirety of their short conversation.

“Oh, it’s a pleasure, Lil’ Redd.  Maybe later this week you an’ Ah can get together again.”

Redd flashed AJ another of her quick smiles.

“Perhaps.”

She nodded to Rainbow as she walked past, and made her way down the road awhile before turning out of sight.

Rainbow Dash turned back to Applejack.

“Who was that?”

_____________________

Redd sat in the floor, eyeing the large cauldron with disdain.  Zecora threw some other herb in the mix, and stirred it with her long wooden spoon.

“I understand your worries, Redd, but this brew should clear your head.”

Redd looked up at the wizened zebra with a cocked brow.

“I know it will help, I’ve drank it before.  It just tastes so horrible.”

Zecora smiled.

“Dearest Redd, everything comes with a price.  A bad aftertaste or your thoughts in a vice?”

Redd lowered her head.  The poet had a point.  Redd would much rather her mind remain calm than to constantly…

She shook the thought from her head, and looked back at Zecora.  Her mouth opened, ready to say something, before closing itself.

“Oh Little Redd dear, what is it you need me to hear?”

“N-nothing, Zecora.”

______________________________

The news had been going around for a few months, but everypony was frantically freaking out now.  Simply because a single band was coming to Canterlot.  Thousands of fans from several miles around was coming to the concert of the Red Hot Filly Peppers.  The ponies in the band had been playing since they were fillies, and they hadn’t bothered in changing their name since reaching maturity a few years ago.

Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity came willingly.  Applejack refused to come at all, and said she would rather hear it on a very miniscule level on her farm amongst the crickets while the concert was going on that night.

Fluttershy on the other hand, was terrified, and insisted on inviting Henry the bear.  Twilight cringed when she heard what they planned to drag her into, but still came.  Rainbow even helped Scootaloo into getting there.

They hung around Sweet Apple Acres before leaving, and once the sun hit the horizon, Rainbow Dash went to the bathroom and they left, bidding Applejack goodbye all the while quickly trotting off to the train station.  Applejack simply walked to the base of an old apple tree and lays down to listen to the evening swell over the horizon.  After her friends had been gone for a few hours, she heard a faint cheer as bass took over the distant cobblestoned streets, soon followed by drums and, in Applejack’s opinion, a terribly nasally singer.

She rose to her hooves, and trotted into Ponyville.  Heading into the marketplace, she saw Little Redd at the herbal booth.  Stepping up to greet her, Redd suddenly whirled on Applejack.

“Not now, Applejack!”

They both cringed back at the same time, both equally startled by Redd’s random outburst.  Little Redd threw her bits on the counter, stuffed her herbs in her saddlebags, turned on her heel and sped out of Ponyville towards the Everfree Forest.

Applejack was taken aback, from both the yelling and from Redd’s sudden departure.  She fought with herself, weighing the decisions against one another as hard as she could.  She turned to the herbalist, who shrugged, and just stood in the middle of the market, before sighing and going home to see about dinner.

________________________________

“I got—the herbs—like you—asked.”  She panted, stumbling into Zecora’s tree.  A worried look passed over the zebra’s face.

“Dearest Redd, you look near death!  What could have you so short of breath?”

Anger flashed across Redd’s face for a split-second, but she caught herself before she could spit anything vile.

“Nothing, Zecora.  Just get the potion done.”  She dumped her saddlebags on the floor and turned back out of the door.

“When I get back, it’d better be done.  That isn’t a threat.  It’s a warning.”

__________________________________

Applejack poked her various fruits and vegetables about her plate, her head’s weight on her hoof, lost in thought.  She didn’t see it, but she could feel Granny Smith’s worried old gaze on her.  Finally, she broke the tension.

“Applejack, what’s the troubles, deary?”

She sighed.  Raising her eyes to her Granny, they moved to Big Mac, then to Apple Bloom.  She sighed again, and turned back to her grandmother.

“It’s Little Redd, Granny Smith.  She seems angry at somethin’, but Ah can’t figure it out.  She’s just—distant.”

Granny Smith smiled warmly.

“She’ll be just fine, Applejack.  If she’s got somethin’ apickin’ at ‘er, then let ‘er be, ‘less she decides to tell ya herself.  Otherwise, it’s prob’ly jest pers’nal.  No shame in bein’ pers’nal.  Ain’t that right, Macintosh?”

