Crimson Dance

Chapters

Prologue
First steps
A chosen partner
Ponyville
Family
Pink
A bit shy, and a dash of brash

Prologue

The view in front of her was astonishing, yet alien as well. She looked down on the land she recognized as Equestria, from the maps of history before the tragedy. So much was different than what it was now. The towns were quiet hamlets, the cities held sprawling towers, the largest of which appeared to be precariously perched on the side of a large mountain. She almost did not recognize it as it was still whole, unlike the one that was partially broken a few years previously. As she looked, she noticed there were no walls surrounding every city and hamlet alike.

There were no battles across vast expanses of land, forests were not being burned, and no army of creatures living, dead or otherwise attempted to lay waste to all before them.

“Do you believe in destiny, Twilight Sparkle?” Came a voice from somewhere behind her. Looking, Twilight felt unnerved to find herself alone.

“Hello?” She called out to the black void around her.

“Do you think the world you live in is real?” The voice came again from behind her. Turning, she found the picturesque Equestria she had seen was gone, and again she was alone. She steadied her breathing as she considered the questions presented to her.

“I believe the world I am in is real; The pain, the struggle, and more, proves that it is real. I understand the world that affects my senses, along with rational thought are proof. As for destiny, I believe destiny is only something that affect our lives, those who live, and those who die.”

There was silence at first. Looking about her, she spotted a speck of light in the distance. As she moved toward it, she could see it grow slowly.

After a time, she found, too, that it seemed to rise above the horizon of whatever place she was in. Closer, and closer she got, soon found her beneath the glow of the moon. Or, at least, one of them and there upon its surface she could see the silhouette of the fabled ‘Mare in the Moon’.

“What have you learned in your studies, young Twilight?” Came the voice for a third time, though now it sounded right beside her.

Growing weary of the voice without a body, she closed her eyes and breathed in to settle her growing ire.

“In a world of life and magic, there is always one irrefutable fact: ‘For every action there comes an opposite and equal reaction’.” She recited from memory.

“This is correct. One could also say it means simply, encountering consequences for the choices that have been made.”

Twilight glanced out the corner of her eye to finally find a form to the voice. Turning her head, she could now see a woman standing beside her, staring up at the moon. Her eyes widened slightly, seeing the woman with a multi-colored hair flowing out behind her shoulders in some unknown breeze. She was dressed in a moderately long white dress, though it did dip low at her bust. Twilight noted, that above this, hanging from a golden chain was an amulet of a sun, the familiar form of Celestias sun, to be exact.

“Twilight,” the woman spoke, turning to her, “She will be returning. A thousand years alone has not helped her madness to abate itself. She will be dangerous to all races and creatures of this world. There are six elder artifacts that can be found and used against her if those of your world are threatened. You do not have much time, please, hurry and find them before all is lost.”

Twilight rose up suddenly from her bed, arm stretched out, grasping in the darkness of night. “Wait, I-” Looking around, she saw she was back in her room.

Shivering, Twilight lowered herself back down on her bedding, pulling a blanket up and over her body once more. Before she closed her eyes she reached out and grasping blindly. After a few seconds, she found what she sought, a thick wooden surface that was her staff. With a sigh of relief, she drew it closer before pressing her head into the mat that covered her straw bed.

It was fortunate she was able to find sleep again, though she allowed the memory of the words the woman in white spoke to, flow through her mind.

The rest of her night was dreamless, and Twilight stretched out before getting up from her bed on the floor. The morning sun shone through the window as it began to rise from the edge of the world.

Twilight strode across the room and stopped at the door, where she was able to find a bucket of fresh water from the well waiting right outside the door. Keeping her form hidden behind the door, she looked up and down the hall to ensure she was truly alone and none would see her. Once she was sure, she leaned down and hefted the bucket up and brought it inside her room. She used her hips to close the door and walked over where she set the bucket down before a mirror on a dresser.

Twilight busied herself with wetting a small cloth nearby she worked to clean her body from top to bottom as well as she could. As she finished wiping her face she lowered the cloth, covering her chest with it and her arms.

Twilight stared at her reflection in the mirror before her, looking at the form of a young thin Equine. Her features were humanoid, though, unlike humans she did not have feet, she had hooves. Her hands were similar to humans, as well as most of her body, often she and many other Equines found similarities. Not just hands, but their forms as well, though not just her hooves were the difference. Humans were covered in thin wisps of what they called hair which did not cover as much of their body. For Twilight, she and many of her kind were fully covered in hair, though due to it being thicker and more course, though not quite as long, it was like being covered in fur. The humans had heads full of hair, where they also often grew beards, or mustaches. Strange as this was to some Equines, few, well the stallions, found interest in mimicking the humans. Twilight, herself, often pondered the interest in facial hair. Additionally, her mane, or hair, as humans called it, was very thick and long. Humans often complained having hair that thick and long would be detrimental to their health.

The last difference between Equines and humans, were their tails. Some humans claimed, after much thought and study, they came from a kind of primate that was capable of sentience superior to that of others. Twilight had come to understand this, due to similarities she had read about in the great library of the arcane school, she did find those primates had once had tails. When she brought this up to some humans, she was met with disdain and anger. Humans did not want to be considered, ‘bestial’ and considered themselves better than an animal. They barely acknowledged dwarves and elves as brethren in intelligence, though not species.

Twilight let out a sigh as she considered the long and difficult history of her Equine ancestry, often mistreated, and often violated. Unicorns often had it the worst, as humans delighted in attacking them for their horns, thinking them as magical in nature. Granted, they had often helped Unicorns delve into magic from within and without, they also allowed them to focus, and more. So many aspects, yet often Unicorns were found dead, horns grotesquely removed and left to rot. Many unicorn after that began to try and hide their horns using magic. A form of protection still used in her own time.

Twilight glanced up at her face, and horn as she thought of this brief extent of history she had learned years before. Her coat was purple, her mane and tail a much darker shade. She smiled at the two stripes of color that somehow always made her feel unique, as they were pink and violet. Humans had multiple colors, but nothing even compared to herself or her Equine race.

Twilight shook her head to try and focus, the words from her dream echoing once again. Twilight narrowed her eyes, calling forth her magic and applied the hidden spell over her horn, the effect making seem to fade. Once done, Twilight looked into the mirror and turned her head from one side to the other, inspecting her work. Satisfied she looked more like an Earth Equine than a Unicorn, Twilight turned.

She could not help her shoulders drooping, she wished with all her heart she could walk around without fear of being judged, or constantly looking over her shoulders to find the hungry and greedy looks of those who knew what a Unicorn horn could bring them when trading such a rare thing. Twilight walked over to the closet and grabbed her clothing. She did not take long to pull on her loose shirt and leggings, followed by the robes marking her as a mage. Once done, she grabbed her staff and made her way from her room.

Her objective now, was the library, she had to find out as much information as she could before taking off on this quest. She had to make sure it wasn’t some strange delusion from some of her magic building up inside of her. If the information proved accurate enough, she could go on and find these so called artifacts. Though this also included needing to fin d the correct way to handle them.

Many wizards, mages, sorcerers, and all others of magical inclination often met their end when messing around with dangerous artifacts without taking proper precautions.

As Twilight entered the library, she stopped to take a moment to draw in a breath. She smiled, the scent of old and new books always made her feel great, she was never sure why or how, but being surrounded by so much knowledge. She felt as if she had walked into the home of a long and old dear friend who wanted to embrace her.

“Twilight, how may we help you today?” Asked a nearby scholar as he carried a hefty tome from one line of shelves over to a table. There he set the tome down and opened it to a marked page, where a nearby student began to work reading and scribing the words onto a scroll.

“Well, I am looking on some very old documents, covering some of the legends from perhaps around the time of the Convergence.”

The scholar thought for a moment before shaking his head, “That is difficult, as you should very well know. There are almost no records left of that time in any of our history.”

“Yes, I realize the limit on what would be available, but I also know that nearly all of those records are collected by the arcane schools and housed in libraries, until they can be brought here.” Twilight pointed out.

The scholar chuckled, “Sharp as ever, Twilight. Right this way,” he said as he turned and led her to the back of the immense building where they came to a separate section with much older scrolls and books, the smell of mold and age prominent here.

The two continued on through the slightly darker areas, as allowing these already age worn and sensitive articles of words and history in the light would quickly destroy them. Traversing the shelves, it took some time before the scholar came to another section where he began to peruse the stands where they held the titles held in each section. Looking at the fifth one he moved his finger down the line of titles and stopped with an, “Aha,” as he seemed to find what they sought.

“Well, Twilight, here is where you will find what you are looking for in our histories around the time of the Convergence. As well, it would seem we are fortunate to have a three shelves of the histories of all the three worlds before said convergence.”

“Thank you very much, this is proving very beneficial, more than I would have thought.” Twilight replied, with a kind smile.

“Out of curiosity, were you looking for anything in particular? I may be able to help you narrow things down a bit, or were you just interested in your Equine heritage?”

“Well, I was looking to see if there were any distinctions between the Equines before and after the Convergence. I am curious as to what progress we have been able to make in various aptitudes of knowledge and economy.”

The scholar chuckled, “As to be expected, you are looking for more than what I can humbly offer.” With that, the scholar walked around Twilight and made his way back to the front of the library to resume his work.

With him gone, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, thankful he had no idea she was only just rambling about the first topic of nonsense she could come up with right off the top of her head. With that, she began scouring the titles until she located a few of what she was looking for including before, and after the convergence.

Settling herself down at a nearby table, Twilight lit a candle in a small lantern to ensure she received enough light for her studying and began to work her way through her chosen titles. It took some time to cross reference what she was looking for, as far as artifacts went. However, this brought about another small issue, there were originally somewhere around over two hundred Equestrian Artifacts. She was not sure what she was looking for exactly, until she came across a small paragraph mentioning an old curse and six gemstone artifacts.

She worked her way through the books still left until she found the title mentioned in the paragraph. There she read through the old story of the former princesses who helped in the world of Equestria before the convergence. At least, this is what she assumed considering she did not find any mention of the convergence of this time. She continued until she found, further in the back of the book there was mention of the sisters coming across a strange creature. After that, twilight saw that the book seemed to jump several pages and came to the cursed mare, and the ‘mare in the moon’ story.

“Odd, there were a lot of pages missing in the Equestrian histories. Though, I suppose considering the issues of how old the book is, somewhere about a thousand years or so I suppose the pages were either lost a long time ago, or simply dusted.” She thought out loud. It was a term used for the aged books, meaning the dusted pages ad aged and were less taken care of for whatever reason. Either more use than other pages, or simply a flaw in the pages themselves, the pages had broken down to dust.

