Crimson Fist

Twilight and Crimson walked off the metallic steps onto the old creaky wood of the Ponyville platform and into the hot and dusty heat of the afternoon sun. Twilight inhaled the air as if she had not been in Ponyville for years. Crimson smirked, “you get homesick that easily…or do you just need a reminder of how to breathe?” Twilight shot him a dirty glance and he broke out into chuckles. They began to make their way to Twilight’s castle to gather her friends, but as they entered the main plaza Pinkie Pie appeared jumped out of nowhere and grabbed Twilight.

“Ohmygosh! Where have you been? We have been worried sick. Well Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and I have been worried, Fluttershy and Applejack haven’t been worried. They kept saying that you had gone to Canterlot, but I was like, that’s a problem what if a Hydra attacked the train or oh maybe a shark with an eye patch and peg leg…a pirate shark. That would be so cool. Or, or, or an Ent attacked you would have to be all ‘chop, chop, you should leaf’ that’s the best one-liner. Oh and what if Celestia banished you or worse, made you wave. That would be awful.” Pinkie rambled as she bounced around all over the plaza, before Twilight used her magic to bring Pinkie down to the ground and put her hoof on her flank.

“PINKIE! I’m okay and nothing was going to attack the train nor was Celestia mad at me. I went with my personal guard, Crimson, I don’t think you two have met.”

Pinkie looked around as she hadn’t noticed Crimson due to Twilight. When she ‘found’ him her whole body shook, a shiver went through her spine, and her hair became flatter. She had looked at Crimson as a gust of wind billowed his trench coat and mane displaying his battle scared armor and face. He was an awesome sight. Pinkie let out a series of OH’s and AH’s and for a moment was speechless and when she finally spoke she was tentative, “H…hello, my name is, uh, Pinkamena Diane Pie, it is nice to meet you. D…do you want to be my friend, I have lots of friends. I guess I’m in the business of friends you could say, but I’m really in the business of pastries,” Pinkie chuckled nervously at the end and gave a weak smile.

Crimson broke into laughter after a few moments and Pinkie’s face fell and then to her surprise she was lifted into the air. Crimson had grabbed her and pulled her up to his face like a kitten. “Ha-ha, is the famous Pinkie that intimidated by my obvious partying skills that she is too scared to give me a smile or a cupcake. Pinkie, of course I’ll be your friend, don’t be a goose. Now I want you to give me a big smile, a warm welcome and a red velvet cupcake, you can do that right?” Crimson had a large grin on his face and his voice was low and jolly and he nodded his head as he finished. Pinkie’s head bobbed up and down with Crimson’s and he let her down and stood still for a second. “You can go now, I’m waiting for your song and dance.”

Pinkie’s head perked up “you got it!” she said with a confident fist pump. Pinkie leaped from building to building and put on a royal class welcome for Crimson who gave a bellowing laugh and arborous clapping to the whole shebang. Pinkie finished her welcome with a grand flourish of a coordinated dance with all the plaza-goers, a pegasus fly-by, and a massive fire work flurry. When she finished, she sung the last note of her song and stood on her hind legs in a deep ‘V’, her arms raised in victory, and her head went down. She was smiling for miles and was thoroughly tired, collapsing on the ground.

Crimson went over and knelt by her “…and my cupcake,” he said with a playful smile. She made a weak attempt to get a cupcake by failing her arms which made Crimson laugh. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll get one personally, I thank you so much for your effervescent welcome. I do have a task for you if you’re interested.” Pinkie nodded. “Good, now need you to tell me where Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack should be and I need you to meet us at Twilight’s castle in this evening.”

Pinkie picked herself up, still visible exhausted, “Well Rainbow would be at the Wonderbolts Training Course. Rarity should be back from a trip to Manehatten in a few hours so you should be able to find her at her boutique then. Fluttershy and Applejack are usually at their respective homes. Quick question, should I bring snacks for tonight? Are we having a sleepover?!”

Crimson answered in good humor, “Don’t worry about bringing snacks, and for its purpose that’s a secret,” he gave a wink and Pinkie went wide eyed. “Twilight lets go before, twilight comes.” Crimson magnificent pun caused Pinkie to cry laughing. He gave a final grin and wave before he and Twilight trotted over to Sugarcube Corner where Crimson ordered his red velvet cupcake. Before he left he turned to the Cake’s and pulled out a long package from his backpack and gave it to them. “Give this package to Pinkie when she returns, tell it a new friend sent it to her,” he instructed and then he left for Sweet Apple Acres.

It was only fifteen minutes to Sweet Apple Acres and as they approach the sound of apple-bucking and falling apples greeted them. The sound of apple-bucking thundered through the orchard and Crimson and Twilight quickly found Applejack working. They waited patiently in the afternoon sun under the shade of an apple tree until Applejack was finished. “Well howdy, I didn’t see yer there. What brings you to my humble orchard, my princess?” Applejack’s smirk was a mile wide.