Big Mac’s eyes widened as his head leapt to attention.

“Ah, uh, er, I mean...”

He carefully composed himself.

“Eeyup.”

Applejack cocked her brow.  Her older brother only acted so nervous when Granny was really, really irked with him about something.

“Er, you alright, Big Mac?”

He hesitated.

“Eeyup.”

She didn’t bother hiding her doubt.

“Mhmm.”

_______________________

Rainbow Dash hovered above the crowd, arms pumping in the air not unlike her cider dance.  Scootaloo clung on to her head for dear life, the little filly’s wings twitching nervously.  Below her, Henry the bear had a clear circle around him, not because he was being aggressive, but just because, well, he was a bear.  Who wouldn’t steer clear?  Besides, of course, Fluttershy, who was on his shoulders screaming her head off.  Twilight was at the back of the crowd trying to focus on her books, while maintaining a consistent soundproof barrier around her.  Rarity was off somewhere, probably flirting.  Pinkie Pie had, at this point, managed to get on stage and dance the Pinkie way amongst the musicians, defying physics, blah blah blah, she’d heard it all before.  She would probably be getting arrested if Rainbow Dash hadn’t utilized her “bathroom” break back at the farm to snatch a barrel of cider, of which the band had too much of.  Their performance had suffered for it, but Pinkie Pie was there to compensate.  Just at the end of her favorite song, she leapt off the stage, vanished in an explosion of confetti, and reappeared in another pop of the colored paper right above Twilight, who was stunned amongst her books.  She could be easily heard over the music.

“How did you even do that!?”

Pinkie fell on top of her, her bubbly soul only able to keep her in the air for so long.

“Do what?” She asked happily.

”THAT!”

She wildly gestured to the general direction of her pile of books, which were empty binder-to-binder, the only remnants of the pages the confetti that exploded out of them.  Pinkie’s eyes widened.

“Oh…”

__________________________________

The Element of Chaos

Chapter Thirteen

The Element of Chaos

I have to tell them.

Redd sped through the village unable to enjoy the peace that was soon to end in True Equestria.

My life or millions?  Very possibly billions?

She stopped outside the library, but pushed through the door with some urgency anyway.  A baby dragon was leaned back in his chair wearing a top hat and cape while twiddling his mustache, reading some fairy tales and occasionally laughing maniacally.

His wide eyes met hers, and in a single move he whisked everything under his now-stable chair.  The mustache was permanent.

"What's up?"

"Where's Twilight?"

He scratched his head.

"Uh, she's in Canterlot talking to Princess Celestia about something.  Why?"

"No reason.  Toodles, Spike."

She leapt back out the door, leaving the dragon staring after her.

"How did she know my name?"

The train left just as Redd hit the platform.

"Wait!"

She charged after the train and clasped the caboose's railing in her jaws.  She pulled herself up, and pushed over the rail.

The landscape zipped by, blurring under the powerful speed of the locomotive.

"Ohhh, Green World, don't desert, me now.  Made of you, and you of me but, where are we?"

She shook the song from her head.

"Focus Redd, focus."

The train pulled into Canterlot and Redd leapt off, plowing through the streets towards what is Chrysalis' palace in Dark Equestria.

"Personally, I think Cadance is a piece of work."

Hawk Eye scoffed.

"She's nowhere near Luna.  Luna's beyond demanding."

Eagle Eye addressed his brother with a similar reaction.

"Hey, Luna's a babe.  She makes up for her needs.  I honestly can't believe the Captain married Cadance though."

The guards looked up at a dark shape charging up the path, and they crossed their spears.

"Halt!"

The spears shattered in a shower of red fire and the mare blasted past them.

"Well, that was--"

He was interrupted by Eagle Eye blowing the security horn.

A crowd of guards trailed behind her.  Those unfortunate enough to attack from the front were met with a powerful stunning spell.  Redd knew the way to the throne room as she had met Chrysalis there a few times, though the choice of decoration was still drastically different from the Changelings' and Redd took a wrong turn more than once.

Eventually the throne room doors loomed over her, and she stunned the few guards blocking her path before pushing through them.