Twilight settled down in her chair as she read over the story, about how the younger sister had fought valiantly for her night against creatures that had wanted to usurp her and her sister. A large war broke out, and despite their efforts, the creatures found a way to instill madness into the younger sister. The magic of Equines knew nothing of this kind of power or magic and thus could not counter it. When it came to be too much and the younger sister was corrupted with the madness, the elder gathered six powerful artifacts, glass orbs housing strange crystals within and banished her sister to the moon.

“Wait, that’s it? Wow, it would seem as though more information is missing, or whomever recorded this, left out the specifics. It doesn’t even say where to find the artifacts-” Twilight paused as she went to pick up the book and found a small square of paper slip and fall to the table. She placed the book to the side and opened it to find a map of the land dated for shortly after the convergence. The lines showed a path from the Fallen Mountain going south through the fields, and through a small town and then to the East into a forest marked, ‘The Wilds’.

Twilight smiled, grateful for this much as she folded the paper and placed it inside of her robes. Once done, she worked to replace the books back to where they belonged before leaving the library.

The town was only a couple of days away and Twilight would be there in no time. Then she could find the artifacts and prepare for the cursed princess to return to their world.

First steps

With the tavern filled to the brim, Twilight grimaced as the smell of body odor of many of the humans assaulted her nostrils. So many were clamored around tables, their voices loud, forcing her to pin her ears back as she made her way through the room. The tables were covered in various foods, meats, breads, and cheeses. The thought of being able to eat meat almost made her vomit, but placing a hand over her muzzle helped to ease her, though it did nothing for her stomach.

Around some of the tables the human men were laughing and talking, a few of the bar maids in their laps, as hands groped flesh. Despite their barbaric ways, Twilight often had to concede how very effective they could be in so many different ways. Humans were so versatile when it came to survival and thought, it was no wonder they were on fair terms with Elves and Dwarves, though all still saw her kind as less than equal.

Twilight shook her head to clear it of the negative thoughts, she was here for a reason and she had to get herself to focus. Finally she was approaching the bar, she looked up to find a large man speaking to a woman before sending her off through a door to the back. A cloud of smoke wafted through from there and floated to the ceiling where it spread out, slowly vanishing.

The man turned and upon seeing Twilight there, his face seemed to fall into a deep frown, “We don’t serve your kind here.” he said all too gruffly.

“I’m not here for food or drink, I need an escort.”

A few of the men beside her at the bar erupted in laughter upon hearing this, “Aye, I can escort ya ta mah room.” One man said, leaning back away from the bar and giving her a lewd wink.

Twilight kept herself from shuddering, as she turned from the man, he was filthy and unkempt, and more than obviously drunk. His comrades laughed even harder and clapped him on the back.

“Look, I’m heading to the southwest, and I need someone with me on my travels. Is there anyone here who may be able to help?” She implored.

“Look, not only are you one of those blasted Horse people, but you’re also a witch, and no one around here much care for them, so you’re striking out all around. Now, I think it best if you leave. I don’t want to clean any kind of mess these guys could leave behind.”

Despite wanting to argue the man in his horrible attitude, she knew he was right. She had wanted to find someone who could go with her, but this town was more inclined towards humans, and more often than not, any other race here would have a bad time. Twilight usually did not have to worry much as she never really left the arcane school until now. With a quick look around, Twilight began to make her way out of the tavern.

“Ow! Hey,” Twilight turned as a man had lifted her tail, with a strong pull. A few of the men around had began to leer at her. Her heart began to beat in her chest as she took a step back away from the men now beginning to stand only to bump into someone behind her.

“Is there a problem?” Came a voice of another man behind her.

‘Oh great, now I’m royally screwed,’ Twilight thought as she gripped her staff and found it bumping into something. She glanced down to see it pressed against a thick muscular leg. With a thought she carefully brought the staff to the inside of the mans leg as he began to speak again.

“Well, well, what do we have here, looking for some fun hun?” The man let out a thunderous bark for laughter, quickly followed by the other men present. The man’s breath was horrendous, nearly making her gag as she could smell it from behind her.

“No, I was just on my way out.”

“Oh, no, luv, I think you was just getting ready to settle in with us.” The man said as he placed a large hand on her shoulder, Twilight slid her hand down her staff and with unflinching resolve, the brought the end of her staff up between the man’s legs. She was glad of two things, one his hand removed itself just as quickly from her shoulder; two, he fell to his knees clutching whatever cracked jewels he had left. Twilight spun around before anyone else had a chance to move and brought her knee up, smashing the man’s jaw.

As the man fell backwards, Twilight jumped over him and made her way to the doors, pushing past several of the stunned men, who quickly made to protect themselves in fear of her staff meeting with them as well.

Once outside in the heat of the afternoon, Twilight took a moment to breath in the fresh air, helping her lungs as she worked to expel the putrid smells from the tavern. Looking back over her shoulder, Twilight shook her head and decided it was best to go ahead and head out on her own. Her thoughts wandered to the next town, and hoped she might be able to find some help there.

From deep within a nearby alley, a shadowed figure watched Twilight as she set off down the dirt road. Once she was out of sight, the figure turned and made his way deeper into the alley until he came to a pile of boards and began to climb up to the top of a stack of crates. A small jump and he was able to hoist himself up onto the roof. There he moved to the edge and spotted Twilight as she continued her way.

He looked ahead and considered where she may be headed. He had heard she needed an escort, so if she were to leave town, the most idealistic place was to grab supplies first. She would then have to leave town by the North gate, then follow the road till it split, and she would have to take the one to the South. That is, unless she was fool headed enough to leave by the trade gate and go straight into the woods surrounding the town.

The man watched as Twilight entered a shop for general supplies, and turned his head when he heard a noise. He could see a few men leaving the tavern, one large man limping, a strained look on his face.

“She’s long gone boss. Some stupid Equine ain’t got what it takes to be mad at.”

The man backhanded him, knocking him down into the door his face red. “I don’t give a blast, she assaulted me, and I want her to pay for it. I heard her say she was heading Southwest. So, here’s what we do,” he said, lowering his voice to the other two men. Unaware of additional pair of ears listening in on the plan as well.

Twilight looked around, the path before her laid bare as it split into three sections, a sign set between each divide. The far right would eventually turn South, yet, Twilight had stopped here feeling uneasy. Once more she looked over her shoulder to find herself alone on the path from the town, still it persisted as if she were being watched. The trees crowded next to the path, the higher leaves and branches swaying slightly as a breeze came up. The road behind her looked dark, and a small part of her mind seemed to hold irrationality as she began to fear what may be there.

Twilight lifted the pack on her shoulder and adjusted it before shaking herself. She mentally scolded herself for something so foolish as being afraid of what was not there. It was only uncertainty, and fear of leaving the Arcane school she had known practically as her home for nearly her entire life.

With a steadying breath, Twilight made her way down the far right path, the sound of her staff moving in time with one of her hooves as she moved on.

The shadows among the trees some ways back moved, as the men who had been following Twilight began ti move once again.

As the day moved on, the sun rode across the sky before dipping down below the tree line on the far side of this world. As if working in time of a myth of one of the great old Gods following the sun, pulling a blanket of darkness patterned with stars, the night encroached upon the world below.

Twilight had made several miles at this point and felt weary, her body was heavy, and her legs ached. She found a place in the woods a short distance from the road and settled her back against a tree. Along with a breath of relief, Twilight groaned a bit as her body began to wind down from her extraneous efforts.

Looking up, Twilight stared at the sprawling lights far above her, as well as the myriad of colors the universe gave this night, the blues and reds, but most of all the wide patch of white that was left in a streak across the night sky far above the heavens. Twilight could not help but to smile as she stared up in wonder at the night sky. After a few minutes, Twilight shivered and rubbed her hands over her arms.

With a small spoken spell, Twilight lit up a ball of light in her hand and allowed it to drift up to just below the lowest branch of the tree she sat under. Keeping part of her focus on the ball of magic as it lit up the small area around her, she stood and began to move about gathering sticks and broken branches. Once done she went back to the base of the tree and began to pile up the sticks as best she could. Once done, she gathered as many large stones as she could and set a ring around the kindling she had.

It took effort, as multiple spells were difficult, and with her eyes closed she could not see the light from the ball of magic as it faded to barely a wisp of smoke as she brought a few sparks to the kindling.

“Ow...” Twilight clutched at her head, a small pain forming for a second before fading away. Twilight blinked as she looked around, the only light now coming from the stars in the sky overhead, as well as the now two moons rising, almost as if chasing after the sunset. One moon, the one that the humans considered their own, was marred with patches of circles and shadows deep within them, the shadow of the Earth seemed to block most of the light. Nearby, a familiar sight of the Equestrian moon rose slower than the human moon some distance away from where the first one was. It’s surface was much smoother, though only marred by the silhouette of a shadowed unicorn head bowed looking down onto the world.

In that moment, Twilight bit her lower lip and wondered if she could do something like this, to really take on the challenge of finding these lost artifacts and stopping the mare in the moon and whatever threat she may pose to this world.

Silence surrounded her, but she did not realize it as she internally worked out anything she could think of. She had to try and prepare herself for anything that could possibly happen in the upcoming days.

That is, until her thoughts were interrupted by a flash of light some distance in the trees. Twilight grabbed her staff and held it before her, and positioned her body as if ready to launch herself at who or whatever was nearby.

“Hello?” Came a voice from the darkness of the trees.

“Who’s there?” Twilight called before preparing a spell to protect herself.

A spark of light followed the sound of scrapping before a flame appeared in the trees, lighting up the face of a man.

Twilight took in a sharp breath as she looked on as the man walked through the trees and into her area. She was fearful for a second it may have been a man from the tavern, but she did not recognize him as he came closer. From what she could see, his complexion appeared normal, at least by human standards, and his hair was a deep dark brown. His eyes were slightly shadowed from holding the torch up over his head slightly as he looked forward towards Twilight.

“Hello, I’m sorry to bother you. I was out and lost my way, do you know where the road is?”

“Actually, it’s not far from here. Just over there about twenty feet.” Twilight responded confidently as she pointed to her left in the direction of the road.

“Ah, thank you. I’ve been wandering around these woods for a few hours now.”

“Who are you, and what are you doing out here?” Twilight interrupted, suspicious of the man.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry, my name is Clevik Alswyn. I got distracted by an animal that ran off into the woods. I followed it and soon lost my way. I was originally supposed to be going to a town to the Southwest. I’m supposed to be delivering a package there.”

