Identity

The Rainbow Room. That's what most ponies at Ponyville General called one room on the top floor. The reason? A certain Pegasus pony keeps ending up in it. Just like last month, Rainbow found herself in a hospital bed reading a Daring Do book. A task that was somewhat hampered by having less then half of her normal control over one of her hooves.

Ugh! This sucks! she thought, slamming her book shut. Not only did I lose, but now I can't even read because of this stupid hoof!

With an irate groan, she leaned back into her bed and stared at the now familiar ceiling.

That reminds me, that guy had me right where he wanted me. He could've wiped me out in one shot and that'd been it.

For a moment, brutal images of what could've happened if her enemy acted the way she was expecting at the time, sending a chill down her spine.

But...... he didn't. He brought me here to get checked out. After I tried to crush him and pounded the ever loving Celestia out of him, he brought me to the hospital.

A frown crossed her muzzle as her thoughts continued.

Maybe Applejack was wrong. Maybe he's actually a pretty good guy.

Though this thought helped her make sense of the situation, it also brought home the full extent of Rainbow's crimes to her own attention.

Aw horse apples! I really bucked up this time! I just ambushed a defenseless, well, mostly defenseless, pony for no reason! I seriously owe him big time!

She let out a defeated sigh.

"I don't even know his name."

At that moment, the door to her room burst open as a now familiar onyx unicorn staggered in and just as quickly slammed the door shut.

"Damn Doctors are frick'n lunatics!" he panted, eyeing the door like he half expected it to jump and attack him.

Too shocked by the sudden intrusion to do more then gawk at her former enemy, Rainbow struggled to think of a way to get his attention without possibly triggering a rematch. Of course, fate decided to lend her a hoof in the form of having the book sitting on her lap slid off the bed. The fallowed heavy slam alerted Noon to the fact that he wasn't alone in the room.

"Oh! Sorry for barging in like that. I was just trying to find-"

His voice died the second he turned around and spotted the pony in the bed behind him.

"Rainbow Dash."

"Uh........Hi," she said, waving awkwardly.

"Hi," he replied, his posture stiff. "What's up?"

Rainbow raised a brow.

"That's my question."

He sighed.

"Let's just say the docs here have no idea what the word 'boundaries' means. Anyway, how are ya doing?"

Now that she could see that he wasn't going to attack her, Rainbow Dash slipped into a more relaxed state. She may have made an ass of herself, but she still had a reputation to maintain.

"Eh, not too bad. Just a dislocated hoof and some singed feathers," she shrugged. "The Doctors say I'll be able to leave in a couple days. What about you?"

He flinched, then with a more aloof air about him said, "Just a few bruises and a cracked rib. Nothing a few potions can't heal."

This got Rainbow's attention.

"Potions? Why aren't they using healing spells on you?"

"They don't work," he shrugged. "Every time they tried to cast one it shutdown the second it got close to me."

"Wow, that sucks," she frowned. "That means you gotta heal the old fashion way, huh?"

Again, he shrugged.

"If I drink the potions they gave me twice a day, I should fully recover in about three days."

Rainbow let out a sigh of relief.

"That's good."

Noon's features became a little tense as he tilted his head in confusion.

"Why do you care? I thought you wanted me dead."

Now it was Rainbows turn to flinch.

"I-I did! I mean......I'm sorry. My friend told me that a dangerous pony was wandering around town and instead of checking with somepony to make sure she was right I just attacked you from out of nowhere. I know that it doesn't make up for what I did and I get it if you hate me for what I've done but, I'm really really sorry.

Noon's presence was cold and firm, giving the bedridden pony the impression of being in the presence of an irked buffalo deciding whether or not to crush her. Eventually, the dark colored stallion let out an annoyed sigh before giving her a weary smile, the tension melting from his posture.

"I forgive you."

Rainbow stared at him with wide eyed disbelief.

"Really?!"