"Celestia!  Discord's back!"

Redd froze.

Celestia sat on her throne.  Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Twilight stood before her, forming a semi-circle.  All of their attention turned to Redd.  The Elements parted, and an orange Pegasus with a ruffled purple mane and tail sporting a dark chain around her neck stepped out of the group.  Her overconfident pink eyes locked squarely with Redd's, a bit of humor lurking in the lifelights.

"Relax, limey.  I got this."

"What is the meaning of this unholy chaos?"

The Princess had stood, and was looking down her nose at Redd.  The swarm of guards came into the room, colliding in a large dog pile to get through the door.  Confused, Redd's head whipped around, going between Scootaloo, the Princess, and the moaning result of her entrance.

"You-- I wasn't... "

"You are under arrest!"

Shining Armor strode into the room, and locked Redd's hooves behind her in a field of magenta magic.

"No, she isn't!"

He looked up at Celestia, who had turned her steely gaze to him.

"Your Highness, she has paralyzed over half of the Royal Guard!  We cannot allow her to--"

"And she could've actually meant your men harm and killed them!  She was merely attempting to warn me of Discord's return.  The shocking thing for her was that Scootaloo was swifter in her arrival."

"Just 'Scoots' is fine."

Shining fumbled his words.

"I-- she… "

He sighed.

"Yes, Your Highness."

The magenta field vanished, Shining Armor saluted the Princess, and he stepped out of the room.  The dog pile of guards remained.

"The rest of you are dismissed."

It took a minute for the mob to pick themselves up and leave the room, closing the door behind them.  Celestia turned her attention back to Redd, and continued her conversation.

"I've been informed that Discord isn't going to change.  Who or what does he have on his side?"

Redd became still.  Scootaloo hasn't told her about their precise situation, and fumbled with her words.

"Well, I... "

Swallowing, she forced her tongue to comply with her thoughts.

"Remember when he reversed the Elements of Harmony's personalities?"

A slow, silent nod rippled through the room.

"Those versions of them never really left.  They're wreaking havoc on Dark Ponyville right now."

She turned to Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

"The last time I saw the both of you, you were fighting each other on the farm.  I'm not entirely sure that either of you are still alive."

Applejack's brow cocked, and Rainbow Dash shuffled a little farther away from the farmer.  Redd turned back to Celestia.

"If Dark Applejack and Dark Rainbow Dash are still alive and well, then all of the corrupted Elements are on Discord's side."

She glanced over at Scootaloo, who was looking on with a bored air about her.

"...Then there's us."

This got the attention of everypony in the room, a confused 'Huh?' escaping Rainbow Dash's lips.

"Scootaloo and I are two of the six Elements of Discord."

Rainbow Dash's eyes flashed, and she stomped forward only to be held back by Applejack's teeth clamping down on her tail.  Frustrated, she resorted to words.

"How do we know we can trust you then?"

Eyes closed and ears flattened, Redd subconsciously took a step back.

"Well, to be honest I don't expect you to.  But before you decide that I'm the enemy, let me finish what I have to say."

The Pegasus sighed and backed down, flicking her tail out of Applejack's mouth and planting her haunches on the floor.

"Thank you."

Princess Celestia, who's attention had been on Rainbow, turned back to Redd.

"Who are the rest of the Elements of Discord?"

Redd's eyes moved across the six heroes before her, before landing on Applejack.

"Applejack.  You're honest, but have the habit of being a little too truthful at times.  Gilded Star is your opposite, a military stallion from future Equestria.  His Element is Candor."

Her eyes ran across to Rainbow Dash, just a few feet from Applejack.

"Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo is your opposite.  You are loyal, yet have an enormous pride that you consistently fight to keep intact.  Scootaloo's is the Element of Pride."

Rarity met Redd's gaze.

"Rarity, you are generous."

Rarity's fake lashes fluttered, and she puffed her mane out a bit.

"Why, thank you-- "

"But you have a habit of discriminating amongst other ponies, and with that comes a legendary figure from the past.  Adolf Hoofler, Nazi Commander of the Third Reich is your opposite, and stands as the Element of Discrimination."

Rarity's mouth dropped open, and she humbled herself by shuffling to the back of the room.  Redd turned to Fluttershy.