“Oh, well, as it so happens, I am also on my way to the same town. There was no name on the maps, but its a little hamlet near the Wilds.”

“Do, do you maybe have an outdated map?” Clevik asked.

Twilights eyes widened as she thought about that, and realized she had to have an outdated map if it came out of a book a thousand years old. “You know, now that I think about it, I may very well have an outdated one. Would you happen to have a better one?”

“Well, I did, but I lost some time ago,” He explained, to which Twilight looked down in disappointment, “But I do have a very good memory. Also, its one of the very few towns that are Equine based. It’s called Ponyville, and it is literally right by an old forest, humans call the Wilds.”

Twilight’s mouth fell open, she had never heard of a town that had been successfully set with Equines, she was used to the Arcane school where the humans worked diligently and silently on collecting as much history and knowledge as they could and work out spells and magic over time.

“Hey, this may seem odd, but if we are going to the same place, would you care to travel together?” Clevik offered.

Twilight clamped her mouth shut as she thought about this, her experience at the Tavern still had her a bit unsettled with some of the humans that had been beyond her home for so many years. Then her thoughts went to those humans who had helped her, taught her the ways of magic, and knowledge, and accepted her as she surpassed even them in so many ways. If she were to take a chance in trust, this would be it.

“Actually, it is said, it’s best to travel with others. I do need someone to help me. I can fend for myself, but even I have my limits.” She explained, to which Clevik nodded and offered a smile.

Looking down, he noticed the attempt at a fire and waved his hand towards it, “Do you mind if I...” he began to which Twilight caught on to what he was asking about an quickly nodded. Clevik knelt down and looked over the material gathered before lifting a few sticks and holding them up to his torch. He held them there as they began to burn, waiting for them to take strongly before setting it down into the pile and worked to get everything set up. It did not take but a minute or two before a small fire was burning, and Twilight quickly sat on her knees and held her hands up, glad for the warmth.

“You know, it’s best if you get actually thoroughly dry kindling for a fire, and you should dig a small hole to set everything in if you want it strong enough to burn hot for food and warmth.” Clevik explained as he cleared some leaves, uncovering cold dirt and began to work his torch to extinguish it.

“Oh, well I was actually planning on using something else to get the fire going.” She stopped as she saw Clevik shaking his head slowly.

“I take it you know magic, yes?” Twilight nodded before he continued, “Ah, see Magic can be great to start a small fire, but many have found magic is highly unreliable in that aspect. See, you may be able to start a flame and have it burn for a time, but it is basically useless as you need to keep it burning yourself. Whereas using natural elements and flame will allow it to take to itself, if you can create a core for the flame to maintain itself, you don’t have to worry about it beyond adding a little more kindling to it.”

Twilight tilted her head as Clevik finished explaining this. “How could you know about something like that?”

Clevik shrugged, “I have traveled with wizards and mages before. Many think they can use magic for practically anything and everything, but it doesn’t always work that way. See a flame of magic cannot hold to something physical. It needs something physical to allow it, otherwise it is no better than an illusion, and to make that seem real, you need knowledge, imagination, experience, and fear above all to make it seem real.”

Twilight worked to ask Clevik many questions in his gathered knowledge of working with wizards and magic. He took his time and was patient with answering Twilight, though many times he explained he could not give her a full and proper explanation beyond simple guesses as he was not a real mage. They talked for a time, until Clevik could not answer any more and suggested they get some sleep.

Once asleep, morning was not long in coming, and Twilight twitched her nose as her eyes fluttered open, the smell of meat turning her stomach. She looked up to find Clevik eating some freshly cooked meat, thin and hard looking as he tore into it, eyes starign up into the clouded sky.

“There is a storm coming.” He said simply. When he looked over he saw, Twilight turning her head, hand over her muzzle as she tried to keep from vomiting. He offered an apology and explained he had not been around Equines much, and was apt to forget their sensitivity to others when eating meat. He quickly consumed the meat and doused the fire, waving away at the smoke to disperse it. He waited until Twilight was able to settle her stomach with some water.

Once they were ready, they gathered their stuff and made their way to the road, to which Clevik beamed as if happy to be back on the road. Twilight offered a smile in return and faced forward on the road and continued, unaware of the dark look that passed over Cleviks face briefly as he turned back to the forest.

Several yards from where he had emerged from the woods to meet with Twilight, there were three bodies of three men, never to see the light of their lives ever again. Their intent had been to wait until Twilight was alone in the night and then attack her and leave her for dead. Clevik came across them quickly and broke them down by his own hands. He had cooked some of his traveling meat, burning it slightly to try and cover the smell of their bodies and the blood that began tom fill the air by the morning. He had figured if he filled the air near Twilight with smoke and the smell of his food, then she would not detect the smell of something dead. Even if she did, he still had a back up excuse and would have quickly said it was nothing more than an animal that had met its end.

He was only glad it did not come to that. He had his own reasons for keeping close to Twilight, but until that time would come that he would keep at being the traveled stranger who was kind to the mare.

A chosen partner

It did not take long for the sky to grow darker as the clouds overhead grew heavier with rain. The wind picked up, blowing almost right into the face of the travelers, bringing with it a cold chill.

For a good hour or so the two could feel occasional droplets, as if the weather itself were teasing as to when it would unleash its fury upon them. With knowing the area, as well as she did, Twilight unpacked a wool cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders, trying her best to keep it closed. This lead to the base of the fabric to whip out behind her as the wind blew, showing her robed body, and her arms trying to hold it closed.

Shivering she turned to Clevik to find him with what appeared to be an even thicker, pure black hooded cloak remaining closed around his body. The ripples in the fabric the only give it seemed to reveal with the wind blowing.

“How...?” Was all Twilight was able to say.

Clevik turned, and with a grin, shook his head, “I have been out and about. If you want to fight the weather, you have to know how to be prepared.”

“But...” Twilight began, coming to a full stop, the wind blowing strands of her mane around her face, and out over her shoulder. She moved a hand to try and move the strands out of her face, and block the wind as she curiously looked over the garment.

Clevik looked at Twilight before shifting his head, “We should keep going, it’s not best to waste time when there is a storm. I can’t tell how bad it will be.”

Just as Twilight opened her mouth, there was a long series of flashes, before the loudest crash and rumbling echoed almost overhead, the sheer power of the thunder seeming to shake the ground they stood on, and left Twilight shaking as she nodded and quickly fell into step with Clevik. The two did their best to pick up their pace, fighting the now more consistent winds that blew and whipped around them.

As they continued the sky overhead darkened even more as clouds weighed with the approaching storm, the only reprieve was the flashes of lightning seemed off in the distance now, which allowed the thunder to boom a short ways into the distance. The sky was so filled with foreboding clouds the day almost seemed equal to the night.

“Twilight, here, there is an animal trail, we should take cover till the storm passes.” Clevik called out, having to raise his voice over the wind. Twilight nodded and followed Clevik off the road an through the brush.

It seemed the very moment they did this, a strange rushing sound seemed to charge full speed at them before a torrent of heavy rain suddenly fell over them. In seconds, Twilight was soaked through, shivering in the cold of the rain. She silently cursed her failure to fully prepare for being out here with such a thin robe from the school and an less than ideal cloak that only covered her shoulders and was now clinging to her body as it weighed down fully soaked with the rain water.

They had not gone more than a few feet when Twilight looked like a drowned animal from the downpour. She looked up after nearly tripping to find a wall of gray around her, the floor of the forest beside the road were now nothing more than dark shadows near the ground. She could not see Clevik or anything more than a couple of feet in front of her.

“Clevik?” She called out in a near panic, trying to move as straight forward as she could, her eyes looking around trying to make out his shape. She had to move to one side or the other as she came up to trees she barely saw in front of her.

“Clevik?” She called again, louder trying to be heard over the sounds of the storm.

“Twilight!” Came a deep voice a short distance away and to the left. She called out again, trying to head in the direction of the voice, To her relief, Clevik seemed to appear almost right in front of her. “Here, I found shelter,” he said quickly, gently grabbing her wrist and leading her through the rain. He did not falter and easily moved over brush and around trees, with Twilight in tow.

Before long, a minute or so to her brief calculation, Clevik pulled Twilight into a large rounded shadow. A brief flare of fear crossed her mind, as it imagined him leading her into the gaping maw of some titanic creature waiting for its dinner to stumble through the forest dumbly and fall into it mouth.

Twilight was plunged into seeming complete darkness, even with the small amount of light that seemed to come from outside even with the storm. Twilight felt Clevik release her arm and she could hear the faint echoing of his footsteps as he moved forward. After a second of hesitation, her hands out in front of her to be her eyes, Twilight moved forward, slowly, sluggishly filled with uncertainty as she was fully submerged in unfamiliar territory.

Suddenly, light flared up around a hunched over form forcing Twilight to squint her eyes and turn her head until she could adjust to the change. Clevik moved, taking a small lantern over to a stone wall and waved it over a small jutting of stone where she could just make out a faint sound as if water were dripping into a small puddle.

She watched, shivering uncontrollably as Clevik moved a hand and dipped it into the water and raised his fingers and sniffed. A satisfied grunt and he turned and set the lantern down on the ground and she could hear a strange quick slurping noise.

“Here, have a little water, I didn’t see you carrying a waterskin, so this will be good for you. There are no poisons, or mildew or anything here.” He explained before turning and offering her his hand. She took it and he lightly pulled her over to him and brought his hands up in front of her chest. Flinching, Twilight took a quick step back, uncertain of what he was going to do for a second. “I’m sorry, I should have asked, you need to remove that cloak, its too thin and completely soaked. If you keep wearing it, you will get more than a chill. I don’t think you want to catch your death only a day away from town, do you?” He asked.

Twilight couldn’t think to argue, she was so cold, her fingers were beginning to go numb, she shivered again, and nodded before steeping forward and untying the cloak. As she did, she noticed in the light how Clevik seemed almost completely dry, only his face, some hair, and his legs from his knees down to his boots were wet. The cloak he wore still had a few droplets of water, but other than than seemed fairly dry.

“H-how are y-you s-so d-d-dry?” She stuttered, shaking violently without the cloak, her teeth chattering.