"Don't get me wrong," he continued. "I'm still ticked off at you, but this whole thing isn't all your fault. If I hadn't lost my temper and egged you on, then we probably would't've ended up here."

"Maybe," she groaned. "By the way, I'm Rainbow Dash."

As she said this, she raised her uninjured hoof towards Noon. With a slight smirk, he hooked his foreleg with Rainbow's, completing the pony equivalent of shaking hands.

"Noon Scribe, but you can just call me Noon."

"Noon huh? Sure you're not related to Twilight?" she laughed.

"Nah," I smirked, pulling back my foreleg. "Trust me. Our folks couldn't be anymore distant even if my parents were dragons."

For the next few minutes, the two of them just sat and talked. Nothing ground breaking unless one found the weather or adventure novels amazing. Eventually, Noon let it slip that he wrote stories in his free time and Rainbow Dash looked like she was about to have a fangasim. As it turned out, the daredevil was also an aspiring author, and due to the grief she gave a certain purple pony about recreational reading, no pony was willing to take her attempted dive into the process of creating literature seriously. Noon couldn't help but sympathise with her. Though most of his work had been fanfictions, it often felt like he was completely alone in his literary exploits with only those who shared his anonymity serving as his only sources of encouragement. It was often lonely being the man sitting behind the curtain, but at the same time it gave the former human a strange sense of peace that only diving into a world of his own making could provide. It was because of this that he made a rather risky move and decided to encourage the prismatic Pegasus.

"Y-You really think I should try to get it published?" she asked, sounding surprisingly timid. "I don't know...."

"Hey," he said poking Rainbow gently in the forehead. "What do ya got ta lose?"

She gave him a slightly annoyed grimace as she rubbed her forehead.

"But what if it flops?!"

"Then it flops," he shrugged. "That's just how it is."

Rainbow was about to snap at the ebon Unicorn but he raised a hoof to silence her.

"Regardless of whether the story becomes a smash hit or it flops and your lucky if only a hoof full of ponies read it, in the end only one thing matters."

"And what's that," she asked, raising a brow.

With that, he flashed her the kindest smile she'd ever seen and said, "That you got it out there. Because now its a part of this world."

After the two bounced ideas for scenes off of each other for a couple hours, Noon decided he should get ready to head back to Twilight's castle. As he was about to open the door, a thought struck him and he turned towards Rainbow Dash.

"Hey, anypony I should watch out for aside from Applejack in the future?"

Rainbow put her good hoof to her chin as she thought for a moment before saying, "None that would give you that much trouble. Aj and I are the only ponies I can think of that could do any real damage to you around here, though I guess Twi and Starlight could knock ya around if you give them reason to."

"I don't think I'll need to worry about those two," he said with a relaxed smirk. "Anypony else?"

"Hmmm, nopony else comes ta mind. I'm cool with ya so so long as ya stay away from AJ you should be okay."

He smirked.

"Thanks. And again, Sorry about everything. Hope you get better soon."

"Ditto."

With that, he pulled open the door with his magic and stepped into the empty hall way beyond.

Well, that went better then I thought it would. He thought, making his way to the stares to the second and first floors. Now if I can just figure out what to do about Applejack.

In silence, he continued his thoughts, only stopping for a moment to collect his prescriptions from the hospital's pharmacy and sign himself out. It was because of this that it wasn't until he was about twelve yards away from the hospital that he noticed five familiar fillies fallowing him. When he did, he turned to face them and as soon as he locked eyes with the group's red bowed ring leader a single thought crossed his mind.

Why do I have a feeling this is going to end in tears?

***

The Ponyville marketplace was a mass of activity, even in the shadow of the mid-afternoon sky. It was in this madness of salesponies trying to urn a few more bits before days end that one would find a very irked light purple Unicorn mare. As she tried to navigate her way through the chaos, Starlight Glimmer thought about what she was going to say to her remedial magic student when she made it to the hospital, most of which involved words most not suited for the ears of younger ponies.