"You are kind at heart most of the hours you are awake, but have somewhat of a short patience.  Sunset Shimmer is known for her temper, and is your opposite as the Element of Fury."

Pinkie was actually looking sorta gray, probably dreading what her counterpart would turn out to be.

"Pinkamina, you are literally the essence of happiness, though your worst side is your innocence.  Pound Cake is your opposite.  He is the Element of Innocence."

Finally, she locked eyes with Twilight.

"As your personal equal, I am the Element of Chaos."

Heavy Relations, Part One

Chapter Fifteen

Heavy Relations

Silence draped across the ponies in the room like a dark entity, preventing words from escaping their lips and tension from leaving their muscles.  Pinkie spoke up first, turning to Scootaloo.

"I have a question!"

She pointed at the map, of which the handwritten text had been ignored up until then.

"Why is this in Germane?"

Scootaloo sighed, and gave her a dark look.

"Maybe because Hoofler is a Nazi.  Duh."

Rainbow Dash popped into the air, inspecting the map from above.

"Wait, this's in Germane?  Then how're we gonna read it?"

Suddenly she turned on Pinkie.

"How can you read it?"

The party mare giggled, and waved a hoof dismissively.

"Silly, I've always known Germane.  My grampa was Germane."

Looking back at the map, she scratched her mane, a gumball falling to the floor.

"But I don't know what Changelings have to do with this."

Redd facehoofed.

"Wrong plans."

Pages of parchment filled the air as a crazy-eyed Adolf Hoofler threw books and notes across the library, a few strands of his oily black part hanging in his eyes.

"Vere ah zey!?"

"Yeeeah, he's gonna be heated about this."

"Probably, yes."

Redd took over as the center of attention.

"As the Captain suggested, we need to formulate a plan.  Pinkamina.  I need you to translate and redraw the map.  Despite the mistake, it may still be useful.  Twilight, you'll need to do some research on offensive spells or anything that Hoofler could use to track the map.  We need to know any and every threat that he poses against us.  Fluttershy--"

Once again, Rainbow Dash interrupted her.

"Who said you're the one in charge?"

Redd's eyes reflected the impatience she harbored when she hadn't had her tea for awhile.

"Don't know if you're familiar with this fact, but I happen to have plenty of experience in the position of 'in charge.'"

"She does," Scootaloo nodded.

Rainbow Dash harumphed away, muttering something about authority, her colorful language rivaling her mane.  Redd leapt back into action.

"Fluttershy, I need your help attaining dragons, bears, anything that can take down an army of Nazis."

Fluttershy squeaked, and shrank into herself, her big eyes flicking around the room.

"She's terrified of dragons," Twilight explained.  Redd facehoofed again.

"Ballucks."

Redd stepped out of the castle, gathering the dark gazes of her previously paralyzed victims.  To whom she smiled.

"Sorry about that.  I just needed to see Celestia--"

"We know," a pure black stallion in slightly burnt armor said.  Hawk Eye stood, somewhat shakily, and regarded her with a tilted corner on his lips.

"Just try asking first."

A white stallion behind him scoffed.

"We wouldn't have let her in if she had, with the Princess in the midst of a meeting."

Hawk slowly turned around, and glared at his brother.

"Do you realize how much of a dick you are?"

"Meh.  I've been told before."

Redd giggled.

"Honestly, it's fine.  I've dealt with enough wankers to know how to tune them out."

Eagle Eye cocked a brow.

"... Admittedly, I haven't been classified as one of those before.  I like you."

Scootaloo bumped into Redd from behind, knocking her forward a step or two.

"Eh, heh, sorry."

Scootaloo squinted across the vicinity, scanning for anypony they knew, before digging through her saddlebags and pulling out a pair of glasses.  Again, Eagle Eye's brow cocked, but Scootaloo caught him before he could say anything.

"Notice.  I dare you."

His eyes widened, and he took a sudden interest in a cobblestone.  Hawk Eye looked between the two, and chuckled.

"Wow.  That's never happened before."

"Shut.  Up," Eagle said, gritting his teeth.

"Well ladies, travel safely," Hawk said, leaning against a column and removing his gear.  A bronze mane fell out from under his helmet as he took it off, and hung in his eyes a bit.  Redd flushed.