Clevik placed her cloak down onto the ground before removing his own and wrapped it around here. Twilight took in a sharp breath, the cloak was extremely heavy, heavier than it looked, but not just from how thick the material was, there was something else that seemed to pull at the base of the cloak. Yet, her body and mind seemed to shove this train of thought away as her shivering lessened just the slightest bit, and she let out a small moan as she snuggled into the cloak. There, with her muzzle pressed so close to the cloak, she could smell his human scent, it was earthy, and held a hint of sweat, as well as something else. Her mind suddenly latched onto this as she sniffed again, trying to identify this specific smell, before she raised her hand and felt the fabric.

It was soft, but not high grade material soft, it still was rougher than than, the thickness of it told her it was several layers thick, and had some sort of strange faint slick feeling over it. Her mind then registered how dry and warm it was on the inside of the cloak.

“It’s just a specially treated cloak I had tailor made. It has a substance on it that helps resist water. It doesn’t keep you completely dry, as the water slowly removes the substance the longer its in water. So, rain is not an issue, even rain like this, you can stay dry for a while. Though once that is gone, the water will soak into the different layers. Though, it is not only just to keep you warm in wind and rain. The thickness if for when you find yourself in colder climates.” Twilight stared up at Clevik as he finished explaining the many uses of this one material.

“That’s, brilliant.” She whispered in awe.

Clevik nodded, “I did not lie when I said I had traveled and was experienced.” He said with a soft smile. Twilight nodded, before he moved out of her way allowing her to take a drink of the water that was pooling in the little outcrop of stone. It was strangely molded as if it were meant to hold water. Once she had satisfied as much of her thirst as she could with the few handfuls of water available, Twilight turned, seeing Clevik already investigating the small cave. Though, to call it a cave was foolish to her mind, as there were no stalagmites, or stalactites, as well the space they were in seemed far too small.

“Clevik,” Twilight began, her voice indicating her reasoning.

“I know, this isn’t a natural space. The walls are too smooth, someone has been hiding out here and has made this space to live in. Though I wonder why they don’t have a bed made up or any gear or food laying around.” A few seconds of thought and he shook his head before speaking again, “I can only guess this must be a temporary abode, and whatever supplies they have they take with them when they leave. Maybe a hunter, or something.” He finished his thoughts and turned to settle down.

Twilights eyes roved over the walls in what light was available from Cleviks lantern, before her eyes moved down a wall to her right where she spotted a large rectangular bag.

“I think you missed this,” She said, drawing his attention to it. Her ears fell back a little as she frowned from him laughing slightly.

“No, that is my traveling pack.” He said. When Twilight gave him a confused look he shook his head, “Right, not an experienced with being out and about. The Pack is large, and takes up the whole space on my back, but it is also flat. I don’t try top carry anything too bulky because then anyone looking at me will know I have valuables under my cloak. It also covers my entire back, so if someone tries to shoot me or stab me in the back, my pack will protect me, for the most part.”

“The most part?” Twilight asked, as she looked back at the pack.

“Well yeah, if the bag tears, then I lose whatever I’m carrying, and it completely makes my backside vulnerable. Not to mention, if someone really wants to stop me, all they have to do is wing me, or take out my knees.” He explained further.

Twilight tilted her head for a second, the phrase he mentioned was unfamiliar to her, but then shrugged and filed it away as something to ask for later. She was still a little cold since her clothes were still wet and she did not have anything spare to change into. Not even another set of robes, in fact the only thing she thought to bring was a large bag riding on her hip with some herbs for small scrapes and cuts, and some pressed flowers and bread.

She settled down, pressing her back against the stone, shifting until she could get comfortable and closed her eyes to relax.

Clevik turned to look at Twilight as she closed her eyes to rest, he could see her occasionally shiver as her body worked to keep her warm. He had known she did not have much on her when he checked her that morning for supplies. He was severely disappointed to find how woefully ill prepared she was for the world outside that school of witches. He stopped and shook his head, ‘Thinking too human again, boy.’

With a deep breath he turned and looked to the dark gray curtain of the storm still raging outside their temporary shelter. He did not know who or what had made this cave, and that bothered him. Who, or what ever did was more experienced than he was, not only at having well placed and fairly hidden temporary domiciles, they also left no traces of the original owner, or craftsman. He grinned at himself, here he was, one capable of using stealth and tricks to slip in and out of places none would have ever thought of, and he was finding there were still others who could do things far better than he could.

Clevik had lived a long life, yet his age physical appearance did not betray him beyond an early twenty something male human.

He turned his mind away from his thoughts as he listened to the storm, the faint rumbles occasionally striking right behind each other, the sound of the rain as it fell from the sky drowned everything else out. His mind attempted to take this break to bring him back to something he did not care for. Internally he raged against this part of him, forcing it to the back of his mind and into the shadows.

He returned to once again focus on the weather outside and consider what needs to happen next. He had to try and work what dangers they could face on their way to Ponyville. Unknown to him, the brief momentary fight and lack of concentration allowed his eyes to alter in the slightest bit as his pupils changed to slits with a tinge of green, before returning to normal

---(0,_,0)---

Two Days Prior

The vaulted ceilings were barely lit of the room from the various candles burning, even with the added light of the stars and the moon through the multitude of windows that followed along the circular shape on the far side. The view from the windows was both breathtaking and dizzying as the room hung, suspended on the side of a cliff, overlooking a small hamlet at the base, and a massive forest where a couple of large rivers snaked through the dense trees.

The air filled with the notes of music being played from a band placed upon a stage overlooking the large and nearly emptied floor. There were a few human men, a woman, and one particular figure that was obviously different than the others. The only one of her kind to ever be permitted to play with such a high standard group. Her eyes closed, as her fingers moved over the strings, her and her other hand held the bow as it slid across the lower strings of the large and seemingly heavy looking cello. It’s polished wooden surface seemed to glow, even in the various candlelights, the sounds lifting up form it were indeed as perfect as the wielder of it could get. Her form was different than human as her whole body was covered in a dark gray fur, the top of her head sported a well tidied and groomed black mane, the bangs slightly curled at the front of her forehead, her tailed, the same color and placed carefully to the side of her body. Beside her tail, on what she called her flank, was a symbol of her skills and talent, as if to say, ‘My talent cannot be questioned despite my difference. To those who dislike it, to Tartarus with you’.

The symbol itself was used in music to the very best. A treble clef used first in many lines to show the pitch of the sound of the music as it changed and flowed from the instruments, if done correctly. As well, if done correctly, music could be lifted from the instruments in the most heavenly ways, seemingly impossible by the ears of others, yet to be held dear as it moved heart and spirit.

For this particular female she had lived a life of hard fought battles, many won, and many lost as she brought forth her ability. Her talents were far from being dismissed, no it was her species, as an Equine, it had been a difficult road for her. Until she came here and was accepted, along with so many others that too were as different as she.

The gray and black Equine working the Cello scrunched her face, her ears turning in the direction of the violinist who had scratched a note just as they were coming up to the crescendo of the piece they were playing. She turned her attention away from the mistake and intensified her own efforts as the music began to build, her heart beat building with it. Her mind was filled with various lines and colors as she focused on her part of the music, despite its difficulty, she always made sure to give her all, and this was her way of doing it. She could manipulate the strings so well, she could make an elven maiden cry at the haunting beauty. Of which, she did not care to boast, but had in fact, succeeded in doing just that once.

As the music built in its speed and intensity reaching the final crescendo, the only two occupants currently moved faster and faster, spinning a little more and more. The man held the woman, allowing her form to follow him in every way, his own strong and tall, dressed in black, a red tie tucked away into the black suit, the edges of his coat arms reflected slightly like silver. His hands slender and long, nails perfectly cut and trimmed, his face smooth, hair kept short had long since turned white despite his youthful features.

As for his partner, she wore a long silk white dress, her skin pale, her fingers thin and frail looking, wore no jewelry. She moved oddly for a human woman, her limbs seemingly stiff and jerky like a puppet on strings, while her head tilted in various ways, far too relaxed for someone living, her face obscured by a plain smiling face with freshly painted red lipstick, and blue marks above where the eyelids would be. The man continued to lead, as if unaware, or uncaring of the strange movements and responses of his dance partner.

They stepped forwards, backwards, to the left, to the right, spun as their feet shuffled or crisply stepped in the various ways required for this dance. Until the crescendo began to fall and slow, of which the man looked to the entrance of the ballroom and spotted the man standing there, silently, patiently waiting.

With a sigh, then man stopped, releasing the strings of magic holding the woman up in response for the dance, allowing her body to sag in his arms, before he dropped her to the floor with a stranger thumping sound.

“I know, Altier, ‘You shouldn’t play with your food’, but I was already done and wanted a dance partner. You know how I like to exercise after I’ve eaten.” He commented turning from the woman and stepping over to the window looking out to the moon. His eyes seemed to lovingly follow the shape of the silhouette of the Mare in the moon.

The man was not surprised when Altier seemed to appear standing right beside him, his silence filling the air.

“Did you take care of the disturbance?” The man asked.

“Of course sir. If I could not take out the trash, then I would not be one hell of a butler.” He responded, his voice coming clear but low, as if he never had to raise it. His voice was smooth and seemingly calm and genuine.

The man rolled his eyes at his servants favorite joke, before turning and looking down at the woman. He raised one perfectly presentable hand up in front of his face, before lowering himself down and gently placing it on the woman’s body at the shoulder. There was a slight flash before the body of the woman began to crack, as small pieces of her body began to lift away disintegrating into light and nothingness.

“Sir, it is best to allow the butler to clean up after you.” Altier chastised, yet for all those present, his voice and inflection never altered or changed in the slightest as he stood at the window, body turned as he watched his master.

“Yes, but, I feel I need to do this from time to time as a reminder,” he explained.

“IS there anything else I can do for you, sir?” Altier asked, only for his master to shake his head.

“No, I believe this will be all. I feel I need to rest, perhaps tomorrow, I will head out for a hunt.” He said, as if lost in thought.

“Then I shall dismiss the band, and assist you in preparing for bed.” Altier responded. He did not like how his master had been acting lately, he had been restless, there were still signs of his madness from all those centuries ago, when he first found him, but he had grown so much since then. Gained so much power, all for her. Altier glanced out the window at the moon once again, before turning and signaling the band to leave.

“One more thing, sir. She will be returning in a fortnight.” Altier was satisfied to see his masters reaction, his sudden stop and shift in demeanor. After a moment, his master raised a hand, his body shifting ever so slightly once again. With a nod, Altier left with his master.

Author's Note

Chapter 2

I feel pretty good about this one.
Now, an update, I have some editors and a proofreader, so i will be going through to make a few edits along the way where I know I absolutely need them once I confer with the editors and what they have to say about the story.