“AJ, don’t we such a teaser. I didn’t come for anything, it was his idea.” She pointed to Crimson who had just finished placing a bird back in its nest and had turned around to face Applejack. “Crimson this is Applejack and AJ this is Crimson Fist.” Applejack had a similar response to Crimson that Pinkie had, she stopped short and a shake went through her back.
Crimson responded first, adopting an accent a near match of Big Macintosh, “It’s a pleasure, I hear you’re the best apple-bucker in the country.”

Applejack collected herself faster than Pinkie had “yer darn right I am, for several years.”

Crimson issued a challenge “Well I have a task that needs to be down, and I need to be sure your strong enough, so I challenge you to an apple-bucking race as it were, we split an orchard I two and whoever finishes first wins, only for posterity of course.”

Applejack looked dubious “Well I hate to see a fella disappointed but if y’all are insisting I gotta accept. So you see that hill over there, all you have to do is remove all the apples from the trees that are facing the sun and I’ll get all the trees on the other side. Deal?”

“Deal” Crimson and AJ hoof-bumped

“On your mark, get set…go!” Applejack and Crimson ran full sprint into the orchard meanwhile Twilight played referee by flying high above the orchard keeping track. She checked on Applejack first and she was doing her trademark two-hoof buck and was making exceptional progress she then hurried to check on Crimson and she saw he was almost dancing between the trees delivering a hit with his forelegs or back legs without knocking an apple down.

When he stopped she flew over to him and said “You know you’re supposed to knock the apples down right.”

Crimson chuckled “Just go tell Applejack that I’m done, you’ll see.”

Twilight shrugged and went to get Applejack and she was indignant “You didn’t knock off any apples, you’ll pulling my lariat. Do you give up?
Realize it’s harder than you thought?”

Crimson just smiled and said “Just watch.” He clapped his hands resulting in a disproportioned clap and a moment of silence passed before the distant, but distinct sound of falling apples slowing got louder before a wave of falling apples reached the end of the orchard.

Applejack’s and Twilight’s jaws dropped “How did you do that?!” they both exclaimed flabbergasted.

Crimson grin bloomed “I just hit the trees in a certain way that made them want to lose their apples, the clap was just the signal.”

Applejack was paralyzed in surprise and she only recovered when Crimson pushed and she fell over. “Well I guess I should pay you for all your hard work, that’s the right thing to do.”

Before Applejack could get anywhere, Crimson stopped her, “Forget about that, remember that I had a task for you, you could repay me be meeting at Twilight’s castle this evening and please take this, you can open it right now if you want.” Crimson reached into his pack and retrieved a package like Pinkie’s.

Applejack took the package and ripped it open and pulled out four oddly thick horseshoes. She frowned “what are these for? They seem pretty clunky.”

Crimson picked up one of them, “these horse shoes are unique, and they are the perfect apple-bucking devices. They may seem thick, but they are lighter than regular horseshoes and more importantly they apply twice the force of your kicks on their own and don’t hurt the tree as much. I made them myself, if you need help getting used to them I can show you how to use them.”

Applejack’s jaw dropped for the second time that day, “how did you come by these? I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t need to say anything”

“Alright, I’ll be there tonight and I don’t think I’ll need help with the horseshoes.”

“We’ll be on our way then, bye” Crimson and Twilight waved goodbye and went along the forest edge until they approached Fluttershy’s cottage and as they made their way up the road they spotted her in her garden. She didn’t notice them until they had crossed the bridge into her garden. She quickly dropped what she was doing and addressed them. “Uh…hello Twilight what brings you here, I didn’t forget something did I? And who is this you brought with you?”

“Oh you didn’t forget anything it’s just that…aren’t you going to run inside or something?”

“Oh heavens why would I do anything like that? Should I?”

Twilight shook her head, “no you should, it’s just that Pinkie and Applejack were visible scared by him and I just thought that you would be for sure scared.”

Fluttershy laughed “oh Twilight don’t be so silly anypony could see that he is that he means no harm to them. They might have just been intimated by his handsomeness.” Twilight shot her a dirty glance and she gave a sheepish smile and a squee.

Twilight continued, “Well anyway Crimson my personal guard wanted to meet all of you and ask you to meet us at the castle this evening.”

Crimson came over and hugged Fluttershy. After the hug Crimson continued in a soft mellow tone “Fluttershy, it’s good to see you, your skills over nature have been well spread, I myself am interested in natural regeneration of the soil and have wanted to discuss it with you, however that must wait until later. In the meantime I do have a gift for you.” He pulled out a gift like the two before it and handed it to Fluttershy, who slowly removed the wrapping. Inside the box was a strange looking whistle. Crimson perceiving her confusion explained its purpose, “It’s a selectable whistle, all you have to do is twist this wheel near the end and it will act as a different animal whistle. Anyway we will be seeing you tonight, right?”

“Right.”