"Oh my god, come on Redd," Scootaloo groaned, dragging her friend down the road.

"So where to first?" Scootaloo asked.

It took a moment for Redd to reply.

"Zecora's.  She needs to know that they know about us."

Her eyes tracked a faint glint of metal darting into the shadows.  Scootaloo's face quirked up, her glasses sitting crookedly across her muzzle.

"How does Zecora know about us?"

Redd's gaze flicked to her friend before focusing on the trail again.

"Zecora's originally from Africa.  She moved to East Riding for awhile, met my parents, admired my mother's art."

She smiled, remembering the first time she saw Zecora.

Redd's eyes cracked open, and gazed curiously at the unfamiliar face above her.  After a moment she reached up and carefully touched the stranger's nose.

"Noo?"

The face smiled, dark blue eyes reflecting Redd's back at her.

"Deepest Care, she will be a beautiful mare."

Taking her tiny hoof away from Zecora, Redd turned over and poked one of the zebra's earrings, watching it swing like a steady metronome.

"Helloooo?"

Redd snapped out of her reverie, and smiled apologetically at Scootaloo.

"Sorry, just... remembering."

After another moment of silent travel, Scootaloo pressed on.

"Uh, Redd, you were in the middle of saying something...?"

"Oh!  Right.  She moved from Africa to East Riding, and met my mother on the road.  When she found out that mum was an artist, she came to her gallery displays.  When I was born, she became my godmother, and visited so often...  But racism was a recurring thing back home, and she was eventually run out of town.  I only found her here recently, a few days after Discord sent us in the field."

"Heyyy, ladies.  Lookin' for a date?"

Thud!

"Shit.  You blinded me.  Hope you're happy now, bitch."

Redd stopped walking.

"You realize you're probably going to tree hell, right?"

The face, now mangled with several hoofprints, scoffed.

"And what's so bad about hell for a tree, huh?  I can't move, can't be enslaved.  What's the reaper got on me?"

"Hell freezes over on a daily basis.  Then it bursts back into flames."

From then on, the face remained silent as Redd and Scootaloo walked inside Zecora's hut.

Heavy Relations, Part Three

Chapter Seventeen

Heavy Relations, Part Three

The food came out, balanced on Bon Bon's hip as Redd sipped her coffee and Scootaloo took a swig of her Monster.

"A dandelion grilled club for you," the waitress said, tipping Redd's sandwich platter onto the table.

"... Aaand a tomato sub for you."

The foot-long sub slid onto the table along with it's ovular plate, sending a wave of anticipation through the orange mare.

"You two enjoy.  I'll be back in a few minutes if you need anything."

Redd thanked her again as she walked off, and took a bite out of her sandwich.  Glancing up, she saw that Scootaloo had taken such a large bite out of her sub that she couldn't close her mouth.  She flushed.

"Phorry.  Caa cgho mah ouph," she said, hiding her mouth behind a forehoof.

Redd smiled at her supposedly starving friend, and continued work on her own meal.

Redd took another sip of her now-lukewarm coffee as Scootaloo filled her in on her most recent whereabouts.

"And then after he finished taking up for me, we walked for awhile and just as we were about to split up and go home, he goosed me!  I knocked him out and checked his wallet, and found out that he was Arthur Whooves.  Doctor Whooves' son!  I picked him up, took him to a bar, wiped some liquor across his mouth and left.  The next day he came around the market rubbing his head, talking about the worst hangover he's experienced in his life.  He supposes he got into a bar fight, what with the welt on his head."

Scootaloo pushed her empty plate to the center of the table, an action Redd replicated, glancing out the window.  It was around four o'clock, the sun about three-fourths across the sky.  She admired the quiet afternoon, watching the birds flit through the trees, the fillies chasing the butterflies, or, in the Crusaders' case, setting up something potentially dangerous that looked an awful lot like a firecracker.

"What the hay is that?" Scootaloo asked, turning around and hooking her foreleg over the back of her seat.  She had her glasses back on, though there wasn't anything abnormal to be seen in that direction.  Redd's ears perked up, and detected a faint disturbance coming from the front of the resturaunt.