Ponyville

The cold seemed to have eased as Twilight remained against the stone wall, wrapped in Cleviks cloak. She could not help drifting in the small comfort, the sounds of the storm outside slowly fading to a dull sound. It was a light sleep, yet Twilight still could not help but to be startled as she was shaken. Looking up, she could see Clevik leaning down looking at her, his features softened slightly noticing he had roused her less gently than she thought.

He tilted his head to the cave entrance. Looking, Twilight could see the storm had halted, though the trees and brush outside seemed to still be wet. She stood and worked to remove the cloak from around her and handed it back to Clevik, he took it and set it aside before moving over and lifting up her own that he had at some point taken and spread out to dry. Handing it over, Twilight took it and noticed it was now mostly dry, there were still a few patches where it had remained wet.

She threw it over her arm and moved to the entrance to look out. The clouds were still heavy and thick, but she could tell now it was close to evening. Turning, she could see Clevik lifting his pack up onto his shoulders before wrapping his cloak around him. He refrained from lifting the hood up over his head, leaving his features exposed.

Once they were ready, the two left the cave and worked their way back to the road and continued on following the wide path.

(^-(*,_,*)-^)

The view of Ponyville was obscured by a large wooden wall made of split logs from trees. They were tall, just shy of the size of a full tree. Twilight was always aware the dangers of her world, as it teemed with unruly beasts and hostile creatures. No doubt, the populace here was more than aware of the fact since they took to protecting themselves.

As she drew close, she could see the proof on the surfaces of the wall. Much of it was marred around shoulder height, made by claws from the looks of them. Some long and thin, too shallow to do much more than set a mark, others were shorter and deeper. Some, she could even see as she stopped before the gate in the wall, showed wear worse than the rest as if the majority of the damage had been wrought here over time.

There on the gate, was an inch gap from the base all the way to the top, one log having been replaced by a well cut and treated log, the faint scent of it being worked still hung in the air. On the older log on the opposite side of the gap were deep markings and splinters, as if this part had been savagely worn down over a period of time and in desperation was replaced.

“Who’s there?” Demanded a voice. The near shout and appearance of a shadow blocking part of the crack surprised Twilight. Quickly, she jumped back before she could respond.

“I-I’m Twilight Sparkle.” She replied, once she was able to think. She was grateful, at least, her mind calmed faster than her body.

After a few seconds of silence, there came a sound of something large and heavy scrapping over the wood of the gate.

Once more, Twilight was startled as several stallions burst through the gate as it opened just enough for them to get through. A few pointed rather dangerous looking spears at her, while many more fanned out behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she could see them carefully scanning the road and trees nearby, but made no move to distance themselves from the gate any more than they already had.

“I’ve never seen you before. Where did you come from?” Came the voice of a female.

Turning back, Twilight made note of the only two new additions who were not pointed a weapon at her. The mare stood about as tall as herself, had a butter cream colored coat, and a two tone mane and tail of blue and pink. Twilight raised an eyebrow as she noticed the fact these Equines were wearing a strange stiff looking armor that resembled scales over their torsos.

The one behind her, was a large stallion with very wide shoulders. Twilight gulped audibly as she looked up at the massive red stallion with short wavy locks of corn yellow mane. The mares and most of the stallions barely came up to his chest. Despite his fearsome strong looks, his eyes seemed filled with sorrow, yet also kindness and caring.

“Watch the drool.” The mare in front of her commented seeing her eyes take in the stallion behind her.

“Uh. Sorry,” Twilight said, coming to her senses. “I, uh, there is a human town to the North East. Where they have an arcane college. I was there until recently.” She explained, not sure if they would understand if she told them of her dream.

The mare nodded, then turned toward the gate, leaning slightly to call around the red stallion. “Rarity, we need you now.”

“On my way, Darling.” Came an almost sing song response. A mare of the softest white fur and a deep dark purple mane and tail, both clipped short came strutting out in a dress. She held the hem up in one hand, a calm and delighted look on her face. “Don’t worry, dear. This won’t take but a moment.” The mare explained with a smile.

Twilight gasped seeing the horn, that was not hidden. “You’re a unicorn. Oh, after so many years of not... Oh, I can’t believe it.” Twilight began to speak almost incoherently in excitement.

The mare, Rarity, raised an eyebrow at Twilight, before her eyes widened. Twilight raised a hand, and removed the hidden spell, allowing her horn to appear.

“Oh, Darling, I wish you hadn’t done that.” Rarity commented, her voice low and a sorrowful look on her face as she took a step back.

“Seize her!” The cream colored mare called out. Faster than Twilight could respond, much less even think, she was shoved to the ground, the three stallions that had been pointing spears at her still, now laid hover her. They kept her arms and hooves pinned down. They did not take it easy on her, even with her crying out in pain.

“Rarity, please continue.” The cream colored mare spoke again.

“Bonbon, is this really necessary? I told you before, many Unicorns such as we had to hide our horns. She even explained she came from a human-”

“Not a chance.” Bonbon responded, her voice taking on a hard edge.

Rarity frowned slightly and looked to the ground, before nodding. She did not want to continue and upset the mare. A second later, Rarity kneeleed down, muttering something about ruining her dress as she did so.

“I am so sorry,” she whispered as she leaned close. She closed her eyes, and her horn began to glow slightly, a nice soft blue, before Twilight felt something pass over her. The tingling in her body clued her in to the use of magic, her eyes going wide.

With a kind smile, Rarity stood and turned to Bonbon. “She is clear. I checked and she is full Equine, no sign of changeling blood of any sort, nor any other creature with the ability to alter their appearance.”

“What about homunculi, or doppleganger? Maybe she is a were creature? Is she wearing anything that can alter her appearance, or trick the spell?”

With a patient look, as if they had gone through this many times before, Rarity shook her head. “Bonbon, I know you want to be absolutely certain. But she did finish the spell to its perfected form.” She halted as Bonbon shot her a glare.

With a grunt, she gave the order for the guards to get off of Twilight. Rarity offered a hand, and Twilight gratefully accepted the gesture. The two stood before making their way through the gate following Bonbon and the still unnamed stallion. As they entered the town, the rest of the guards slowly made their way in, before closing the gate.

The sound of grinding could be heard once again, and Twilight turned to see what it was. She gawked as she watched three Earth pony easing a rope tied to a thick log down over the door and into a pair of metal bars bent slightly up to hold the wooden barricade over the door.

Twilight turned as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She followed Rarity once more at a tilt of the other mares head. The two walked over to a small over hang made of stone, covered with a roof made of what appeared to be sticks, hay and mud. Underneath was laid a table and a chair. This was where they found Bonbon as she sat, the silent red stallion leaning against a stone wall, his ears brushing against the poorly made roof.

Bonbon was staring down at a map with crude sketches of the town and the surrounding area. It seemed to Twilight as if the mare were trying to will the map to catch on fire.

“Bonbon, dear, don’t you think you owe our guest an apology?” Rarity asked, straight to the point.

The mare in question glanced up offering a slight frown. Before shaking her head and muttering a quick, seemingly unfeeling apology.

“Now, Darling, I-”

“No, no. It’s okay, thank you Rarity, and you as well, Bonbon. I ... I don’t know what you all have been through. It took me a full week of traveling to get here. I am on an urgent mission. I have to go into the woods called the Wilds. Can any of you help me?”

“Why in Celestia’s name would you want to go into a place as dreadful as the Everfree forest?” Rarity asked seemingly appalled.

“The what?” Twilight asked.

Rarity blinked for a second, “You... You really don’t know do you? How long have you been in that town of humans?”

“Nearly my whole life. I was raised by the mages there, and trained in the art of magic. Speaking of which,” Twilight added, thinking about something, “how did you cast a spell without using an incantation, or any ingredients for a base?”

Rarity and Bonbon shared a look before Bonbon shook her head. “Sorry, I can claim no knowledge, Rarity. I’m not a unicorn, this one is all yours.” She said, sounding all too pleased for the fact.

With a sigh, Rarity turned to Twilight and then motioned her to follow her. At length they came to a strange large tent. Twilight raised an eyebrow, to Rarities amusement.

“Looks can be deceiving darling.” Was all she said as she opened a door and stepped in. She moved to the side and invited Twilight and bade her to take a seat. “Well, I had thought I sensed a strange aura about you when I used that spell. I never knew a Unicorn could be taught human magic.” She explained as she moved through the large room, that appeared to be some sort of store for garments and such.

Twilight watched as Rarity disappeared behind a large screen, her voice calling out slightly louder to be heard. “Tell me, how did you come to be raised in a town of humans?”

Twilight fidgeted a little, feeling somewhat uncomfortable. She did not want to go into details, not because it was anything bad. She just couldn’t remember much about her parents and never knew where they had gone, or why they had left her. The mages never spoke about it, as they claimed to not know. The only person she could never meet was the arcane master, a rank among the school as to be the head of the college.

Rarity stepped out from behind the screen now wearing a slightly different dress than the one she had before. The only real difference was the line of gem stones at the neckline of the dress. The gems were set up in a slight pattern. The top and bottom line were sapphires, while the center line of gems was made of diamond. It made Twilight think of Rarities fur, mane, and tail. Rarity saw the look on Twilights face, and apologized quickly, realizing how difficult some things could be.

“At any rate, I truly do apologize for Bonbons actions. We, well, we have had some issues with many types of creatures. Most notably a species known as changelings.”

“You mean the breed of creature that resembles a pony bug hybrid of some sort?” Twilight asked.

Rarity nodded, a frown coming to her face as she made her way over and carefully sat down next to Twilight. She shifted her legs as she did, carefully setting herself down in a very dignified fashion.

“Bonbon, is,” Rarity halted, trying to think of the right words, her ears splaying back as she thought things through, “a special case. The spell I used was created by a very unique unicorn. She and Bonbon were very close, and one day while checking some defenses further out in the woods there came a noise from the front gate. The unicorns name was Lyra, and she was stationed at the gate testing the spell on a few different things and volunteers. When they heard the noise, they opened the gate and spotted Bonbon being attacked by a pack of wolves. Out of concern for a loved one, Lyra pulled a few guards together and chased off the wolves. We brought Bonbon in for medical attention, only to find that she wasn’t Bonbon. A changeling had taken her form and quickly laid waste to those who were around them.”

“Including Lyra?” Twilight ventured a guess.