First he wanders off on his own and then he gets in a fight with Rainbow Dash. He even landed himself in the Hospital! Well, at least when I get my hooves on him, I won't have to go very far to have everything put back afterwards.

Though she wasn't entirely sure what she could do against a stallion of Noon's size that could hold his own against a Pegasus as strong as Rainbow, but she figured dropping him into a time portal for a little while could do more then get her point across. As her mind slightly relapsed to its former villainous setting, the sounds of the market stared to dull. It wasn't until she had wandered far enough that the air became still that she stopped her silent musings of torture to get her bearings. She was now standing on a winding road headed in the direction of a large building in the distance that she immediately identified as Ponyville General Hospital. With a sigh, she resumed her march, at the same time deciding that making her ebon student do double the work she had for him originally settle as a suitable punishment for his foolishness( after she chewed him a new one). She hadn't made much progress when something caught her attention. Standing at the side of the road were five fillies. Two she identified as the younger siblings of Applejack and Rarity and one was Rainbow Dash's biggest fan. The other two were a pair of Earth Ponies that looked like they came from higher breeding, especially the one wearing a silver tiara. Standing in front of them was a tall tree with something tied to a branch by a thick rope. Curious, Starlight moved in to get a better look. What she saw made her jaw hit the grass. Hanging like a massive cocoon was an understandably annoyed Noon Scribe. He was wrapped from top to bottom in rope, with the part attaching him to the tree coming out of his back keeping him from ending up upside-down.

What in the name of Celestia?

"So now that we've caught him, what do we do with him?" Sweetie asked, staring at the hanging stallion.

"I say we toss him off of the top of Ghastly Gorge!" barked Scootaloo.

"Scootaloo!"cried a startled Applebloom.

"What?" she growled. "He put Rainbow Dash in the hospital!"

"And just came out of it ," Diamond Tiara stated.

"What's that gotta do with anything?" Scootaloo snapped.

"Maybe that he was getting treated too," Silver Spoon deadpanned, holding up a bag.

"It's still his fault she got hurt!"

Applebloom moved between the two fillies before the argument could escalate any further.

"That's enough!"

After a minute of glares, the three fillies looked away from each other, grumbling some choice words under their breath as they became suddenly interested in the ground beneath them.

"Look Scoots," Applebloom sighed, staring at her orange friend. "Ah get that you'r mad about what happened to Rainbow Dash, but that don't mean we're gonna kill the guy! The plan was ta get him ta leave Ponyville! Not become murderers!"

"Hey," Noon called, startling the five fillies below. "I've got the perfect plan. How's about you all untie me, hoof over my medicine, and get Rainbow's side of the story before things get really bad."

The five fillies stared at the hanging stallion and in response to the flatness of his tone shivered.

"Like what?" Applebloom said, faking bravery.

"Like my new magic tutor giving you all a verbal spanking."

At first they all just looked at him as if he'd lost his mind until he gestured for them to look behind them. The second they saw Starlight, their eyes widened.

"Uh, hi Starlight," Applebloom said awkwardly. "Fancy meeting ya'll here."

"Same," she said stepping closer to the fillies. "What's going on here?"

"Oh! This? well, me and the girls thought we'd help mah big sis get this here Karkadann out of Ponyville. So far we got as far as catchin' him, but we don't know what ta' do from beyond that point."

Starlight face-hoofed.

"Really girls? You too?"

"Just so you know," Diamond started. "Silvy and I had nothing to do with this."

Starlight stared at the two with a raised brow.

"It's true!" Silver Spoon added. "If anything, we were trying to get the three of them to stop!"

Starlight groaned before giving the five of them a hard stare.

"First off, you know it would take more than some rope to hold a Karkadann, right? Even an injured Karkadann's strength is roughly the same as two full grown Earth Ponies, so he's more than capable of braking free. Second, don't you think that if he wanted to hurt you all he wouldn't've done it already? I mean, five little fillies versus one grown war pony does seem like a pretty one-sided match don't you think?"

Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo gaped, as if finally understanding the potential danger they had put themselves into. No matter how nobel they thought they're actions were, it didn't change the fact that it was incredibly stupid for them to try what they did alone.

"Told ya," Diamond sighed.

Starlight looked at Noon and groaned.

"Can you get down here already?"

He shrugged, then with a soft snap, the ropes broke away from him, letting him land on his hooves on the ground a foot below. As the original CMC members stared at him with slack jaws and wide eyes at his display of strength, Noon Scribe walked over to Silver Spoon and held out a hoof.

"Can I have my potions back please?"

"Sure," she shrugged, hoofing over the bag she was holding .

"Thanks."

With that, he draped the bag across his back and with Starlight at his left, the two walked down the path leading back to Ponyville.

"How long were you going to stay like that?" Starlight asked.

Noon shrugged.

"Not sure. Probably before they decided to leave me in the Everfree Forest or something."

She giggled at that.

"I still can't believe they tried to capture you."

"No kidding," Noon chuckled. "By the way, what the heck is a Karkadann anyway?"

Starlight raised a brow.

"You really don't know?"

"Not a clue."

She sighed.

"A long time ago, a tribe of Unicorns lived on the border between the Crystal Empire and Saddle Arabia. These Unicorns possessed immense power even by present standards. This was because their magic no only flowed within their horns, but also in their bones, blood, and skin, giving them near invincibility and unbelievable physical strength. In essence, the Saddle Arabians saw these Unicorns as a race more like rhinos than ponies and thus began calling them 'Karkadanns' a word that translated into 'rhinoceros'. Because of the wild magic running through their bodies,Karkadanns had very violent temperaments and would constantly search for strong enemies to satisfy their aggressive impulses. It was even believed that they drank the blood of their enemies and were cannibals, which only added to the fear associated with them. This eventually lead other pony tribes to look at them with a mix of fear and hate, sparking countless bloody wars. Most of these ended with the Karkadanns winning, a fact that not only expanded their territory, but also made them even more frightening to the surrounding civilisations at the time. The straw that broke the camel's back was when one of their strongest warriors took over the Crystal Empire. When that happened, all of the surrounding territories gathered up all of their remaining strength and attacked the Karkadanns making sure to kill as many as they could down to the last foal. It was called the Battle at the Divide but to Twilight and I, it was no battle. It was a genocide."

At the closing of Starlight's explanation, Noon was silent. Knowing that something so cruel happened in such a generally happy world's history was sobering to say the least. It also explained what Applejack was talking about yesterday, about how he was some kind of "pony-eating monster". It also explained why Rarity was so scared of her. But something even more chilling crossed his mind; earlier, Starlight called him a Karkadann.

"I am one," he said, tone shaky. "Arn't I?"

Sadly, Starlight nodded.

He sighed.

"Great. So then Applejack was right."

"Not quite."

He gave her a confused stare.

"What are you talking about?"

She gave him a bold smile and said, "She may have known what you are, but not who."

"Huh?"

She pointed at his flank.

"In the history books I read, Karkadanns generally came in two groups, warriors and tacticians. Warriors had weapon oriented Cutie Marks while tacticians had quills or scrolls. It was the sign that they were destined to lead and create culture among their peers."

Noon's face started to redden at the unexpected praise.

"W-What are ya getting at?"

"That you're a rare breed of Karkadann. A fighter with a mind and a heart."

Noon's whole head turned bright red, complete with steam rising out of his crescent horn. Starlight giggled at his reaction.

"Plus, it makes it a little easier for me to figure out what your Focus might be."

"Really?" he asked, returning to his normal color and temperature.

She smiled.

"We'll see."

And with that, they walked in calm silence, letting the early-evening shadows wash over them as they strolled towards Starlight's house.