"What is... "

The sound grew a bit louder, now recognizable as an argument.  At that moment, Bon Bon came up to them.

"We all done here?"

Nodding somewhat slowly, Scootaloo's gaze remained on the front of the building.  A few words seeped through the walls, clearly audible to the two mares.

"Luna's crazy!"

Scootaloo frowned, and looked back at Redd.

"Where've I heard that voice before?"

Redd's eyes were wide, a faint blush plastered across her cheeks.  Bon Bon cleared their plates and giggled at Redd before trotting back towards the kitchen to deliver her load.  Scootaloo stared incredulously at her friend, realization soaking into her features as she turned back to the front door.

"Oh, you have got to be buckin' kidding me."

Redd checked the bill and left her bits on the table, along with a three bit tip.  Then she got up and followed Scootaloo to the front door.  Pushing it open, they found a bit of a crowd around Hawk Eye and Eagle Eye at a table just outside the door in a fierce hoof-wrestle, their teeth bared at each other.  Hawk looked particularly strained, his canines glistening lower than the rest of his teeth, and the siblings were donned in the trademark Royal Guard armor.

"Luna's... awesome... knows... no... bounds!" Eagle grunted, gaining some ground on his brother.

"Celestia's... beauty... puts... Luna's... to... shame!" Hawk groaned, a sudden surge of power reversing their situation.  Suddenly realizing that a crowd was gathering, Eagle grinned, and snickered through his teeth.

"Hey, bro... we're... being... watched!"

Hawk glanced around and gasped, his brother taking advantage of his hesitance and slamming his foreleg into the table, causing a cheer from roughly half of the ponies there as bits quickly exchanged ownership.  He glared at Eagle, before getting up and walking back towards the resturaunt.  His dark blue eyes locked with Redd's, and he rubbed the back of his head, chuckling.

"Suppose you caught that, huh?"

Redd stood there with a cocked brow, her blush present nevertheless.

"Why're you following us?" Scootaloo asked before Redd could respond.

The question caught him off guard.

"Did-- didn't the Captain tell you that you would be monitored?  He said he had let you know."

Scootaloo scoffed.

"What a coincidence that you two would be ordered on the job," she said sarcastically before releasing an unexcused belch.

Redd elbowed her friend a little harder than she originally intended.

"Leave him alone, Scoot-- Hot Wheels," she quickly corrected as she straightened her face.

Hawk chuckled again.

"I know who she really is.  In fact, I know everything about both of you.  I don't suppose you share the same level of knowledge against us though, so I would like for my brother and I to speak with you two, if it isn't any trouble.  I always want to know those I serve."

Redd's eyes widened.

"I-- uh, okay.  Sure," she stammered, ignoring Scootaloo's distinct Ugh! as Hawk smiled.

He turned around.

"Oi!  Eagle!  Get over here!"

Eagle Eye shot him a dark look from around a mare he was talking to, and excused himself before strutting over to where his brother was.

"'Sup?"

Having returned to Cafe Du Mane's interior, Hawk Eye and Eagle Eye sat side by side on one end of the booth, Redd and Scootaloo on the other.  After sitting down, Hawk again took off his helmet, and shook his head a bit to loosen his unkempt mane.  He caught Redd staring, and grinned.

"What's up?"

Somewhat flustered, she met his eyes before looking down, flushing.

"It's-- I, er... don't know if... n--nevermind."

A flick from Scootaloo's hoof to her head knocked whatever screw had come loose back into place.  Redd glared at her before igniting her horn and pulling on her ear.

"Ow, ow ow owww.  Let go.  Redd, I swear, let go."

Her ear released, Scootaloo hit the seat somewhat unsteadily, nearly falling off to the side.  When she straightened back out, her glasses were crooked, and she blew a few strands of her mane out of her eyes.  She shot Redd a dark look, rubbing her ear with no small amount of disdain.

"So," Redd began.

"What do you already know about me?"

"Well for one, I know you're an Element of Discord.  Specifically Chaos.  I also know you're Eastern, a mare, a Unicorn, and like to shoot things."

He looked down for a moment.

"Otherwise, I know nothing about you."

Redd was about to reply when Scootaloo cut in.

"You guys hungry?  I'm hungry."

Redd's jaw dropped.