“She was the first to fall, as Lyra had known Bonbon to be a stickler for rules. When she began casting the spell, she revealed the changeling for what it was. In a fit it attacked Lyra first, it did not take long for more help to arrive when others noticed the commotion. We were only able to keep Lyra alive for a short time before she passed. Bonbon had made it back and her love had literally died in her arms. The poor dear has been, well, you saw her today. Please, don’t hold it against her, she hasn’t forgiven herself for what happened that day. As well, I fear I don’t have the full word on the exact details. I was brought in shortly after the incident to learn the spell she made. It is literally Lyra’s living legacy, and something that keeps everypony here safe.”

Twilight nodded, she did not understand completely, but she had been witness to the pain left by such loss. She sat there in silence for a moment before Rarity interrupted.

“Twilight, I think it may be beneficial if you take some time to rest here and study some of our history and magic, it may better prepare you for life among your own kind.”

“Do you have an arcane school with teachers and books?” Twilight asked eagerly.

Rarity looked at Twilight for a second, “No, the only thing we have a local library.”

“Library?” Twilight exclaimed jumping up to her hooves.

Rarity smiled and nodded before standing, though she stopped with a look at Twilight. “How about we go, after I help that wardrobe issues you have.”

“Wardrobe issue?” Twilight asked looking down at her robes.

“Hmm, I’ve worked with worse.” She said as she grabbed Twilights hand and pulled her to the back of the store.

Author's Note

Well, I apologize for the wait on this chapter.

Family

Twilight was brought to a changing room in the back of the store where she was left behind the curtain. Faintly she could hear Rarity humming to herself as she moved about. Twilight stood there, unsure of what to do, until the curtain moved and a hand holding several articles of clothing appeared. Twilight took them and Rarity’s hand pulled back and allowed her time to look over the clothing.

“Don’t worry, Darling. I just grabbed a few things to see how it would look on you. Nothing too flashy for now.” She explained as she moved away from the changing room.

Twilight lifted up one of the dresses after setting the pile down on a chair. For something that Rarity considered not too flashy, the dress held many gemstones. The gems were set in a rainbow flow from the shoulders, down following along the chest and then down over the whole front and ended at the hem of the dress.

Twilight tilted her head and scrunched her lips before setting the dress down. She picked up another one that was a color other than white. It caught her eye as she looked it over, seeing that it was a a mix of midnight blue with swirls of a lighter blue.

With a smile, Twilight moved to remove her robe, before wincing and crying out slightly.

“Twilight, whatever is the matter dear?” Came Rarity’s voice, the silhouette of her figure appearing at the curtain.

“I don’t know. I felt some pain in my side.” Twilight responded uncertainly, trying to lift the garment of her robes high enough to take a look.

“Would you mind if I came in and took a look?” Rarity offered.

Twilight could not see the spot where the pain was coming from, so she accepted Rarity’s assistance.

Twilight stood there, feeling somewhat ashamed as Rarity took a full minute to look, occasionally running a finger her or there. In one particular spot over her lower ribs, Twilight hissed in pain.

“I fear one of the stallions may have been rougher on you than he should have been.” Rarity explained, before her horn lit up, and once more, Twilight felt the tingling of magic over the spot. “I fear I am not very good with healing magic. It would be best to have one of our healers check you. As far as I can tell, you don’t have anything broken, but again, I am not experienced enough.” Rarity commented, sounding apologetic.

“Thank you, Rarity, but I will be fine. It’s nothing more than a little discomfort.”

Rarity stood up and looked at Twilight, as she let her robe down, “If you wish, Twilight. I still think it would be best for you to stay here in town for a little bit.”

Twilight thought it through, perhaps if she did take time to find as much info on this area, including as much history as possible, she may be able to find out anything she may have missed before. With a deep breath, Twilight made her decision and worked to change into the new dress. As she stepped out, Rarity gave her another critical eye.

“It’s very dark, and your fur is already dark to begin with. For any artist, one must choose light colors to go with dark, yet somehow this looks nice. Not as good as I can usually do, but I think it works for you.”

“Well, I am not one for anything flashy, Rarity. The mages only ever wore earthy tones for their robes. That was what I am used to, and its simple and easier to deal with.” Twilight commented before moving over to look at herself in a mirror.

“Out of curiosity, Rarity, who was that red stallion with Bonbon?”

“Ah, that was Big Macintosh. Heir to the Apple family farm. He also has suffered loss. Though, he went from a very outgoing and friendly young thing to, well,” Rarity halted as she thought back. “Big Mac, as we call him, is a very strong and quiet individual. He takes care of others, but none more than his two younger sisters, Applebloom, and Applejack. We are actually still waiting on Applejacks return with the rest of their living relatives for the celebration.”

“Celebration? What are you celebrating?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Why, one of our greatest traditions, of course, Darling.” Rarity explained, giving Twilight a credulous look. That is, until she remembered Twilight was raised among humans. “Oh, dear, I’m terribly sorry. I don’t usually make such faux pas. You see, we are preparing for the Summer Sun celebration. To celebrate our late Princess Celestia.”

Rarity continued giving a short history lesson, but at the mention of Celestia, Twilight turned her mind inward to the memory of her dream.

“I always thought she was just a figure... A myth, like the Mare in the Moon.” Twilight spoke quietly to herself.

Rarity’s ears perked up as she turned to Twilight, “What was that dear?”

“Rarity, is there a picture of Princess Celestia? Or a book on her in your possession?” Twilight asked, turning and placing her hands on Rarity’s shoulders, an expression of fear and apprehension.

“Well, I don’t but you can find all that at the library. Twilight, darling,what has gotten into you? Whatever is the matter?” Rarity asked, concern evident in her voice and face.

“I-I don’t know, but I need to get to the library. Please?” Twilight’s pleading looks tugged at Rarity’s mind, but she nodded in agreement and turned to lead Twilight from her home to the Ponyville Library.

(^-(*,_,*)-^)

“Come on now, I don’ like th’ look o this place. I think we best git goin’.” Came the drawl of an orange pony with long blonde mane and tail.

It looked so delicious, its meat so well developed. It would certainly make a good meal by itself, but this one had been kind enough to bring a greater number of ponies to territory that was unsafe for such delicious prey.

Beyond the view of the road, golden glowing eyes stared out, fangs bared, stomach quietly churning in hunger as they stalked the group of ponies.

His own mouth was salivating as he peered passed the tree, ducking as the orange pony turned in his direction. When a predator stalked its prey, stealth was the greatest weapon for a predator, turning that into a surprise to frighten and harry its prey before taking down the weaker. But this, would not do. It had taken time to gather the clan together, and even longer to get them under control.

So, now they stalked greater gatherings of ponies with their larger more fearsome and more intelligent gathering. It was his goal to allow his clan to feast on the greatest meal they would ever encounter. It was a town of ponies not too far away. They had attacked the town various times and had nearly broken through. They needed an edge, something to draw them out, or open those gates long enough to get in.

When his scouts had informed him of the pony that had left, he had considered allowing a small meal. However, when he left to follow the pony to see it for himself, he came to realize it was going for others to bring back. At that, his mind began to form a plan. A plan that was bound to draw out many of the other ponies for sure.

His fangs bared now, claws scrapping down the bark of the tree as the time was so near, so close. He fought against his instincts to just attack.

The orange ponies ears lifted and turned this way and that as she slowed and began to carefully look around before turning to his direction. She went to take a few steps forward, before the sound of younger ones drew both her attention, and his.

Young ponies, the weakest of the weak. The instincts to rush ahead and feast was growing to be too much, and he knew the lesser intelligence of his clan would be even harder to quell.

“Hey, ya’ll youngins need ta get on back now, ya hear? It’s too dangerous-” The howls of multiple wolves lifted into the air from nearby on the far side of the road.

Grey Fang inwardly cursed his foolish pack, but he could not blame them as many more began to sound off. In seconds the sounds of movement through the brush could be heard closing in on the road from all directions. The fear in the eyes of all the ponies, the very thick scent of their fear was overpowering his mind. Grey Fang lifted his muzzle to the air and bellowed out, turning it to a long winded howl.

“Git, go on, git to town. Ponyville is only around the next bend a couple of miles up the road.” The orange pony commanded, moving to allow the wagon of supplies to go by as well as many of the elderly and younger ponies.

Grey Fang stepped out from behind the tree he had been hiding behind, drool dripping from his mouth as he approached. His eyes met with the eyes of the orange pony, delighting in how they grew almost as large as his palms.

(^-(*,_,*)-^)

“Bonnie,” the deep voice of Big Mac drew Bonbon from her musings turning to see the big red stallion looking up to the tops of the wall to the South of town. His ears were facing forward, a look of concern on his face. They had just seen the new unicorn, and Rarity heading over to the library as they worked their way around the inside of the walls checking to make sure everything was fine. It was rare for the stallion to say anything more than a yes, or a no, well, in his own way. So, hearing his deep baritone of a voice sudden cut through the air, a hint of fear with it immediately clued Bonbon in to something being off.

“Guards, we got trouble, I need a team with me now!” Bonbon called out to a group of stallions and a couple of mares not far away. The stallions looked as though they had been resting, taking time to eat some food they had just picked up. They dropped their food onto the table they had been sitting at and immediately grabbed their weapons and moved to join Bonbon, and Big Mac as the two moved to the hidden door at the back of the town.

The group moved off, Big Mac leading, with Bonbon hot on his hooves. She had made sure, after ducking through the door, to pull up a simple crossbow and load it before they went off into the dark shadow trees of the Everfree forest a few yards away. There, they quickly found the old road that Applejack would have had to take to get home with the rest of the family.

(^-(*,_,*)-^)

Grey Fang moved in, his muscles taught, a growl emitting from his throat. HE and the orange pony circled each other, watching, waiting. When the other ponies had ran off, most of his clan had given chase. He wanted the orange one for himself.

As the Alpha, it was foolish of a couple of the others to try and take her down before he could. A couple attacked, being knocked back as the orange pony ducked and sent the two wolves falling to the ground after bucking one with her hooves into the other. Grey Fang was excited to have a worthy prey, and challenged another of his clan as it tried to take the pony when her attention was on him. He sent the three off into the woods, furious at their disobedience.

It was a few seconds more of the two watching each other, before Grey Fang launched into the air. The pony dodged his body, easily enough, but did not quite dodge the claw. He struck her across the muzzle lightly. She jumped back, blood seeping through the cuts.

The scent of it was like so delicious, he could not help but to lick at the claw, and savor the taste. The orange pony took a hand and wiped some of the blood away, smearing the rest over the fur. He did not mind, it was as if she were flavoring herself more for him. All thought fled his mind as he took a stance and ran forward with a roar.

(^-(*,_,*)-^)

Once Big Mac and Bonbon were certain the Apple family was safe and being taken back to the village, bypassing several fallen wolves, the rest having scattered, they turned back to move further into the forest.

Bonbon was truly concerned as Big Mac was becoming erratic in his behavior. Yes, his family was safe, and he certainly did not have to worry about Applebloom back in town, but his sister, AppleJack was still missing. One of the apple members, Golden Delicious, if she remembered correctly had said they caught sight of a were attacking AppleJack.

After a few more minutes of running, they came round a bend and spotted the things on its knees, blood pouring from its mouth. Big Mac let out a horrified scream, and there, below it, in a smear of blood was AppleJacks well known stetson.

In a rage, Big Mac surged forward, tears flowing freely from his eyes. The beast looked up, and let out a savage growl. Bonbon worked a bolt into her crossbow, cursing herself inwardly for not having taken time to reload before they reached this point.

She struggled, nearly dropping her crossbow in her rush to get it reloaded as Big Mac and the beast went at each other. Claws and fangs swinging and gnashing, fists hurling through the air. As the familiar click signaled Bonbon she had finally loaded the weapon she brought it up, ready to take aim and fire.

This was not to be as she had saw Big Mac had pinned the beast to the ground, his muscular form working with all his might to keep it down while also trying to avoid the snapping jaws.

“Move, you need to move.” She screamed out.

Big Mac made a mistake of hesitating, allowing the beast to bite into his shoulder and push him up and over onto the ground. Bonbon gritted her teeth as she took aim and shot, watching as if in slow motion as the bolt sailed through the air and stuck into the side of the beast. It released its bite from Big Mac and let out a pain filled howl.

Before either could do anything, calls of a couple of the other guards could be heard rushing up from behind. The beast turned its head before running off down the road. She saw a spear land, sticking into the ground as it narrowly missed its target. She and another guard rushed forward to tend to the red stallion.

“Oh, you big idiot.” Bonbon cried out as she skidded to a halt and dropped to her knees.

Big Mac had rolled over and grabbed the now ownerless stetson and held it close. Bonbon did her best to try and talk to him, to ease him in his grief for his sister. He refused treatment as another stallion had tempted to briefly dress his wounds. He was bleeding from the bite of the beast, but it didn’t seem to bother him. The pain of that physical wound paled in comparison to the wound in his heart.

Bonbon could only hold him close and try to comfort him.

It was still several minutes before they could reach the stallion and get him up off the ground. They worked to try and get him to move. The forest was far too dangerous of a place to be at any time, and the sun would be setting soon enough. None wanted to be anywhere outside of town when the sun began to dip below the horizon.

Pink

“You’re majesty, your majesty.”

At the call of a voice, a young woman dressed in fine purple and black silk spun into a dress by a talented tailor five hundred years previous stood. Her black hair falling like a river from her shoulders down to rest just behind her knees, her back framed by hair as well as a lightly fluttering pair of wings, clear one second, and reflecting light in a flowing rainbow color. Her crimson eyes searching through the crowd of fairies before her for the one who spoke out.

With a wave, the crowd parted, revealing a small teal colored fairy. She was out of breath, barely able to continue moving her wings. The fairy queen now understood why she could not see her child since she had fallen to the ground, and sat there, breathing, tears running down her cheeks, a single hand propping her up.

“Teally, what is the matter my child?” She asked, her voice sweet like honey. She moved her wings to lift herself into the air and glide quickly over to the fairy.

Raising her eyes, she looked up to her mother, the queen, “Pinkie, she, she’s gone.”

A collection of gasps and murmurs could be heard all around.

“Calm thyselves,” the queen spoke aloud.

The mass around the two quieted almost immediately. It had been unheard of for fairies of their kind to leave their home in the forest. But all knew Pinkie was, unusual, even for a fairy.

“Tell me child, what happened, where has she gone to?”

(^-(*,_,*)-^)

“What in the world?” Came a woman’s voice. With the widest smile she waved to her. She even tried to wave to the young child, whom had their eyes covered.

“By Celestia’s spirit!” Came the voice of an elder. Turning, another wide smile and another enthusiastic wave to them. The elder grabbed his chest, cheeks deeply flushed a strange red.

This was certainly turning out to be the best decision she had ever made, following those other two she had spotted from that strange place surrounded by animals, grass, and flowers. She had followed, never having seen any like them herself. They were a wonder for her, the animals, not so much. Living in a forest like the Everfree, there were a wide array of animals, even those deemed by her queen as creatures.

A few others screamed and moved as she walked down the middle of the dirt path she was following. She was not sure where she was going as she lost sight of the two when they entered through the doorway into the strange walls of trees.

She had made her way above the top of the wall and was nearly overwhelmed by a sight she had never seen before. More of those strange hairy creatures without wings, just moving about on their own two legs. She flitted down and watched a few carefully, looking at their forms, before she worked to make herself resemble them. The only thing she had missed was the clothing.

“Wow, so many kings and queens, all wearing clothes.” She spoke to herself, still waving and smiling as she passed each one.

She shivered, and hugged her arms over her chest, she missed her wings and wasn;t used to feeling cold. Even between her legs she felt cold, it had to be something to do with the changes to her body. First the two strange bumps grew out from her chest, then a strange hole formed between her legs. They were certainly new parts of her body, she had vaguely recognized to differentiate between male and female.

Among her own kind, she knew she was female, but they had their own ways of being able to tell, though she had to admit, dealing with a male, the “Pixie’s” were always so annoying. The noises they made, the jokes they made, and never kept their hands to themselves when around a fairy. So improper.

Pinkie caught herself as she realized she had stopped walking and was now beginning to frown ever so slightly. With a shake of her head she looked around and smiled again.

“No time with frowns, just smiles, and wide eyes as there is so much new stuff, and new kinds of fairies to meet.” She began to move again, walking in the same direction she had been moving since she came out of hiding. Though, despite not knowing where she was, nor where she was going, she had always known one thing in life. Always move forward and experience the new in life.

“Uh, Bon Bon, we have a problem.”

“What?” Bon Bon asked as she turned to look behind her.

Eyes going wide, and her mouth hanging open ever so slightly, the view she beheld was, unusual even if it was appreciated.

“Well, a pony streaking through town. Though most run, don’t they Big Mac?”

She waited for an answer for a few moments, and was surprised there wasn’t one.

“Big Mac?” Turning, Bon Bon rolled her eyes seeing the large red stallion staring openly at the sight before him.

She tossed a small mostly clean cloth up over his eyes to distract him, before turning and calling over a couple of female troops to help her.

Pinkie halted by a large thing with holes as the scent of something sweet caught her attention. She had moved over to one of the holes where she spotted a brown circle, the scent was coming from. She closed her eyes and moved her nose right over it and breathed in the aroma deeply, seeming to inflate her chest largely. Made even more impressive with the way she had placed her hands on her legs as she bent forward.

As she began to drool and eye it, the hunger in her stomach making strange noises, she heard a voice from behind her.

“Morning. You look a bit cold there, miss. Care to tell us why you’re streaking around?”

Pinkie turned to look to see a heavily armored group of females, the one in front speaking had hair of two colors, pink and blue.

“Ooh, wow, look at you. Are you like, a high queen? And another thing I’ve been wondering is where do you hide your wings under those things?” Pinkie asked pointing at the armor.

“Uh, this is our guard armor, and we don’t have wings. We’re Earth Ponies. The pegasus prefer not to wear armor if they can help it.” Bon Bon explained as she glanced down at her armor.

As she looked up she was more than surprised to see the bare pink mare gone. “Hey, where’d she go?”

“Seriously? You don’t have wings? You are the strangest fairies I have ever encountered. At least you’re not Pixie’s.”

Bon Bon yelped and spun around, drawing he sword as the pink mare had some how appeared behind her.

“When did you-” Seeing the after image of the mare as she once again somehow vanished from right in front of her face.

“I have to ask though, what is this, it smells so good, my tummy is making funny noises.”

Spinning once more, Bon Bon found the Pink mare gently prodding the surfaced of a pie cooling at the window of Sugarcube corner.

“Uh, that’s a pie?”

“Really? You sound unsure. Are you sure you know what this is? Maybe its a scrumdittlyumptious. I can tell you, I know a lot of foods, but this, this is just soo...” Pinkie paused as she stuck her tongue out, moving her eyes to look up trying to think of how to describe the strange anomaly in front of her.

“You eat it, it’s pie, it’s food. Seriously, how do you not know what that is, and armor? Actually, now that I think about it, who are you?” Bon Bon demanded after letting out an annoyed sigh.

“I’m Pinkie,” she said as she grabbed Bon Bon’s gloved hand and shook it so vigorously, some of her armor began to come loose, and bounce her lightly off the ground.

“Wow, you are one strong Earth Pony, the Apple family are the only one’s I have ever known to shake like that.” Bon Bon said, wobbling ever so slightly. “So, Pinkie, have a last name?”

“Pie,” Pinkie responded as she had her attention back on the pie on the window sill, and openly began to drool.

“Pinkie Pie? I thought, nevermind. Look Miss Pie, we can’t have ponies running around without clothes, do you have anything to wear?”

“Nwoph,” Pinkie responded as she turned, pie in hand, and blue stains around her mouth.

“And, I take it, you don’t have any money on you either, to pay for that?”

“What’s that?” Pinkie asked as she loudly gulped down the bite of blueberry pie.

Bon Bon dragged a hand down her face, before turning to two of her followers, “Take her to Rarity’s. I suspect this one needs, some help.” The two she spoke to saluted and began to move Pinkie towards Rarity’s shop.

“I suppose I should go tell Rarity she has company. This is turning out to be the strangest day ever. First that weird purple mare, now this pink one.” Bon Bon could not help but to mutter to herself.

A bit shy, and a dash of brash

Grey Fang and Applejack had each taken turns at one another, and it was unfortunate that Applejack had found herself beneath the creature as it bared it’s teeth. The breath was horrid, making her gag, its drool began to flow from its muzzle like a fountain.

“Go on, then. I’ll make sure I fight the whole way down yer gullet, ya filthy beast.” Applejack spat out.

The creature barked out a mirthless laughter before narrowing its eyes at her, “All the better to enjoy my meal and know I am full.” It growled out.

Once more Grey Fang opened his mouth, ready to sing his teeth into the soft juicy flesh.

The sound of dirt and something heavy moving towards them made him pause. Both sets of ears swiveled just before their heads turned. Grey Fangs eyes widened in Surprise as a blur of yellow and pink swung something hard and thick against the side of his head.

The sound of something cracking could be heard clearly, before everything went black.

“Are you okay?”

Applejack looked up from the crumpled form of the creature to the slightly larger than normal light blue eyes of the Equine right in front of her.

She took a moment to look over her form, of which, her long thick pink hair covered most of all. In fact, it seemed to be pulled up over her shoulders, allowing to cover half of her face, only where one eye was shown, cascading down over the front of her chest and ending around her stomach and thighs. The tips of pink hair curled just the slightest bit.

“Ah, thank ya fer the help, but ah had ‘em where ah wanted ‘em.” Applejack protested slightly.

The girl did not wait as she reached forward and grabbed Applejacks hand and pulled her up to her feet before turning and yanking the Southern Equine into the forest.

“Now, what the hay?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to be near when Grey Fang wakes up.” Was all the girl said as she dashed through the trees.

Applejack ducked a low hanging branch and spotted a jiggling rear near her face. A blush leaped up across Applejacks face as she raised herself further trying to keep from tripping as the mysterious Equine lead her further and further into the forest. Every now and again, a piece of the girls yellow sweater seemed to move, and it took a moment for Applejack to realize she was in the hands of a pegasus.

Stopping to catch their breath after several minutes of running, Applejack looked up once she was sure she could speak.

“If ya don’t mind my bein’ nosy, why aren’t y’all flyin since ya got wings. Yer a Pegasus, right?”

The Equine looked up from her pink hair, a small blush on her cheeks as she fought to catch her breath. “I-I’m afraid of heights.”

Applejack couldn’t help but to stare deadpanned at the pegasus. “Y’all can fly, but yer scared of heights?”

The mare squirmed as if she were being interrogated, she let out a small squeak, “I’m s-scared of many things.” Looking around, she once more grabbed Applejack’s hand and pulled her once more through the trees of the forest.

Applejack didn’t argue as it seemed she knew where she was taking them. Yet, she couldn’t help but to think about her family and pray to Celestia above that they made it to Ponyville.

Before long, the two stopped at a quiet and small brook, where a bridge made a span across the gap along a path to a strange looking house. It was like the house had sprung out from the ground itself, so much so that Applejack swore there was grass on the roof. That was not thatch work on the top of her house, as well there were bird houses everywhere that could be hung up.

The mare walked across the bridge and up the path before stopping at the door and opening it up, stepping aside to invite Applejack in.

“Thank ya, kindly, uh...”

“Oh, I’m sorry, my name is Fluttershy.”

“Ah’m Applejack, nice ta meet ya.” Applejack stood there offering her hand to the pink and yellow mare, as she seemed to try and move behind her hair further, her hands clasped in front of her, trembling. “Er, maybe not,” She spoke quietly.

Applejack took a moment to glance around, to see that there were small holes from where mice could easily hide, as well as many more bird houses and a couple of small cages here and there. The far side of the room was a set of stairs leading to a second story, a couch, and a doorway to another part of the house.

“Listen, sugarcube, I thank y’all fer savin’ me, but ah gotta git to see ta mah family in Ponyville.”

“Oh, well, the town isn’t too far away, but we should wait a little bit anyway. Sometimes Grey Fang or the wolves can be very predatory if they don’t get the prey they want. I can check and make sure there are no wolves around before we head out.” Fluttershy offered.

“Oh, well, uh, alrighty.” Applejack watched as Fluttershy went to her door and opened it carefully, peeking out to see if there was anything there. Once it was clear, she moved out and seemed to kneel down. She stayed that way for a while, before she stood and came back in, closing the door.

“Well, it will be a while before my friends can come back, I do hope they will be okay out there. Would you like anything to drink while we wait, Applejack?”

The two ponies took time to relax as best they could with food, drink, and talk as they waited. At least, the one talking was Applejack, she did not mind talking as she spoke about her family the most, while Fluttershy sat smiling and listening. The room held a couple of small lamps that Fluttershy turned on as the sun began to set slowly for the evening.

(^-(*,_,*)-^)

The sky stretched on forever, the sunlight warm, the air cool as it rushed past. Ahead a large cumulonimbus cloud barred the way as if trying to defy the path as a mountain would to a traveler on the ground. It's wide and tall form reached well above the area.

With a smirk, the mare tilted her body before rolling into a high speed spin, blowing through it as an arrow through paper. A glance behind revealed the slowly growing hole in the mountain of cloud, a few flashes of light as if in irritation as the structure of the cloud was now thoroughly destroyed.

The mare chuckled to herself as she looked back to the front, the light of the sun turning the tops of the clouds around her bright and a mix of orange and red. The mane and tail of rainbow colors, whipped about from the excess speeds. Her mane was always kept short to keep it from getting into her eyes, and keep from just being annoying.

Anything that couldn't peak her interest, keep up with her, or annoyed her, was never cool. Then again, nothing was ever as cool as she was. Smirking once more, her wings flapping as she hurtled through the sky, she began to tilt her wings and body to allow herself to drop below the clouds. The mares form hurtled through the air so fast, she left a trailing stream of rainbow colors behind her.

The clothing she wore was tight fitting and as light as possible, yet sturdy enough to keep from being ripped off at the speeds she flew. She only began to slow after dipping under the clouds when she spotted the quickly growing brown spot in the distance. Ponyville was close and she could be there in almost the blink of an eye.

Almost. The word itself as it rang through her mind was a challenge in itself. She flapped her wings as fast as she could and squinted her eyes as she began to move faster and faster, her body stretching out as flat as she could get herself to be as resistant to the wind as possible.

As she began to pick up speed, her body working its limits, she slowly closed her eyes, trying to draw out the blink as long as possible, before opening them enough to see the brown spot had formed into the town and was about to pass beneath her.

“I call that a win.” She spoke to herself in confidence. As she looked down she spotted a moving white and purple color and grinned. “This day is about to get twenty percent cooler.”

She worked her wings once again to fly off to gain some speed while she worked out the last details in her mind. As she banked, she came back around to face Ponyville from the direction she came from. She moved quick as she flew over the walls and allowed her body to go into a slight dive, like a body going into water, curving at the last moment before hitting the ground.

Ponies near were surprised by the flashing colored windstorm that blew past them.

A second or two later, and the mare was in her arms, and Rainbow Dash pulled up to avoid hitting a building and off into the sky. The startled girlish scream was exactly as she imagined it.

“Well, Rarity, I got you-” She halted as she looked at the mare in her arms. She was purple, but too purple. Rainbow Dash made to look again, and could see clearly, as she slowed her flying to hover a short distance from the town. The mare in her arms was a unicorn, with purple hair with a two tone off color of pink and a magenta color. Her fur was likewise a lighter shaded color, and in the dress she was wearing, Rainbow Dash could see the curves of her form.

“Oh, heh. Sorry, thought you were some mare else.”

“I gathered, would you mind taking me back to town and putting me back on the ground please?” Twilight asked as she looked down to the tree tops below her, her arms holding onto the mare for fear of falling.

“On one condition. Mind going out with me?” Rainbow asked with a wink.

“Go out with you? Aren’t we already outside?” Twilight asked in confusion.

Rainbow Dash looked at the mare in her arms, “Oh yeah, I love the ditzy ones. Top it off, you are really H.O.T hot. So uh, wanna go eat out?” Rainbow asked with a half lidded gaze.

“Okay, I have no idea what you are getting at, but please, you have got to get me back to town please. Look, if you want to go out again, we can. I just need to get back and get to the library.” Twilight almost begged.

“Oh yeah, score one for the Dash.” With that, Rainbow turned and carried her passenger back to the town, she introduced herself to Twilight.

Rarity had been looking to the sky, waiting for their return when she spotted Rainbow Dash, she sauntered over, and crossed her arms at the mare.

“Care to explain what that was about?”

“Oh, uh, hey Rares. I, uh, was gonna pull a small prank, but uh. Yeah.” Rainbow trailed off, putting a hand to her head and rubbing it.

“You know, I have told you time and time again, I will not go out with you.”

“Oh, naw, it’s all good. I got a date with her.” Rainbow explained pointing her thumb at Twilight who had begun to look between the two. “Pretty sure I can convince her to eat out with me.”

“Rainbow Dash!” A small blush of indignation had appeared across Rarities features at the bravado the other mare was showing.

“Rarity, she was only asking for us to go outside and eat a meal together.” Twilight explained, before Rarity stepped over and whispered something in her ear. As she listened, a her face turned a deep bright crimson, her eyes widened, her mouth falling open slightly.

When Rarity stepped back, Twilight turned and in one swift motion slapped Rainbow Dash across the cheek.

“Ow. Oh, hey if your into the kinky stuff I can get behind that.” Rainbow Dash replied with a smirk.

With a frustrated growl, both Rarity and Twilight turned and stormed off towards the library, Rainbow Dash trailing behind them, occasionally flapping her wings. She didn’t want to be on the ground, but she would be willing to hoof it just to keep by Twilight. Or at least, just behind her, watching her figure as she walked.

When they reached the large tree where the sign outside, marked it as the library, Rainbow Dash looked up with a frown.

“Come on, this place? I know a lot better places to hang than here.” She complained.

“Look, Rainbow Dash, I have to look for some real important information, and I don’t have time to play around. All the information I need is inside, so, if you’ll excuse me.” Twilight turned and entered the library.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, before turning to spot Rarity smiling smugly.

“What?”

“Are you willing to follow a mare into the library, with all those books for eggheads?” Rarity asked, teasingly, quoting Rainbows term for book readers.

“Oh, no way in tartarus am I going in there. I have better things to do.”

“Like what?” Rarity challenged.

Rainbow smirked before stretching her wings out and leaping into the air. A little bit of dust was stirred up as she did this before turning and flying away.

Rarity rolled her eyes before she turned and entered the library. As her eyes quickly adjusted to being inside the building with the windows all over to the right side, the light of day shining in across the carpeted floor. She turned to the table that adorned the center of the library and could already see a large stack of books there and Twilight moving about the shelves built right out of the wood of the inside of the tree itself.

With a sigh, Rarity moved to one of the few chairs available there and carefully set herself down.

Author's Note

I want to give a shout out to a fantastic author for helping me with this chapter as much as she did.
I admit, I have been stuck on my stories, with everything going on in rl, and she was willing to listen to my gripping and complaining and tolerate the occasional tantrum I tossed with good humor.
This chapter would never have made it out as it is, without help from, Meep the Changeling.
Meep, you are awesome, and a brilliant author, in my opinion. Thank you for the help. :pinkiehappy: