Black and Blueby autobotChaptersThe Arrival - Chapter 1A Dash of Surprise - Chapter 2An Apple Pie Problem - Chapter 3Trouble in the Moonlight - Chapter 4Magic of the Mind - Chapter 5Her Head in the Clouds - Chapter 6Drunk and Disorderly - Chapter 7The Arrival - Chapter 1As Celestia brought down the sun, two Pegasus ponies flew silently high up above the clouds, using the evening thermals to their advantage as they glided across Equestria. As the Moon began to rise, the two ponies slowly descended towards a nearby cloud, the smaller of the two was wearing a bulging saddle bag and the other a jacket with very full pockets. The taller of the two ponies dropped down onto the cloud first, his abnormally large wings causing the white fluffy mass to shift and shake as the power of his wings beat down onto it. He landed with a slight ‘poof’ letting out a contented sigh as he did, the other Pegasus soon followed suit, her smaller wings hardly making a ripple on the clouds surface; but did a wonderful job of messing up her taller companions hair. The sleek, jet black pony simply swished his hair back into place and gave the turquoise Pegasus a look of annoyance, which quickly dissolved into a low chuckle; this was typical behaviour for his older sister. “Alright Sis, we’ll rest up here for a while,” He said, giving his fellow traveller an amused smile, “You look like you need it.” The slightly plumper pony flashed her younger sibling an angry look as she lay down on the cloud, sighing wearily as she did. The younger brother walked to the edge of the cloud, looking out over Equestria, now bathed in Luna’s moon light. His name was Red Eye, a tall jet black Pegasus standing around five feet tall. He was very slimly built, lacking muscles mostly everywhere bar his back and wings. His brown mop-like mane was thick and messy, a simple right to left sweep in his fringe kept it out of his eyes, one he constantly had to swish back up to be able to see. His signature red jacket was probably the second most colourful thing on him, the many pockets filled with personal items. A silver watch was strapped around his left foreleg and glasses were perched on his snout. Apart from his jacket, the only other colourful thing about him was his eyes; his left eye was a bright sky blue, full of life and joy. His right eye however, was what gave him his name, it glowed a deep blood red; pulsating with a dark red light every time a negative emotion passed through him. His red eye was no birth accident or mutation, the cause was much greater than that. Red eye, throughout his childhood, had a habit of bottling up negative or unwanted emotions he didn’t want to appear on the outside. Over a period of many years the emotional pressure within his mind grew to dangerous levels, causing violent outbursts and signs of insanity; like extended rants with himself, and having moments of intense rage. This gradually got worse until one day, he simply snapped. In his final years of education one pony pushed him one step too far, causing him to lose control of everything. He doesn’t remember what he did that day as his body wasn’t in his possession, but on that fateful day a second personality was born inside of him, taking up its home in the very depths of his mind. When he awoke the following day he was left with an eye burning red as hell itself and a demon to go with it. Now at the age of sixteen, he is a much calmer and more collected pony, on the outside at least. He and his older sister were runaways, they left home many months ago, for reasons they would rather keep to themselves; they had taken the only essentials they needed, and had set off in search of a better life elsewhere. Red Eyes’ older sister, Soul Seer, was a short turquoise pony, boasting a two-tone purple mane with matching tail. Her dark pink eyes glowed brightly in the dark, the dark slits that were her pupils finished of her devilish look. Now when I said she was a Pegasus, that wasn’t strictly true. Technically, Soul Seer was an Alicorn. She was born into the world as a unicorn, and happily lived like one for many years, until Red Eye was born. He was born a Pegasus through and through, a very unique and different one too. His wings were not the feathery ones you get on any other Pegasus, they were bat wings. Overly sized bat wings that had little use to the pony at a young age, as they were way out of scale for his body. As Red Eye stands now looking out over the Equestrian sky, his wing span is a whopping thirteen feet, a six and a half foot wing on each side of his back. His back muscles were the strongest in his body and could make great use of his massive wings. When Soul Seer had seen her little brother’s gift, she became jealous of him, soon she didn’t seem so amazing or special to her parents. This drove her crazy for years while Red Eye grew up, until one day she too lost it. Looking though books of old dark magic she found a spell that could quite literally copy the body part of whoever the spell was cast upon, and place it onto the caster. After many months of trial and error she mastered the spell, and on her little brothers tenth birthday, she used it. What she didn’t bet on, however, was how painful it would be to have your body completely remake parts of itself. After she cast the spell on the sleeping birthday pony, she stumbled down to the basement where she spent the rest of the night, screaming in agony as her body gave her the wings she so badly wanted. From that day on, Soul Seers life was sent spiralling downwards; she was now a fake Alicorn, which in itself was practically a crime. She had mastered a powerful dark magic spell before anything else, which sent her magic abilities into the darker realms of the art. The mixture of these things and many social and mental pressures drove her to emotional instability for a long while, but with the help of her younger brother, Soul Seers life became somewhat stable during her mid teens. Now at the age of nineteen, she is a wise, life hardened pony with a warm heart of stone, but still retaining the maturity of seven year old. Red Eye surveyed his surroundings from the high altitude cloud; leaning over the edge of the fluffy mass to look down and see what was below him. He stared into the darkness of Luna’s night, noticing lights down on the ground, most probably a town or village. Reaching down into one of his jacket pockets and pulling out a tightly folded piece of paper, he placed in on the cloud and opened it up, revealing a small detailed map of Equestria, the glow from his eyes actually lighting the map enough for him to see. After a few minutes of calculations and hard thinking he figured out their rough position. They were very close to the town of Ponyville, a very famous town, know for being the home of the legendary Elements of Harmony, the famous six ponies who saved Equestria on many occasions. He refolded the map and placed in back into its pocket on his jacket, making many mental notes as he did, deciding to discuss this with Soul Seer. He turned back around to begin sharing his thoughts with his older sister, but he quickly realised there was no point, as he looked over to her he could clearly see she was sound asleep, saddlebag still slung over her back. Red Eye, the black hearted, demon infested bat winged Pegasus ‘daawww’ed hard at the sight of his slumbering sibling, who was probably tired from the numerous long flights. Red Eye smiled to himself and trotted over to Soul, removing his jacket as he did, he then proceeded to carefully remove Soul’s saddle bag and set it down out of the way alongside his jacket. When he was content she was comfortable, he lay down next to his snoozing sister, opening his left wing to its full six and half foot span to drape it over Soul Seer. Red Eye snuggled up to her and pulled his wing tight to form a warm blanket over his older sister and sighed, placing a small loving kiss on Soul Seers head and settled down to join her in the realm of sleep. A Dash of Surprise - Chapter 2Red Eye was awoken from his peaceful slumber by his keen sense of hearing, his mind was slow and was failing to register any thoughts, simply wanting to go back to sleep. After a few seconds he soon began to realise that the sounds he was hearing were the beating of wings, but not of bat wings, this was the sound of normal Pegasus wings! Alarm bells rang out in his head as he tensed up, not wanting to move an inch in case the unknown visitor wasn’t too friendly. He heard a soft ‘fwump’ as somepony landed on the cloud; Red Eye was on full alert now, the morning slowness gone from his mind as he franticly tried to find a way out of this situation. He heard hoofsteps on the cloud as the visitor came closer and with a confused voice, asked a question Red Eye had dealt with many times before, even if the now apparent mare was talking to herself. “What in the hay kind of wings are those?” the visitor said in a slight whisper, confusion plaguing her voice. It was now or never Red eye thought. “They are bat wings” he growled, opening his eyes and staring at the intruder, a cyan mare with a long rainbow mane and matching tail. There was doubt about who it was; the element of loyalty herself, the fastest flyer in Equestria, and the cockiest little minx he had ever heard of; Rainbow Dash. She jumped at Red Eyes’ sudden response, like every other pony he had met unintentionally; she stared in horror at his red eye which by now was glowing a little brighter than usual. Red Eye stood up; cracking his neck as he did so, his left wing slowly and gently removed itself off of Soul Seer as it returned to his side. Rainbow Dash took a few steps back at the sight of this scary new pony; he sure didn’t look like the friendly type to her. Red Eye then stretched out his wings to their full span; his joints cracking as they did every morning, Rainbow Dash’s jaw hit the floor as she stared in awe at the sheer size of his wings, which simply added to her fear. “Now Miss Dash, why have you woken me up? It’s not nice to come bothering sleeping ponies, didn’t you know that curiosity killed the cat?” Red Eye said to the cyan Pegasus, his voice low and had a growling tone to it. Rainbow Dash was staring at him, mostly frozen in fear, but she had a reputation to keep up. She shook herself out of her fear stricken state and puffed out her chest, her cocky voice returning to her, even if it was a little shaky. “First off, I’m not a cat!” Red Eye rolled his eyes, “Second, you’re sleeping on a cloud I’ve got to clear this morning, so I was simply coming to ask you to move, I wasn’t bothering you.” She sounded offended at the thought of being bothersome. “Anyway, how the hay do you know my name?” She asked, finally giving up the effort to make herself look more important and letting her chest come back down. Red Eye replied simply with a sigh. “Well, there is only one Rainbow Dash after all.” At this statement the cyan pony once again struck a dramatic pose and Red Eye could clearly see she was about to go off on one of her speeches. No chance! “Don’t even think about getting all big headed missy!” he snorted at her. She was taken aback by this and soon stood still again, her head hanging slightly. It was at that moment a small squeal emanated from behind Red Eyes left wing, a squeal he knew too well. Soul Seer, to put it simply was a Rainbow Dash fan-mare. A BIG fan! She was pretty much obsessed with the super sonic Pegasus and had been madly in love with her for the majority of her teenage years. Now she was metres away from the very same pony and Red Eye was pretty sure she was trying to contain herself behind his wing. “Well, since she’s awake I may as well introduce us,” He said calmly this time, dropping his threatening act for his sister’s sake and putting on a smile. “My name is Red Eye,” he said winking his right eye to emphasis his name, “And this,” he gestured to Soul behind his wing, “This is my older sister, Soul Seer.” he dropped his folded wing revealing the love struck pony, and as she quickly realised she was no longer hidden, she squealed once more as her gaze met that of her life long crush. Red Eye thought it best he explained quickly, before things got awkward. “Miss Dash, I assume you have met many of your biggest fans over the years?” She nodded, looking thoughtful. “Well take them all, add them together, times it by twenty, and you have my sister.” Dash’s eyes widened and looked at Soul Seer again, getting another squeak out of the fan-mare. Soul's breath hitched as she made eye contact with Dash, and feeling her cheeks redden, she cast her gaze to the cloud, fearing coming off as too much of a fan on first meeting. Rainbow Dash was pretty much speechless, Red Eye thought it be a good time to bring this meeting to a close. “Anyway Miss Dash, we will let you get on with your duties, we will be gone off this cloud in a few minutes, sorry to have gotten in your way and nice to meet you.” He bowed politely and the weather pony seemed to accept this. “Well, it was um… nice meeting you Red Eye,” she replied opening her wings, still sounding rather unsure of the jet black Pegasus. “You too, Soul Seer,” she smiled at her, which simply made Soul blush more furiously. Dash turned to go, but not before saying in a cool manner, “Oh and please, call me Rainbow Dash” and with that, she bolted away into the sky. “Bucking show-off,” Red muttered as the cyan Pegasus zoomed away. He turned to Soul and frowned at her, "I don't even need your power to know what you’re thinking. You're redder than a sunbathing tomato." Red teased his older sister; Soul just glared at her younger Brother and sighed, turning her head in the direction Dash had just zoomed off in. "She's so perfect, Red. Why did I have to be in this state when I met her?" She motioned with her hoof to her overly wacky bed hair, and tried in vain to smooth it out. Red simply laughed, shaking his head; typical mare. “Just be thankful you had bed hair,” he said looking at Souls effort of sorting her mane. “It hid your horn well; if Rainbow Dash had noticed it we’d both in the shit,” He pointed out. “Anyway, we’d best get off this cloud and go find somewhere to eat, I’m pretty sure Ponyville will have a decent café.” Red walked over to the pile of items he removed the night before, slipping into his red jacket and readjusting his watch and glasses. He then picked up the saddlebag and turned to Soul, who was still staring into the sky, then frowned and proceeded to throw the bag at the back of his sister’s head, making a perfect mess of her mane… which she had just fixed. Soul glared at her Brother again and slipped on the saddlebag, then not even bothering to give him another look she pranced to the end of the cloud and jumped off, snapping her wings open as she dived to slow herself, and turned back to Red. "Come on then, slowpony!" she yelled, closing her wings a fraction to start descending again. Red simply shook his head and chuckled to himself. “Pft, amateurs!” he said as he leaped backwards off the cloud, not even bothering to open his wings. He tucked in his legs and plummeted after his sister, and after quickly gaining speed he plotted his revenge. As he approached the slow flying Alicorn he open his wings ever so slightly to allow him to angle himself just enough so he would pass her, right in front of her snout! He rocketed towards her at a blistering pace, he was metres away when he let rip a “Yeeeaaahhhooo” as he roared past her nose and shot down towards the ground. Soul growled and angled herself away from her Brother so that he didn't end up killing them both, then in retaliation closed her wings abruptly and shot towards the ground, her eyes never leaving the form of her descending Brother. She noticed him open his wings casually, and grinned at herself, thinking she'd finally beaten her Brother. What she didn't take into account however, was the form of the rapidly approaching ground. She snapped her wings open a fraction too late, it only slowed her a little bit as she came crashing into the ground, causing dirt to fly out everywhere. Red swore loudly and shot towards his sister, his wings accelerating him over to her in seconds. With a powerful thrust of his wings he blew the dust away and looked down at Soul, now unconscious and badly bruised. Red eye wasted no time in thinking of a plan of action, he folded his huge wings as best he could and took Soul onto his back. Once he had her balanced correctly he turned towards Ponyville, the only thing on his mind right now was his sisters well being. “Please for Celestia’s sake, let there be a hospital!” An Apple Pie Problem - Chapter 3Red had been trotting for a few minutes now, trying to balance speed with a smooth ride for the injured pony on his back, and he was constantly looking back at his sister scanning for any sign of her awakening. Unfortunately, he looked back at just the wrong moment; his forelegs stumped an annoyingly placed rock, sending him and his injured cargo barrel rolling along the road. After flipping over a few times Red stopped in a heap on the road, his thoughts were still fixed on Soul, ignoring his own pain he pushed myself of the ground and looked around for his sister; he was surprised when a groaning voice came from behind him. “Well,” the familiar voice began, Red spun round to see Soul pushing herself back onto her hooves “I suppose that’s one way of waking me up, you may be a great flier but you suck at trotting.” Red simply sighed in relief and threw his forelegs round his big sister neck and hugged her tightly. Soul wasn’t really a cuddly pony most of the time, but for her little brother, she made exceptions. After a quick hug the two ponies checked themselves over, identifying their various cuts and bruises. “Well, suppose a healing spell is in order, eh?” Soul said with a small smile. Red nodded and with that acknowledgement, Soul closed her eyes and concentrated on the simple yet effective healing spell. Her green horn glowed as a black aura surrounded the two ponies with Red flinched in pain as he always did when Soul used her magic on him. After a few seconds the magic faded, and the siblings stood feeling refreshed and painless. For a pony who hit the ground head on at high speed, Soul had come off very well, even if she hadn’t have used the healing spell. Soon they were on their way towards Ponyville, and with their stomachs growling they took to the sky, Soul taking a running jump to get herself airborne, but Red however simply spread his wings and with one huge flap; he was a good ten feet off the ground; a true testimony to his massive wings. Happy to be flying again, the pair soon made it to the outskirts of Ponyville. It really was a great looking town, the old style buildings and sort of scattered structure layout making it seem just that little bit more perfect. They could see ponies going about their daily business below them, and with so many bright colours, it made Red and Soul both blink furiously. That was going to take some getting used to for them both. Soon Red spotted a nice looking café and flew close to Soul. “That looks like a good one,” he said pointing down to the quaint looking café below them. Soul smiled and nodded, “Make sure you cover your horn up Soul, best to keep a low profile.” Soul nodded in agreement, adjusting her hair so her horn was covered sufficiently. Red snapped shut his wings and dived sharply; he did want to keep a low profile but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to make an entrance. Soul decided it best not to try and follow this time, simply gliding peacefully down toward the ground. “Go get ‘em little bro,” she whispered to herself as Red shot towards the ground, his speed ever increasing. Red grinned as the time came near, he was about rooftop level, many ponies had already noticed him plummeting towards the ground and were staring up at him in horror and surprise. Finally Red was but metres from the ground, he gritted his teeth and threw open his wings, putting all his strength into pushing them forward; basically he was simulating a giant air brake. He hit the ground with a controlled ‘thud’, the huge blast of air from his braking kicking up dust, dirt and all pretty much everything in its path, including a couple of fillies. When the dust had settled, Red stood tall and proud, wearing a harsh expression on his face but with a slight grin in one corner of his mouth. All the nearby ponies stared in shock at the black Pegasus, many who had fillies with them ushered the youngsters away. Moments later Soul landed calmly next to Red, trying to contain herself at the ruckus Red had caused, the two shared a quick look and then smiled. They found an empty table outside the café and made themselves comfortable, then after removing their baggage they relaxed in their chairs. Red looked his sister in the eye, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “Awesome?” he simply asked with a chuckle, Soul giggled and nodded. “Very awesome!” She replied happily. After a slightly awkward conversation with a very nervous waitress, the pair had order their food, what would now be classed as brunch as it was approaching midday. As they waited for their food they discussed their plan of action, considering the many towns they had been through, Ponyville seemed like the most welcoming and stable, so sticking around for a while seemed like a good idea. “I reckon,” Red began taking a bag out of one of his many pockets, “With the bit we’ve got, we should be able to rent a flat or something. It won’t keep us forever so we will both have to find jobs… joy.” He finished with a sigh, opening the bag full of bit and pouring out the small gold coins onto the table. “Count those for me would you, Sis?” Red asked as he stood up off his chair. Soul shot him a confused look, “I’m gonna go check the town notice board… where ever the damn thing is.” Soul simply nodded and began counting up the bit as Red began walking towards the centre of town. As Red wandered slowly towards the centre of Ponyville, there wasn’t a single pony he passed that didn’t do a double take in his direction, he really did stick out like a sore hoof. He hardly even noticed though, as he was used to being stared at like some sort of monster, after all he considered himself a monster so he didn’t mind. He came into what seemed to be the town square; there were many more shops here and a lot more ponies, thankfully they quickly moved out of Red’s way when they saw him approaching. Red couldn’t see a notice board anywhere nearby so he decided to ask one of the stall owners, and one in particular caught his attention. It was soon evident why it had, behind a small army of apples was no other than the Element of Honesty herself… Applejack. Red smiled to himself and set off towards the stall, and upon arriving he could see that the earth pony was busy with some customers, so he simply waited at the side until she was finished. “Y’all hav’a great day now!” Applejack said as the last of her happy customers went away; she turned around briefly as Red walked up to the stall. “Pardon me miss” Red said as politely as possible, the earth pony quickly turn back around probably expecting another colourful pony to be waiting for some more of great tasting apples… instead she was met with a tall, jet black Pegasus with some weird wings and different coloured eyes! “Sorry to interrupt you miss,” Red continued, “But could you tell me if this town has a notice board? I’m looking for information on renting a flat.” Applejack stared at the frightening looking pony; she had never seen him before, or anypony like him for that matter! She straightened her hat and pulled herself together, putting on her best smile she replied with her usual welcoming voice. “Sure is partner, s’over there by the town hall,” pointing a hoof towards the town hall, which ironically Red would of easily seen if he had flown over. Red grunted at his own fail but quickly smiled and thanked the earth pony for her help and began to turn away, he didn’t get far before Applejack stopped him. “Hold up’a sec there.” Red turned back around raising an eyebrow at the stall owner, “I ain’t ever seen ‘ya around town before, so I’m guessin’ ‘ya new.” Red nodded slowly, “Well let me be the first ‘ta welcome ‘ya to Ponyville, I’m Applejack, here hav’a apple, on the house!” With a flick of her tail, Applejack sent a bright apple Red’s way, who caught it in his mouth and devoured it with three bites. He sighed contently, thinking of the food he ordered at the café waiting for him. “Thank you Applejack,” Red said, slowly beginning to spread his wings, Applejack spoke once more as he did. “Oh yeah before ‘ah forget, since ‘ya new in town, watch out for a pink pony!” Red had heard about the party pony before, he wasn’t going to be caught out by her anytime soon. Red chuckled, not wasting anymore time he flicked opened his wings and grinned at Applejack. “Don’t worry Applejack, Pinkie will regret it if she annoys me… or my sister.” With that, Red shot off into the sky, making a mess of Applejacks hair and blowing her hat off her head as he did. He didn’t look back as he flew towards the town hall, quickly spotting the notice board in front of it; he dived down and hit the ground directly in front of the board. He scanned over it, finally finding what he was looking for he plucked the article off the board and zoomed back into the sky. Minutes later Red touch down back at the café and swiftly took his seat. “Found anything useful?” Soul asked with a mouthful of pie, which came out something like “fmougnd anygyhingf umsdfhulf?” Red simply beamed and nodded, understanding his Sister’s lack of eating manners, and put the piece of paper in front of his sister, who took a glance between mouthfuls. Red looked at the table realising there was an empty plate next to Soul… yet she had another full plate of Apple pie. It soon became clear to him what she had done, Red glared at his older sibling, his right eye glowing ever brighter. A pie-filled grin grew on Soul’s face as she noticed Red glare at her, but she was not ready for what came next. “BITCH, YOU ATE MY PIE!” was all that was heard before Red Eye threw himself at Soul. Trouble in the Moonlight - Chapter 4The walk from the café to the apartment was a quiet one, after the mini brawl the two siblings had made a quick retreat back into the centre of town, Red leading the way as he had the address to the apartment he had found on the notice board. Not a word had been spoken between the two after the fight over the pie, they were not exactly angry at each other, just mildly annoyed. “That was your fault, you know that, right?” Red eventually spoke up, his voice more a growl than actual speech. He flashed his sister a look of disapproval, she merely stared daggers right back at him, her pink snake-like eyes would pierce the soul of any other pony, but not Red. “Yeah well,” Soul began, a smug look growing on her face, “I still ate your pie!” She retorted with a laugh. Red after a moment of seriousness could not help but join in as the silence was finally broken between the two. They trotted on towards the apartment which had turned out to be on the edge of the town centre, which pleased both ponies enough to go for it. They soon came to the address, a small two story building with a thatched roof and simple looking doors and windows. It was pretty much your average Ponyville structure. Red knocked on the door, after a few seconds waiting the door was opened by a mint green unicorn; she jumped slightly at the two frightening looking ponies at the door but soon recovered and adopted the typical Ponyville attitude. “Hello, can I help you two?” The unicorn asked politely, ending with a smile. Red nodded and asked about the free apartment, showing the mint green pony the flier. She nodded and smiled, inviting the two into the hallway, Soul closed the door behind her as they entered the small room. They quickly learned the unicorn names was Lyra Heartstrings and she lived on the bottom floor with her roommate Bon Bon. The apartment upstairs had been empty for a while so the two had decided to buy it and rent it out to other ponies, but no pony had showed interest since they had bought it… until now. After introductions were over, Lyra took the two ponies upstairs and showed them round the small apartment. There were two small bedrooms on the far side of the apartment from the door, with a bathroom separating them; the rest was large open space consisting of the kitchen, dining room and living room, complete with everything anypony would need for simple living. After a quick look around, the siblings looked at each other and nodded, this was just what they needed, cheap and simple, so Red took the bag of bit out of his pocket and worked out a price with Lyra. After a monthly rent was agreed, Lyra went downstairs with Soul to sort out paper work and keys, Soul having to do this as she was the ‘adult’ of the two. While Soul was downstairs, Red finally had chance to have something to eat, after checking the two bedrooms, he went for the one on the left, his large window facing out towards the mountains. He slung his jacket onto the bed and turned to go, he didn’t get far however as a clanging sound made him turn back around. He looked over at his jacket, on the floor just beside the bed lay a shiny metal object he instantly recognised to be his custom made dagger. Red sighed and proceeded to pick up the blade in his mouth and place it on the bedside table, the straight thick blade shining brightly in the afternoon sunshine shining through the window. After a moment of staring at his only prized possession, he once again picked up the blade with his mouth and went back into the kitchen area, tossing and twirling the blade with his muzzle as he trotted through the apartment. He reached into Souls big saddle bag and pulled out a dozen shiny red apples, putting his dagger down on the worktop he casually began eating away at the fruits, a contented smile on his face. Soul soon returned, smiling happily as she swung the key around her horn, she was relieved to be able to show her Alicorn form instead of constantly having to check her hair to hide her horn. She shut the door and locked it, flinging the keys onto the table with her magic and flopping down onto the sofa with a sigh. Red tossed her an apple and sat down next to her, the weight of the day finally pressing down on him. “Sweet Celestia, what a day!” The Alicorn groaned, slumping into the soft sofa and eating away at the apple, the black Pegasus following suit and the two soon shared a joint power nap on the sofa, ending up snuggled against each other as they always did when they slept alone. Old sibling habits were hard to break after all. They awoke hours afterward to an apartment bathed in Luna’s moonlight, Red quickly got up and starting stretching himself out and shaking himself awake. Soul slowly got up from her comfy spot and made her way over to the other bedroom, then taking a look inside, she decided it was adequate and dragged her saddle bag inside to begin the ‘process’. Red wasn’t going to stick around for all the squealing and screaming; instead he went back to his own bedroom and put on his red jacket, sliding his dagger back into its sheath on the inside. He then proceeded to open his window as far as it would go; he looked out into the night sky and took a lung full of evening air. The black Pegasus climbed out of his window and let himself drop to the floor, slowing his fall with his wings. He looked up at star filled sky and smiled, glad to be out in the cold night air once more, he stretched out his wings and with a few powerful flaps, shot off towards the moon. Nopony would be able to notice Red Eye up in the night sky, only as a shadow or spectre floating through Luna’s night, nopony that is, except Luna herself. Red soared high in the sky, gliding along silently with a small grin on his face, enjoying his time alone with his thoughts. He flew higher still as his wings caught a night time thermal, and took a deep breath as the high altitude made breathing slightly more difficult. He looked down on the moonlit town of Ponyville, the town he could call home, for now. He looked at the various buildings and shops that he would need to know and explore, the many ponies he’d need to know and the many paths leading to various other part of Equestria he would need to understand. He let this thought roll over in his mind for some time, until his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar feeling. The fur on his neck stood on end and his ears began to twitch and shake… somepony was behind him. Red flew on regardless, he was sure he was being followed, but he wasn’t going to let his follower know that, he began flying a circular pattern over the apartment, trying to regain as much height as he slowly brought his head down to his jacket and silently took his dagger from it, gripping it tightly in his mouth. He calmed his nerves and then took a lung full of air through his nose. He suddenly pulled up sharply, a gasp emanated from somewhere behind him as he looped the looped over his follower and was now right above them, without second glance he dived into the pony and placed the dagger to their neck. The black pony froze solid, apart from the constant beat of its wings. Red and the mystery follower were now hovering high in the sky; one now had a rather sharp dagger to their throat too. “It is never wise to sneak up on a pony like that,” growled Red Eye, still not looking up at the pony he had caught. “Now, who are you and what do you want?” he ordered, he didn’t get the answer he had prepared for, however. “My name,” the pony replied with an accent only one pony in the entirety of Equestria had, Reds eyes widened as he looked up with increasing horror, “Is Princess Luna of the night and what I want, is for to take your hooves off me, right this instant!” The royal Camelot voice cut through Red like a knife through butter. He knew he had screwed up big time here and the best idea was to run… now! He took a breath and snapped shut his wings, causing him to plummet towards the ground at an ever increasing speed. As he fell, he put away his dagger and focused on building up as much momentum as possible, but as silently as he could. He could hear the beating of wings behind him as the princess had seemed to have given chase; Red cursed himself as he rocketed downwards, smashing through layers of cloud. Soon the ground started to come into view and Red readied his wings for what was going to be a rather scary manoeuvre. “This is how you do it sis” he muttered to himself as he reached rooftop level, with all of the muscle power he had he threw open his wings to their full extent, catapulting him forward mere centimetres off the ground. The sound of flapping wings soon disappeared and Red made a B-line for the apartment, arriving quickly back through his open window and slamming it shut. After taking a couple of sharp breaths, he collapsed onto his bed, only having the energy to fling off his jacket and glasses. He lay there panting; eventually laughing at his own misfortune. Soul soon poked her head round the door of his bedroom. She looked at her little brother, laying there laughing like a madpony, and stepped inside to look over him with a bemused expression. “Rough night?” she asked simply, poking the black Pegasus in the side which caused him to come out of his maddened state. He turned to her and nodded meekly. “Yeah you could say that…” he replied, his eyes suddenly becoming very hard to keep open. “Well I’m sure you’ll tell me all about it in the morning,” she said softly, and in a moment of loving that Soul did not show often, she tucked her little brother into his bed and kissed him lightly on the forehead, sending him to sleep almost instantly. She silently left the room, shutting the door with a quiet click and returned to her own room, to head to bed after a long, LONG day. Magic of the Mind - Chapter 5Soul was dreaming of Rainbow Dash as she always did, happy in her new bedroom covered in the posters and memorabilia of the one pony she obsessed over, murmuring various parts of her fantasies as she slept through the morning sun. Unfortunately this didn’t last long as she was soon knocked out the depths of her minds by a loud ‘Thud’, quickly followed by a, “BUCKING HELL THAT HURTS!” coming from the other bedroom. Soul merely rolled over in her bed and once again pursued her Rainbow coloured thoughts. “Next time, don’t try to murder a Princess… moron,” she mumbled to herself, slipping back to sleep. Soul had gathered what Red had done the night before by the amount of shouting the Princess of the night had done over the town. As Soul slept on, Red was dragging himself off the floor, pushing himself back onto his hooves, his back and wings aching horribly from the night before. The G-force that he had brought upon himself running from Princess Luna had been higher then he had expected, most probably doing some damage to his back and wing muscles. Finally back on his hooves, Red gingerly tried to move his wings into various positions, each one bringing a new degree of pain to him. He grunted and growled as he brought his wings back into a comfortable folded position. He cursed himself and the Princess of the night under his breath as he walked out of his bedroom and into the bathroom, spending a good fifteen minutes showering and generally getting himself clean and refreshed. After coming out the bathroom looking and feeling squeaky clean, Red put on his jacket and proceeded to poke his head round Souls door, checking if she was sound asleep. Red considered waking her there and then, but then thought better of it. He gently closed the door to Soul’s bedroom and looked at his watch, it was getting onto eleven o’clock. Soul’s body clock would kick her out of bed around midday if she didn’t wake before hand, so Red had an hour to himself. His next thought was breakfast, but that thought quickly dissolved as he realised there was no food in the apartment. Red at least now had something to do; he grabbed the bag of bit from the table and the keys to the apartment, slipping both into his jacket pockets. He quietly left the apartment and headed down the stairs into the small hall, as he past the door to Lyra and Bon bon’s door he thought he could hear… strange noises coming from inside, his curiosity very quickly got the better of him as he pressed one of his ears against the door. His eyes widened as he realised what he was listening to, without a moment’s hesitation he sprung back from the door and quickly made his way outside, an image now plastered on his mind. He shook his head as he wandered towards the town square, hoping he’d find the right shops or stalls, also hoping he wouldn’t run into anypony. It had been a good two hours since Red has left the apartment and he was now carrying a good few bags on his back, all being held into position by his wings, which were still in a bad condition. He had been wandering around now that the shopping was done, simply learning where shops were in the town for future reference. His mind happily wandered as he did so, his attention was elsewhere as he wandered further still through Ponyville, still attracting the stares he did when he and Soul has first arrived. His mental wandering came to an abrupt end when a familiar groggy voice grumbled into his mind ‘You could have at least left me a note or something,’ said a very morning-sounding Soul. ‘Well good morning to you too,’ Red replied sarcastically, trying to keep his chuckles within his mind. One of the major perks of Souls black magic was Telepathy, a very handy tool for social situations. Due to the two being siblings, the distance of which the magical mental communication could travel was unlimited, thanks to that special bond all brothers and sisters have with each other. Soul’s Telepathy was strong as it is, but even more so when she concentrated, with enough focus the pair were sure she could contact Celestia herself. This focus however was not needed when talking to her little brother, Telepathy to the two was second nature and required little to no effort to do so. Red was also the only pony Soul knew that could block out her out of their mind, she never properly knew why, but she was pretty sure it had something to do with the sibling connection and what was contained in his red eye. ‘I’ve got breakfast and a good amount food to keep us going,’ Red said trying to sound cheerful, Soul never was a morning pony… even if it was half way into the afternoon. ‘Good’ she replied, sounding happier at the concept of food ‘Would you mind teleporting this lot back to you? I need to do something about these wings…’ Soul simply flashed him an image of her nodding, then Red felt the weight of the bags on his back lessen, as a black aura surrounded them, then they disappeared in a flash of white. ‘Cheers sis, I’ll be back home soon, have something ready by the time I do plleeaassee?’ He didn’t get a proper reply from her, merely a grunt. ‘Home’ Red thought to himself, ‘feels weird calling this place home… yet strangely comforting.’ The thought floated around Reds head as he wandered on. He didn’t get too far however before an image of a freshly made apple pie was plastered forcefully into his mind, Soul standing proudly next to it. Red could see this was a clear attempt to make him jealous, so he merely replied, ‘Bitch, if that ain’t for me, you can kiss goodbye to your Dash plushie collection.’ Before Soul could mentally rip him to shreds, he booted her with all his might out of his head. He soon came to a posh looking building near the edge of the town square, the front was very clean and well kept, the sign out side simply read ‘Ponyville Spa’. Red looked at the building with curiosity, thinking that maybe, just maybe there was somepony in there that could do something about his wing muscles. As much as he hated social places like these, anything was worth a try to be flying again. He bravely wandered inside; as he walked through the glass door his senses were assaulted by the various aromas of flowers and smelly stuff. Red snorted as he walked up to the counter where a sky blue pony was busy working, he approached quietly and waited patiently for the spa pony to notice him. Moments later the pony looked up casually to check for customers, what she wasn’t expecting was a tall black Pegasus staring down at her with multi-coloured eyes. The spa pony yelped and fell off her chair in surprise, Red merely rolled his eyes and waited for her to get a grip of herself; he really did hate his look from time to time. Finally the spa pony, who Red later found out was named Lotus, had composed herself, Red asked about his pulled muscles. Lotus had told him that her partner Aloe could give him a back massage that would sort of his wings in no time. Reluctantly Red had accepted to have said massage and was taken to a room with a weird bed and lot of candles, Aloe had entered and got him somewhat comfortable on the strange bed and soon began massaging the areas Red had specified. All was going well until, due to Reds relaxing experience, Soul had broke through his mental barrier, most probably to get some revenge. Red however was not having any of it, and with a loud mental ‘BUCK OFF YA BASTARD’, he launched her out of his mind once again. It’s fair to say, he enjoyed the rest of his massage. Her Head in the Clouds - Chapter 6After his massage from the spa Ponies, Red had gone back to the front desk and paid his bit. His back and wings felt fantastic, better than they had in years! He flexed and stretched them as space would allow, making him long to be back in the sky as soon as possible. As he began to walk out of the spa a rather elegant purple haired unicorn came through the door, walking in humming to herself happily. Red, being a gentlecolt at heart, let her enter before making his own way out. She nodded to him in thanks as Red trotted out in the afternoon air before then doing a double take in his direction. The unicorn looked on wide eyed as the black stallion walked out into the street, unfolding his huge wings as he did. “A new stallion in town?” She whispered to herself in disbelief. “How do I not know of this yet!?” As she stared, the tall Pegasus flapped his massive wings and disappeared upwards in a cloud of dust. Rarity turned to the two spa ponies, both staring to where Red was once standing. She approached them with haste, “Ladies, tell me, everything!” Red rocketed into the sky, a huge grin plastered on his face; he was finally back in the sky where he belonged! He couldn’t help but twist, turn and roll as he flew back towards the apartment. After taking the long way round back to the apartment, Red arrived home, unlocking the door and trotting in, humming happily to himself. “Yo sis, I’m home!” he called as he locked the door behind him and threw the keys on the kitchen counter. The lack of reply from his older sibling worried him slightly as he noticed the still warm apple pie on the table, Red quickly proceeded to open the door to Souls bedroom, but she was not there. He then tried his own, to his surprise she was there at his window, staring up at the sky. She was frozen in place, barely breathing, focused completely on the sky above. Red slowly came up along side her, following her pink snake eyes into the clouds above. There, flying high above was none other than Rainbow Dash. “Go figure” Red chuckled to himself, he could only imagine what was going through his sister’s head right now. “She’s just… I can’t even… ugh…” was all Soul could manage and it was barely a whisper at that. It was at this point that Red had one of his crazy ideas… and it wouldn’t be the last he would have before the day was done. Without a word of warning, he pushed the window wide open, took his sister by the hoof and dragged her out into the evening sun. Before Soul knew what was going on she was flying up towards the clouds that Rainbow dash was practising on. Before Soul could even make any attempt to resist or struggle, Red dragged her all the way up into the sky and along towards the field where Rainbow was practising. He plonked his dumb-founded sister on a cloud slightly higher than the ones Rainbow was using for her training, and by the time Soul had processed what had just occurred she was once again mere metres away from her life long crush. Soul’s pink eyes were wide, her breathing was rapid and sharp, and her body shook erratically… All of this simply because she was once again in close proximity to Rainbow Dash. A million and one thoughts raced through her mind, all of which were of this one mare, the one which her eyes were again transfixed against as she flew below. As Soul was once again loosing her sanity over Rainbow, Red was readying himself for his next stupid idea, the second one of the day! Red began to remove his jacket, watch and glasses; fully revealing his true black form. He really was a sight to see, even in the day, black from eye to hoof with nothing but a brown mane, matching tail and multicoloured eyes to break the darkness. As he set his items down on the cloud he reached into one of the larger pockets of his jacket, pulling out a set of very sleek silver flying goggles, complete with blacked out lenses. He put them on and tightened the strap around his head, letting the goggles fit snugly onto his eyes, his was now ready to do three things: one, scare the buck out of Rainbow, two, see what his newly massaged wings could do and three, tear up the sky with some crazy-ass flying! Red, with an ever growing smirk on his face, tapped his older sister on the shoulder. She turned to him still in a rainbow coloured daze, then raising an eyebrow at her brother’s new attire, she stared at him for a few moments before her eyes once again went wide. “Oh you’re not are you!?” she asked in disbelief as she watched her brother spread his wings and bend his legs. “Oh my god you are…” *whoosh* “Oh for Celestia’s sake he has…” was all Soul could manage as Red shot upward off the cloud and began rapidly climbing into the sky. He quickly became a black dot in the afternoon sun getting ever smaller, then stopping, then rapidly getting bigger again. Soul didn’t have the courage to warn her favourite mare before Red plunged head long into the cloud formation she was practising on, making the fluffy masses disperse from the air blast alone. Red swiftly recovered from his dive and began circling around; assessing the damage he had done with an evil smile. Rainbow Dash, having been thrown off balance by Reds arrival, was now recovering on what was left of her cloud assault course. She looked up at the black Pegasus, his huge black wings barely moving as he circled around, her shock and surprise was quickly turning to rage as she looked at the ever grinning Red Eye. She snorted up at him and prepared to go up and give him a good thrashing for ruining her days practise! She took to the air once more and instantly went shooting after Red, who upon noticing the angry cyan pony, turned tail and began to accelerate away. Soul could only watch from above as her little brother was chased by the most perfect pony in the entirety of Equestria. “What an afternoon this is turning out to be” she sighed as she too took flight trying to keep an eye on the black dot that was Red, usually she wouldn’t dare go flying after Rainbow, but she had a responsibility to make sure Red didn’t do something too stupid. Which at this moment in time, she knew was a possibility. Reds little plan was working nicely as he put on full power, accelerating faster than Rainbow ever could, who was lagging behind him as he flew onwards over the fields. Of course, Rainbow was the fastest flier in Equestria, so naturally, when she got up to speed she quickly closed the gap between her and Red. Just as he’d planned; When Rainbow was close enough to Red to be able to reach out of grab him, he pulled up sharply and braked hard, causing him to stop dead in the air, before Rainbow had time to even blink, Red had rolled over and blasted himself in the complete opposite direction. It took Rainbow a good couple of seconds to realise what had just happened and a good few meters for her to stop and give chase once more. By which time Red was already roaring up into the sky, heading for his ‘target’, Cloudsdale. Soul had watched all this unfold from high above, despite the fact it was Rainbow that Red was giving grief, she couldn’t help be smirk at his skilful and extreme flying, he always had been better than the rest, not faster… just, better. Red sped towards the floating cloud city, if he wasn’t about to cause as much trouble as he was, he would of stopped to admire it, but now wasn’t the time. Now, now was the time to make himself known to the rest of the area. He knew that rumours and gossip were already making there way around Ponyville about him and Soul, all that was left was Cloudsdale. Any normal pony would wonder why in the hay he would be doing this, the answer to that is simple. Red and Soul considered themselves to not be ponies, to themselves they were monsters, beings that really should never be in Equestria but somehow are. How somepony gets into this kind of mind-set is not something that should be discussed, but this is how they were and because of it, the more ponies that thought the same about them, the more normal they felt. So, Red was going to make sure that both Ponyville and Cloudsdale were fully aware of the two scary new ponies that were now in the area, and tearing up the sky was one of his best methods! Anyway, back to the action! Red was climbing upwards towards Rainbows home town at great speed, with said pony in tow. The wind whipped at his mane as he pasted through cloud layer after cloud layer, scaring the feathers off weather crews and birds alike. There would be a ‘Fwump’ every time Red smashed through a dense cloud, most of which were destroyed when Rainbow did the same, this carried on until Red was faced with a much darker and larger cloud, one that Rainbow quickly recognised as a storm cloud. She began slowing expecting her adversary to turn to avoid it, but he did no such thing. Rainbow watched in horror as Red slammed head long into the black and grey mass, there was huge crack of thunder and lightning sprang out in all directions, almost striking Rainbow as she came to a stop and hovered, staring at where Red had entered the cloud. Soul, who had just caught up in time to watch this happen, wasted no time in contacting her brother ‘Did you really just plough head first into a huge storm cloud?’ she asked as she entered Reds mind. ‘Yes, yes I did. Problem?’ Was the reply she got, Soul mentally face-hoofed at this and once again fixed her eyes on Rainbow, who by now was in utter shock at what she had just seen. She had just watched a fellow Pegasus, a horribly scary and rude one at that, but still one of her own kind fly into a storm cloud full of lightning. She couldn’t take it anymore, he hadn’t appeared yet, he must be still in there somewhere. Without another moments hesitation she flew into the cloud the same place Red had, and Soul watched in horror as Rainbow disappeared and more lightning discharged from the cloud. Soul, for want of a better phrase, was now having kittens. “No… she didn’t? … Oh god she did, oh no, no, nononono!” Soul was panicking, she had no idea what to do, her crush had just flown into a storm cloud after her little brother and as she stood there on a cloud, pretty much everything she ever wanted and needed in her life was most likely being torched by bolts of electricity. With this thought in mind, Souls body started to move all by itself. She leaped from high up cloud and plunged into the storm cloud. ‘Red, its Rainbow, she’s in the cloud with you, I’m gonna try and find her’, Soul didn’t even believe she was saying this to her brother, telepathically of course but still, it was like she was a observer in her own body, watching as herself charge into danger to save the mare she loved. ‘Understood, I’ll keep the lightning off you as best I can.’ Red stopped himself making any negative comments about Rainbow the moment Soul contacted him, now was neither the time nor the place. Now, now was the time to bend some physics! Red tightened his goggles and then proceeded to fly to the very core of the storm cloud, when he finally reached it he began flying a tight circle. As he did so, the lightning from the cloud began to strike him, instead of flying out into the rest of the cloud. Yes, it was fair to say it hurt… a lot! But, it was nothing Red couldn’t handle; pain to him was as much a blessing as a curse. As Red continued to contain the lightning, Soul was franticly searching through the rest of the cloud, still having no idea how or why she was suddenly being so heroic. She scanned all around her with her horn, trying to locate Dash in the black sea of cloudyness. After two 360s, Soul picked up on Dash, without a moment’s hesitation she shot towards her. ‘Soul…’ Red’s voice sounded very strained in her head ‘Hate to hurry you… but I can’t hold it all for much longer.' Red grunted loudly, trying to finish his final sentence ‘If you’re gonna do something, do it now!’ Soul took this new information into account and wasted no time in grabbing Rainbow with her magic and teleporting her and herself out of the cloud, not a moment too soon either as multiple bolts of lightning came whipping out. Red couldn’t go on a second more, whether they were out or not he had to release the couple of hundred volts he’d absorbed, with a blast of his wings he pushed himself out of the top of the cloud, landing on its surface. Lightning and static electricity surged round his body; it physically whipped around him from head to hoof. (To those Pokemon fans reading this, he looked like Pikachu charging a thunderbolt attack) With a triumphant roar he reared up and brought his front hooves down onto the cloud, with the almighty crack of thunder he released the energy back into the cloud, which finally returned to its dormant state. Soul sighed in relief as her magic relocated her and Rainbow Dash to a cloud a few metres away from the large cloud that screamed ‘danger’ in Soul’s mind. She took a moment to watch as her younger Brother sorted out the grey mass, then froze as she realised what it was she’d just done. She heard groaning and the shuffling of hooves behind her, and slowly turned herself around to face the Cyan and Rainbow coloured pony staring at her. Soul wasted no time in contacting her Brother through their mental link, ‘RedpleasehurryupI’malonewithheryouneedtocomeandhelpmepleaseplease,’ her mental words jumbling together into a giant mush as she tried in vain to calm her internal freakout. Rainbow cocked her head to the side as she studied the turquoise pony in front of her who was simply staring at Dash like she’d seen a ghost. Dash moved in closer to the other mare and waved a front hoof in her face. “Hello? Equestria to Soul? Anypony in there? I just wanted to thank you for saving me ba— Wait, how did you get me out of there?” Dash asked in confusion, she didn’t remember being flown out, but she did remember feeling a sharp crack of pain course through her body for a few moments. That was something Dash was not okay with. The reply into Soul’s mind from Red was one she was expecting and was very much prepared for. He was cocky and sarcastic as usual, responding with ‘Well excuse me! You aren’t the one who just got bombarded with LIGHTNING.’ He exaggerated the last word with a mental push, trying to force Soul out of his mind, but not before she managed to get a response in. ‘IDON’TCAREABOUTHELIGHTNINGJUSTBEHEREOKAYINEEDYOU’ she managed to mentally scream at Red before she was forcibly booted from his mind. She was about to attempt to force her way back in when she realised Dash had asked a question. A very difficult question for Soul to answer without firstly squealing because her idol was talking to her, and secondly, it would be very difficult for her to answer without blowing both her and her Brothers’ covers. She needed to pull herself together for this one, oh how she wished her Brother was there right now with her. She sucked in a deep breath and broke herself out of her fangirl stasis, she needed to be in complete control of herself right now so that she wouldn’t mess everything up. “I used my magic to teleport us both ou—oh SHIT.” Soul didn’t even take note of Dash flinching at her cursing, she simply backed away a few paces as she realised exactly what she just said. ‘Oh Celestia no. Did I just… oh Celestia I did. Perhaps she didn’t notice? Of course she noticed how could she not notice I’m hiding my horn so she thinks I’m a Pegasus and Pegasi don’t have magic oh no what have I done I—’ Her second internal freakout of the day was interrupted by a loud ‘fwump’ and a powerful gust of air as her younger brother landed wearily onto the cloud next to her. She sighed heavily in relief, she’d never been so relieved to see the younger pony in all her life, well, apart from the time he saved her from a stampede of hungry kittens, but that isn’t the point. “Red I’m so glad you’re here you have to help me,” Soul slipped into conversing with him mentally without even realising it, ‘I accidentally told her I used magic,’ Red conveyed the image of him face-hoofing, but it went ignored by Soul as she continued to freak, ‘but she doesn’t know that I can because she thinks I’m a Pegasus but obviously she knows I can use it now because I told her but I didn’t mean to I swear I’m so sorry please forgive me Red oh Celestia what are we going to do I—' Her mental words were stopped in their tracks as Red used all his concentration to shield his mind from her words. Once he was sure she’d stopped, he let down his barrier again and held up a hoof. ‘Calm down, Sis. I got dis.’ He turned his head to face Rainbow, but was not expecting her to be right in front of them with both her hooves poised next to their heads. He gulped and said outloud, “Maybe I don’t got dis,” before Rainbow used her hooves to knock both of their heads together. Red dropped to the floor holding one hoof to his head, the impact of Soul’s horn on his forehead leaving a lovely cut. He groaned once, then snapped his head up to the two mares after he heard a sharp intake of breath from Dash. He followed her shocked gaze to Soul rubbing the side of her head with her hoof and— her horn. Her horn was exposed. Soul knew exactly what had happened as soon as she heard Dash gasp, so she didn’t even bother trying to be subtle about it. She opened her eyes and looked up just to check, then moved her gaze over to Dash, and smiled sadly. Dash couldn’t believe what she was seeing; “You’re… you’re an Alicorn! But… how the hay is that possible?” Dash looked between Soul’s impassive expression and the look of annoyance on Red’s face then took a step back. “Who ARE you?” Red shook his head and stood up, spreading his wings out to their full length to stretch them, whilst still clutching his hoof to his bleeding head. He knew they had no choice now but to either explain themselves to Dash, or teleport themselves the hay out of there. There was a small voice in the back of his mind giving him the option of killing Dash, but Red thought to himself that he really wasn’t prepared to be dismembered by his own sister, so he disregarded that option. He chose the first option, considering the fact there was no real point in hiding anymore. “We’re—” He was interrupted by a sharp pain at the forefront of his mind, a signal from Soul for him to shut up. ‘Easy on the mind crush there, Sis’ he retaliated. Soul cast a quick glance at Red and rolled her eyes, then turned her attention back to Dash. “We’re just two Ponies who’ve had a pretty bucking rough life, and we’re just looking for somewhere for us to settle down.” Before Dash could ask questions about how Soul had both a horn and wings, Soul quickly explained their situation, leaving nothing out, except for the piles and piles of Rainbow Dash merchandise she’d collected over the years. That was something Dash didn’t need to know about. Dash listened to Soul’s whole story, quietly making her own judgements about the two strange ponies. She definitely felt sorry for them, but the fact that Soul could only use dark magic unsettled her a little bit. Then again, the mare’s black magic did save her life, so Dash had to be grateful for that. Dash nodded to nothing in particular, then looked to the two siblings and grinned. “Alright, I’ve decided I’m going to be your friend.” The two ponies looked startled, and cast suspicious looks at each other. “But on one condition,” Dash began. “You,” she looked pointedly at Red, “Have to race me.” She smirked at Red and puffed out her chest in triumph at the look he shared with Soul. Red turned back to Dash and smiled, “Alright then, but on one condition,” he suddenly grew serious, “There has to be a bet.” Dash grinned at that comment. “Fine. If I win, you have to do all of my weather duties for a whole month.” She knew she had this in the bag; she was the fastest Pony in all of Equestria, there was no way this strange new Pony would be able to beat her. Red laughed curtly and turned to smirk at his sister, having had this third and final crazy idea of the day. “Okay then, but if I win,” He turned back to Dash, “You have to go on a date with my Sister.” He’d already prepared himself for the metal barrage that was his sister’s anger, but he knew she’d thank him for this later. He hoped. He ignored the low growl that emanated from Soul’s throat beside him and moved a few hoofsteps forward, one of his hoofs extended to shake. Dash wasn’t expecting that as his part of the bet, but she took it in the stride regardless. She grinned at Soul, whose head was bent low to the ground, growling at her brother, then back to Red. She stepped forward and grabbed his hoof, “Fine. I’ll give you a week or two to prepare; you’ll need all the help you can get if you think you’re going to beat me.” She grinned at the two of them for the last time, then turned on her hoofs and bolted off the end of the cloud, snapping open her wings as she dived off, soaring away from the cloud they had occupied for far too long. Soul lifted up one of her front hooves and whacked Red in the side of the head, then collapsed to the ground, letting out exasperated sigh. Red accepted the punch with no complaint, he knew he deserved it, plus he had a better idea to help the smaller pony out of her misery. “Fancy a drink, Sis?” Soul stared up at her Brother looking absolutely dejected, then didn’t even say a word and she placed her hoof on his leg. Tapping into her magic, a black aura surrounded them both as she used her energy to teleport them both to their favourite place, The Blank Spot. After the day they’d both had, drowning their sorrows in a beer glass seemed like the best idea ever. Drunk and Disorderly - Chapter 7When the pair opened their eyes again they were stood in a dark, dingy alleyway, surrounded by tall skyscrapers. They could hear the night time din of Manehatten echoing down the alley, the stench of filth and waste coming from the nearby bins was pungent and burned the nostrils. Now when I say they, I really mean Soul - Red was still shaking away the excruciating pain that came with long range teleportation from black magic. It’s a painful thing, the dark arts. It hurts all normal ponies apart from the caster, but Red had generated a certain level of tolerance these days due to the sheer amount of magic Soul had used on him over the years. The pair even think he’s started to absorb it too, building up his own little reservoir within his soul… but that’s just a theory. “Ooohhh sweet Celestia, that one stung!” Red groaned as his senses abruptly returned to him. Soul merely scoffed and began using her magic on herself, making sure she looked presentable before they entered the bar. “I swear, Red,” chuckled a shadow behind them, “You say that every time!” Red simply turned around and met the eyes of the big grey earth pony stood in the shadows by a tacky looking steel door. “And good evening to you too, Lockdown.” Red replied with a grin. “You miss me?” The bouncer Pony simply laughed and unlocked the steel door. “Get in there you pair of trouble makers!” He said with his usual friendly grin, “The Unknown Cause are on tonight, you wouldn’t want to keep ‘em waiting now would ‘ya?” Red and Soul trotted inside, thanking Lockdown as he closed the door behind them; there was a series of bangs in the darkness, and finally a second door opened in front of them, letting them enter ‘The Blank Spot’. ‘The Blank Spot’ was no normal bar - far from it. It was the bar that served Equestria’s best-worst ponies. Criminal, rejects and lunatics alike would make their way to this place, a place they could be free of what society thought of them and how the world viewed them. All those who entered ‘The Blank Spot’ became equal; their past became irrelevant, once inside you were you. Nothing more, nothing less. The bar itself had a simple set up, a long wooden rectangular bar in the centre, a medium sized stage at the right end of the room and a big open dance floor on the left. Scattered everywhere were tables, chairs and stools, all of which were worn and aged. The lighting was kept to a minimum inside apart from the spotlights that pointed onto the stage, the smell of booze and tobacco was strong as ever and the sound of drunken chatting was music to the two Pony’s ears. Red grinned as he took it all in for the hundredth time, he had always loved this place, it was like a second home to him - the home they kept going back to. Soul had a small smile on her face, after the day she’d had she was definitely ready for a good booze up! As the pair stepped forward into the dim light, both of their eyes shone, illuminating each others faces, causing a series of gasps from around the room. Like a ripple effect, the ponies sober enough to think turned to stare at the siblings. Slowly, smiles and grins began to appear and drinks rose. Without warning, the guitarist who was setting up with his band on stage began to play a riff on his guitar, the drummer and the bassist soon joining in. As the beat echoed through building the pair began to walk towards the bar, their hooves hitting the floor to the time of the music as they made their way past the groups of smiling drunken ponies. The band stopped playing as the two reached the bar and sat down. “Welcome back you two, it’s been a while!” said the bartender, he nodded to his two regulars, glancing knowingly at Soul, who was now slumped against the bar. “Long day?” Soul merely groaned, which was pretty much the best answer he was going to get from her right now. Red simply rested a hoof on Soul and sighed. “The usual please, chief,” Red said with a chuckle, the bartender nodded and went to get their drinks. As he did Red turned on his stool and whistled to the band who had finished setting up on the stage. “Yo Mann!” The drummer unicorn looked up from his kit and waved at his friend. “Strike up, mate!” Mann nodded and motioned to the rest of the band to get ready. As the band began to play their first song the bartender returned, sliding over one bottle of vodka and a pony bomb. Red smiled as he took his vodka and screwed off the top, he had no need for shot glasses! He took a large swig of the bottle, the familiar burning in the back of his throat making him grin - oh how he had missed alcohol. Soul was doing the same, happily drinking away her sorrows and listening to the sweet music the band was playing. The night went on like this until Red got sufficiently drunk, allowing him to relax a bit more than usual. The band had just finished a song when Mann called out to Red from the back of the stage, ”Red!” Red turned from the bar to face his drummer friend, “You gonna come sing something or what!?” A smile instantly plastered itself onto the pegasus’s face as he set his bottle down. He practically leaped onto the stage as the crowd gave a small cheer as Red took up position behind the microphone. His gaze shifted back to the bar, Soul sat there, now stuck in her depressive drunken state. Drink did this to her, after a few hours of hyper-ness she would slip down into nothing but sadness and sorrow, an almost unbreakable state… but that didn’t stop Red trying. Red turned to the band and whispered about his song of choice, they nodded and took up their positions. Red cleared his throat and with a devilish laugh, he started the song: Almost midnight, I'm just sittin' at the bar, Soul’s ears perked up at Red’s song choice. It wasn’t enough to do anything to her mood, but she still silently applauded her little Brother for trying to make an effort. Even when she was in this state, she still couldn’t help but love her Brother. Wakin' up the devil, Rattlin' the cage inside of me, I miss him a little, When he gets out, we're one hell of a team, I know I ought to leave, Him locked up and throw away the key, But his hand's on the wheel and my hoof's on the pedal, Wakin' up the devil. I didn't come here lookin' for a fight, But if you're gonna bark boy, you better have a bite, I ain't been crazy in a really long time, But you're about to meet a good friend of mine. Pretty girls and whiskey, Quarter bags and dimes, Put it in my face, I'm gonna do it every time. But try to keep him quiet, Try to hold him down, Damn it feels like heaven every time he comes around. As the music faded Red turned his head and let out a long breath, trying to quell the emotions that rose up within him whenever he sang a song he held dear. The small crowd of ponies cheered as Red bowed and waved, he then gave the band all bro-hoof and thanked them for another great song. Red had sung with The Unknown Cause many times at the bar, it’s partly how he and Soul became so well known. Both of them had very unique singing voices, both of which they used only when they really felt the moment was right. Soul maintains the belief that her singing voice is nowhere near as good as everypony says it is, which is rubbish, but that’s just Soul. Red floated down off the stage and trotted back over to where Soul was sat, she was still drinking away but… just on the side of her mouth a tiny smile was visible. She wasn’t happy, far from it, but hearing her little brother singing that song at least brought her a bit of enjoyment. Red ordered another bottle of vodka and let out a contented sigh. “Not gonna go up and sing us a tune, sis?” Red asked, cocking an eyebrow at his sibling. Soul simply finished off her drink and stared at her glass, a grin flicking on her face for just a second. “If you had asked me five glasses ago, then, maybe…” She looked at Red with eyes he’d seen a million times before, “But right now, I think I’ll leave the singing to the happy drunks.” Red simply laughed at this remark and went back to his drink. He spun round on his stool and lent against the bar, watching the band play, his hoof idly tapping against his stool with the music. “We should totally get them playing in Ponyville you know,” Red said gently prodding Soul in the wing. She sat up and looked over her shoulder, starting to listen to the music rather than her own thoughts. Soul nodded slowly, giving her silent approval of the sweet metal ‘The Unknown Cause’ was producing. They sat there listening together for a few more songs until Red finally looked at his watch; it read four a.m. With a sigh he set down his last bottle and wobbled onto his hooves. “About time we left sis, still got plenty to do tomorrow.” Despite the amount of alcohol Red had consumed his thought and speech were still impeccable, it was just his body that acted completely hammered. Soul merely groaned as she joined him as he walked towards the door, saying goodbye to his fellow drinkers as he past them. Soul remained silent and simply walked behind her brother, looking more zombie than pony. The pair made it outside without incident and Soul weaved a new teleportation spell to get them from the bar to their apartment. Red took his position beside his sister and with a flash of light, the spell was cast and home they went… well, sort of. When Red had once again regained his senses he was upside down on the roof, being soaked by a rain cloud. Meanwhile, Soul was now lying in her bed, all tucked up and cosy, and already falling asleep. Red, as you may have guessed, was not best pleased. Clearly, his sister was utterly and completely out of it, in many senses of the word. The mixture of alcohol and a rather stressful day had clearly bucked her magic entirely. “Well… bollocks!” Said the now soaking black Pegasus as he got to his hooves, looking up at the rain cloud that was the cause of his dampness. With one swift blast of his wings he sent the offending grey mass away into the night sky. Red considered going down and shaking himself off in Souls bedroom as a form of revenge, but he valued his life so he didn’t. Instead, he floated down to his window, slipped inside, and promptly fell asleep on the floor. His last word before flopping to the wooden panelling was simply, “Bitch…”
The Arrival - Chapter 1As Celestia brought down the sun, two Pegasus ponies flew silently high up above the clouds, using the evening thermals to their advantage as they glided across Equestria. As the Moon began to rise, the two ponies slowly descended towards a nearby cloud, the smaller of the two was wearing a bulging saddle bag and the other a jacket with very full pockets. The taller of the two ponies dropped down onto the cloud first, his abnormally large wings causing the white fluffy mass to shift and shake as the power of his wings beat down onto it. He landed with a slight ‘poof’ letting out a contented sigh as he did, the other Pegasus soon followed suit, her smaller wings hardly making a ripple on the clouds surface; but did a wonderful job of messing up her taller companions hair. The sleek, jet black pony simply swished his hair back into place and gave the turquoise Pegasus a look of annoyance, which quickly dissolved into a low chuckle; this was typical behaviour for his older sister. “Alright Sis, we’ll rest up here for a while,” He said, giving his fellow traveller an amused smile, “You look like you need it.” The slightly plumper pony flashed her younger sibling an angry look as she lay down on the cloud, sighing wearily as she did. The younger brother walked to the edge of the cloud, looking out over Equestria, now bathed in Luna’s moon light. His name was Red Eye, a tall jet black Pegasus standing around five feet tall. He was very slimly built, lacking muscles mostly everywhere bar his back and wings. His brown mop-like mane was thick and messy, a simple right to left sweep in his fringe kept it out of his eyes, one he constantly had to swish back up to be able to see. His signature red jacket was probably the second most colourful thing on him, the many pockets filled with personal items. A silver watch was strapped around his left foreleg and glasses were perched on his snout. Apart from his jacket, the only other colourful thing about him was his eyes; his left eye was a bright sky blue, full of life and joy. His right eye however, was what gave him his name, it glowed a deep blood red; pulsating with a dark red light every time a negative emotion passed through him. His red eye was no birth accident or mutation, the cause was much greater than that. Red eye, throughout his childhood, had a habit of bottling up negative or unwanted emotions he didn’t want to appear on the outside. Over a period of many years the emotional pressure within his mind grew to dangerous levels, causing violent outbursts and signs of insanity; like extended rants with himself, and having moments of intense rage. This gradually got worse until one day, he simply snapped. In his final years of education one pony pushed him one step too far, causing him to lose control of everything. He doesn’t remember what he did that day as his body wasn’t in his possession, but on that fateful day a second personality was born inside of him, taking up its home in the very depths of his mind. When he awoke the following day he was left with an eye burning red as hell itself and a demon to go with it. Now at the age of sixteen, he is a much calmer and more collected pony, on the outside at least. He and his older sister were runaways, they left home many months ago, for reasons they would rather keep to themselves; they had taken the only essentials they needed, and had set off in search of a better life elsewhere. Red Eyes’ older sister, Soul Seer, was a short turquoise pony, boasting a two-tone purple mane with matching tail. Her dark pink eyes glowed brightly in the dark, the dark slits that were her pupils finished of her devilish look. Now when I said she was a Pegasus, that wasn’t strictly true. Technically, Soul Seer was an Alicorn. She was born into the world as a unicorn, and happily lived like one for many years, until Red Eye was born. He was born a Pegasus through and through, a very unique and different one too. His wings were not the feathery ones you get on any other Pegasus, they were bat wings. Overly sized bat wings that had little use to the pony at a young age, as they were way out of scale for his body. As Red Eye stands now looking out over the Equestrian sky, his wing span is a whopping thirteen feet, a six and a half foot wing on each side of his back. His back muscles were the strongest in his body and could make great use of his massive wings. When Soul Seer had seen her little brother’s gift, she became jealous of him, soon she didn’t seem so amazing or special to her parents. This drove her crazy for years while Red Eye grew up, until one day she too lost it. Looking though books of old dark magic she found a spell that could quite literally copy the body part of whoever the spell was cast upon, and place it onto the caster. After many months of trial and error she mastered the spell, and on her little brothers tenth birthday, she used it. What she didn’t bet on, however, was how painful it would be to have your body completely remake parts of itself. After she cast the spell on the sleeping birthday pony, she stumbled down to the basement where she spent the rest of the night, screaming in agony as her body gave her the wings she so badly wanted. From that day on, Soul Seers life was sent spiralling downwards; she was now a fake Alicorn, which in itself was practically a crime. She had mastered a powerful dark magic spell before anything else, which sent her magic abilities into the darker realms of the art. The mixture of these things and many social and mental pressures drove her to emotional instability for a long while, but with the help of her younger brother, Soul Seers life became somewhat stable during her mid teens. Now at the age of nineteen, she is a wise, life hardened pony with a warm heart of stone, but still retaining the maturity of seven year old. Red Eye surveyed his surroundings from the high altitude cloud; leaning over the edge of the fluffy mass to look down and see what was below him. He stared into the darkness of Luna’s night, noticing lights down on the ground, most probably a town or village. Reaching down into one of his jacket pockets and pulling out a tightly folded piece of paper, he placed in on the cloud and opened it up, revealing a small detailed map of Equestria, the glow from his eyes actually lighting the map enough for him to see. After a few minutes of calculations and hard thinking he figured out their rough position. They were very close to the town of Ponyville, a very famous town, know for being the home of the legendary Elements of Harmony, the famous six ponies who saved Equestria on many occasions. He refolded the map and placed in back into its pocket on his jacket, making many mental notes as he did, deciding to discuss this with Soul Seer. He turned back around to begin sharing his thoughts with his older sister, but he quickly realised there was no point, as he looked over to her he could clearly see she was sound asleep, saddlebag still slung over her back. Red Eye, the black hearted, demon infested bat winged Pegasus ‘daawww’ed hard at the sight of his slumbering sibling, who was probably tired from the numerous long flights. Red Eye smiled to himself and trotted over to Soul, removing his jacket as he did, he then proceeded to carefully remove Soul’s saddle bag and set it down out of the way alongside his jacket. When he was content she was comfortable, he lay down next to his snoozing sister, opening his left wing to its full six and half foot span to drape it over Soul Seer. Red Eye snuggled up to her and pulled his wing tight to form a warm blanket over his older sister and sighed, placing a small loving kiss on Soul Seers head and settled down to join her in the realm of sleep.
A Dash of Surprise - Chapter 2Red Eye was awoken from his peaceful slumber by his keen sense of hearing, his mind was slow and was failing to register any thoughts, simply wanting to go back to sleep. After a few seconds he soon began to realise that the sounds he was hearing were the beating of wings, but not of bat wings, this was the sound of normal Pegasus wings! Alarm bells rang out in his head as he tensed up, not wanting to move an inch in case the unknown visitor wasn’t too friendly. He heard a soft ‘fwump’ as somepony landed on the cloud; Red Eye was on full alert now, the morning slowness gone from his mind as he franticly tried to find a way out of this situation. He heard hoofsteps on the cloud as the visitor came closer and with a confused voice, asked a question Red Eye had dealt with many times before, even if the now apparent mare was talking to herself. “What in the hay kind of wings are those?” the visitor said in a slight whisper, confusion plaguing her voice. It was now or never Red eye thought. “They are bat wings” he growled, opening his eyes and staring at the intruder, a cyan mare with a long rainbow mane and matching tail. There was doubt about who it was; the element of loyalty herself, the fastest flyer in Equestria, and the cockiest little minx he had ever heard of; Rainbow Dash. She jumped at Red Eyes’ sudden response, like every other pony he had met unintentionally; she stared in horror at his red eye which by now was glowing a little brighter than usual. Red Eye stood up; cracking his neck as he did so, his left wing slowly and gently removed itself off of Soul Seer as it returned to his side. Rainbow Dash took a few steps back at the sight of this scary new pony; he sure didn’t look like the friendly type to her. Red Eye then stretched out his wings to their full span; his joints cracking as they did every morning, Rainbow Dash’s jaw hit the floor as she stared in awe at the sheer size of his wings, which simply added to her fear. “Now Miss Dash, why have you woken me up? It’s not nice to come bothering sleeping ponies, didn’t you know that curiosity killed the cat?” Red Eye said to the cyan Pegasus, his voice low and had a growling tone to it. Rainbow Dash was staring at him, mostly frozen in fear, but she had a reputation to keep up. She shook herself out of her fear stricken state and puffed out her chest, her cocky voice returning to her, even if it was a little shaky. “First off, I’m not a cat!” Red Eye rolled his eyes, “Second, you’re sleeping on a cloud I’ve got to clear this morning, so I was simply coming to ask you to move, I wasn’t bothering you.” She sounded offended at the thought of being bothersome. “Anyway, how the hay do you know my name?” She asked, finally giving up the effort to make herself look more important and letting her chest come back down. Red Eye replied simply with a sigh. “Well, there is only one Rainbow Dash after all.” At this statement the cyan pony once again struck a dramatic pose and Red Eye could clearly see she was about to go off on one of her speeches. No chance! “Don’t even think about getting all big headed missy!” he snorted at her. She was taken aback by this and soon stood still again, her head hanging slightly. It was at that moment a small squeal emanated from behind Red Eyes left wing, a squeal he knew too well. Soul Seer, to put it simply was a Rainbow Dash fan-mare. A BIG fan! She was pretty much obsessed with the super sonic Pegasus and had been madly in love with her for the majority of her teenage years. Now she was metres away from the very same pony and Red Eye was pretty sure she was trying to contain herself behind his wing. “Well, since she’s awake I may as well introduce us,” He said calmly this time, dropping his threatening act for his sister’s sake and putting on a smile. “My name is Red Eye,” he said winking his right eye to emphasis his name, “And this,” he gestured to Soul behind his wing, “This is my older sister, Soul Seer.” he dropped his folded wing revealing the love struck pony, and as she quickly realised she was no longer hidden, she squealed once more as her gaze met that of her life long crush. Red Eye thought it best he explained quickly, before things got awkward. “Miss Dash, I assume you have met many of your biggest fans over the years?” She nodded, looking thoughtful. “Well take them all, add them together, times it by twenty, and you have my sister.” Dash’s eyes widened and looked at Soul Seer again, getting another squeak out of the fan-mare. Soul's breath hitched as she made eye contact with Dash, and feeling her cheeks redden, she cast her gaze to the cloud, fearing coming off as too much of a fan on first meeting. Rainbow Dash was pretty much speechless, Red Eye thought it be a good time to bring this meeting to a close. “Anyway Miss Dash, we will let you get on with your duties, we will be gone off this cloud in a few minutes, sorry to have gotten in your way and nice to meet you.” He bowed politely and the weather pony seemed to accept this. “Well, it was um… nice meeting you Red Eye,” she replied opening her wings, still sounding rather unsure of the jet black Pegasus. “You too, Soul Seer,” she smiled at her, which simply made Soul blush more furiously. Dash turned to go, but not before saying in a cool manner, “Oh and please, call me Rainbow Dash” and with that, she bolted away into the sky. “Bucking show-off,” Red muttered as the cyan Pegasus zoomed away. He turned to Soul and frowned at her, "I don't even need your power to know what you’re thinking. You're redder than a sunbathing tomato." Red teased his older sister; Soul just glared at her younger Brother and sighed, turning her head in the direction Dash had just zoomed off in. "She's so perfect, Red. Why did I have to be in this state when I met her?" She motioned with her hoof to her overly wacky bed hair, and tried in vain to smooth it out. Red simply laughed, shaking his head; typical mare. “Just be thankful you had bed hair,” he said looking at Souls effort of sorting her mane. “It hid your horn well; if Rainbow Dash had noticed it we’d both in the shit,” He pointed out. “Anyway, we’d best get off this cloud and go find somewhere to eat, I’m pretty sure Ponyville will have a decent café.” Red walked over to the pile of items he removed the night before, slipping into his red jacket and readjusting his watch and glasses. He then picked up the saddlebag and turned to Soul, who was still staring into the sky, then frowned and proceeded to throw the bag at the back of his sister’s head, making a perfect mess of her mane… which she had just fixed. Soul glared at her Brother again and slipped on the saddlebag, then not even bothering to give him another look she pranced to the end of the cloud and jumped off, snapping her wings open as she dived to slow herself, and turned back to Red. "Come on then, slowpony!" she yelled, closing her wings a fraction to start descending again. Red simply shook his head and chuckled to himself. “Pft, amateurs!” he said as he leaped backwards off the cloud, not even bothering to open his wings. He tucked in his legs and plummeted after his sister, and after quickly gaining speed he plotted his revenge. As he approached the slow flying Alicorn he open his wings ever so slightly to allow him to angle himself just enough so he would pass her, right in front of her snout! He rocketed towards her at a blistering pace, he was metres away when he let rip a “Yeeeaaahhhooo” as he roared past her nose and shot down towards the ground. Soul growled and angled herself away from her Brother so that he didn't end up killing them both, then in retaliation closed her wings abruptly and shot towards the ground, her eyes never leaving the form of her descending Brother. She noticed him open his wings casually, and grinned at herself, thinking she'd finally beaten her Brother. What she didn't take into account however, was the form of the rapidly approaching ground. She snapped her wings open a fraction too late, it only slowed her a little bit as she came crashing into the ground, causing dirt to fly out everywhere. Red swore loudly and shot towards his sister, his wings accelerating him over to her in seconds. With a powerful thrust of his wings he blew the dust away and looked down at Soul, now unconscious and badly bruised. Red eye wasted no time in thinking of a plan of action, he folded his huge wings as best he could and took Soul onto his back. Once he had her balanced correctly he turned towards Ponyville, the only thing on his mind right now was his sisters well being. “Please for Celestia’s sake, let there be a hospital!”
An Apple Pie Problem - Chapter 3Red had been trotting for a few minutes now, trying to balance speed with a smooth ride for the injured pony on his back, and he was constantly looking back at his sister scanning for any sign of her awakening. Unfortunately, he looked back at just the wrong moment; his forelegs stumped an annoyingly placed rock, sending him and his injured cargo barrel rolling along the road. After flipping over a few times Red stopped in a heap on the road, his thoughts were still fixed on Soul, ignoring his own pain he pushed myself of the ground and looked around for his sister; he was surprised when a groaning voice came from behind him. “Well,” the familiar voice began, Red spun round to see Soul pushing herself back onto her hooves “I suppose that’s one way of waking me up, you may be a great flier but you suck at trotting.” Red simply sighed in relief and threw his forelegs round his big sister neck and hugged her tightly. Soul wasn’t really a cuddly pony most of the time, but for her little brother, she made exceptions. After a quick hug the two ponies checked themselves over, identifying their various cuts and bruises. “Well, suppose a healing spell is in order, eh?” Soul said with a small smile. Red nodded and with that acknowledgement, Soul closed her eyes and concentrated on the simple yet effective healing spell. Her green horn glowed as a black aura surrounded the two ponies with Red flinched in pain as he always did when Soul used her magic on him. After a few seconds the magic faded, and the siblings stood feeling refreshed and painless. For a pony who hit the ground head on at high speed, Soul had come off very well, even if she hadn’t have used the healing spell. Soon they were on their way towards Ponyville, and with their stomachs growling they took to the sky, Soul taking a running jump to get herself airborne, but Red however simply spread his wings and with one huge flap; he was a good ten feet off the ground; a true testimony to his massive wings. Happy to be flying again, the pair soon made it to the outskirts of Ponyville. It really was a great looking town, the old style buildings and sort of scattered structure layout making it seem just that little bit more perfect. They could see ponies going about their daily business below them, and with so many bright colours, it made Red and Soul both blink furiously. That was going to take some getting used to for them both. Soon Red spotted a nice looking café and flew close to Soul. “That looks like a good one,” he said pointing down to the quaint looking café below them. Soul smiled and nodded, “Make sure you cover your horn up Soul, best to keep a low profile.” Soul nodded in agreement, adjusting her hair so her horn was covered sufficiently. Red snapped shut his wings and dived sharply; he did want to keep a low profile but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to make an entrance. Soul decided it best not to try and follow this time, simply gliding peacefully down toward the ground. “Go get ‘em little bro,” she whispered to herself as Red shot towards the ground, his speed ever increasing. Red grinned as the time came near, he was about rooftop level, many ponies had already noticed him plummeting towards the ground and were staring up at him in horror and surprise. Finally Red was but metres from the ground, he gritted his teeth and threw open his wings, putting all his strength into pushing them forward; basically he was simulating a giant air brake. He hit the ground with a controlled ‘thud’, the huge blast of air from his braking kicking up dust, dirt and all pretty much everything in its path, including a couple of fillies. When the dust had settled, Red stood tall and proud, wearing a harsh expression on his face but with a slight grin in one corner of his mouth. All the nearby ponies stared in shock at the black Pegasus, many who had fillies with them ushered the youngsters away. Moments later Soul landed calmly next to Red, trying to contain herself at the ruckus Red had caused, the two shared a quick look and then smiled. They found an empty table outside the café and made themselves comfortable, then after removing their baggage they relaxed in their chairs. Red looked his sister in the eye, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “Awesome?” he simply asked with a chuckle, Soul giggled and nodded. “Very awesome!” She replied happily. After a slightly awkward conversation with a very nervous waitress, the pair had order their food, what would now be classed as brunch as it was approaching midday. As they waited for their food they discussed their plan of action, considering the many towns they had been through, Ponyville seemed like the most welcoming and stable, so sticking around for a while seemed like a good idea. “I reckon,” Red began taking a bag out of one of his many pockets, “With the bit we’ve got, we should be able to rent a flat or something. It won’t keep us forever so we will both have to find jobs… joy.” He finished with a sigh, opening the bag full of bit and pouring out the small gold coins onto the table. “Count those for me would you, Sis?” Red asked as he stood up off his chair. Soul shot him a confused look, “I’m gonna go check the town notice board… where ever the damn thing is.” Soul simply nodded and began counting up the bit as Red began walking towards the centre of town. As Red wandered slowly towards the centre of Ponyville, there wasn’t a single pony he passed that didn’t do a double take in his direction, he really did stick out like a sore hoof. He hardly even noticed though, as he was used to being stared at like some sort of monster, after all he considered himself a monster so he didn’t mind. He came into what seemed to be the town square; there were many more shops here and a lot more ponies, thankfully they quickly moved out of Red’s way when they saw him approaching. Red couldn’t see a notice board anywhere nearby so he decided to ask one of the stall owners, and one in particular caught his attention. It was soon evident why it had, behind a small army of apples was no other than the Element of Honesty herself… Applejack. Red smiled to himself and set off towards the stall, and upon arriving he could see that the earth pony was busy with some customers, so he simply waited at the side until she was finished. “Y’all hav’a great day now!” Applejack said as the last of her happy customers went away; she turned around briefly as Red walked up to the stall. “Pardon me miss” Red said as politely as possible, the earth pony quickly turn back around probably expecting another colourful pony to be waiting for some more of great tasting apples… instead she was met with a tall, jet black Pegasus with some weird wings and different coloured eyes! “Sorry to interrupt you miss,” Red continued, “But could you tell me if this town has a notice board? I’m looking for information on renting a flat.” Applejack stared at the frightening looking pony; she had never seen him before, or anypony like him for that matter! She straightened her hat and pulled herself together, putting on her best smile she replied with her usual welcoming voice. “Sure is partner, s’over there by the town hall,” pointing a hoof towards the town hall, which ironically Red would of easily seen if he had flown over. Red grunted at his own fail but quickly smiled and thanked the earth pony for her help and began to turn away, he didn’t get far before Applejack stopped him. “Hold up’a sec there.” Red turned back around raising an eyebrow at the stall owner, “I ain’t ever seen ‘ya around town before, so I’m guessin’ ‘ya new.” Red nodded slowly, “Well let me be the first ‘ta welcome ‘ya to Ponyville, I’m Applejack, here hav’a apple, on the house!” With a flick of her tail, Applejack sent a bright apple Red’s way, who caught it in his mouth and devoured it with three bites. He sighed contently, thinking of the food he ordered at the café waiting for him. “Thank you Applejack,” Red said, slowly beginning to spread his wings, Applejack spoke once more as he did. “Oh yeah before ‘ah forget, since ‘ya new in town, watch out for a pink pony!” Red had heard about the party pony before, he wasn’t going to be caught out by her anytime soon. Red chuckled, not wasting anymore time he flicked opened his wings and grinned at Applejack. “Don’t worry Applejack, Pinkie will regret it if she annoys me… or my sister.” With that, Red shot off into the sky, making a mess of Applejacks hair and blowing her hat off her head as he did. He didn’t look back as he flew towards the town hall, quickly spotting the notice board in front of it; he dived down and hit the ground directly in front of the board. He scanned over it, finally finding what he was looking for he plucked the article off the board and zoomed back into the sky. Minutes later Red touch down back at the café and swiftly took his seat. “Found anything useful?” Soul asked with a mouthful of pie, which came out something like “fmougnd anygyhingf umsdfhulf?” Red simply beamed and nodded, understanding his Sister’s lack of eating manners, and put the piece of paper in front of his sister, who took a glance between mouthfuls. Red looked at the table realising there was an empty plate next to Soul… yet she had another full plate of Apple pie. It soon became clear to him what she had done, Red glared at his older sibling, his right eye glowing ever brighter. A pie-filled grin grew on Soul’s face as she noticed Red glare at her, but she was not ready for what came next. “BITCH, YOU ATE MY PIE!” was all that was heard before Red Eye threw himself at Soul.
Trouble in the Moonlight - Chapter 4The walk from the café to the apartment was a quiet one, after the mini brawl the two siblings had made a quick retreat back into the centre of town, Red leading the way as he had the address to the apartment he had found on the notice board. Not a word had been spoken between the two after the fight over the pie, they were not exactly angry at each other, just mildly annoyed. “That was your fault, you know that, right?” Red eventually spoke up, his voice more a growl than actual speech. He flashed his sister a look of disapproval, she merely stared daggers right back at him, her pink snake-like eyes would pierce the soul of any other pony, but not Red. “Yeah well,” Soul began, a smug look growing on her face, “I still ate your pie!” She retorted with a laugh. Red after a moment of seriousness could not help but join in as the silence was finally broken between the two. They trotted on towards the apartment which had turned out to be on the edge of the town centre, which pleased both ponies enough to go for it. They soon came to the address, a small two story building with a thatched roof and simple looking doors and windows. It was pretty much your average Ponyville structure. Red knocked on the door, after a few seconds waiting the door was opened by a mint green unicorn; she jumped slightly at the two frightening looking ponies at the door but soon recovered and adopted the typical Ponyville attitude. “Hello, can I help you two?” The unicorn asked politely, ending with a smile. Red nodded and asked about the free apartment, showing the mint green pony the flier. She nodded and smiled, inviting the two into the hallway, Soul closed the door behind her as they entered the small room. They quickly learned the unicorn names was Lyra Heartstrings and she lived on the bottom floor with her roommate Bon Bon. The apartment upstairs had been empty for a while so the two had decided to buy it and rent it out to other ponies, but no pony had showed interest since they had bought it… until now. After introductions were over, Lyra took the two ponies upstairs and showed them round the small apartment. There were two small bedrooms on the far side of the apartment from the door, with a bathroom separating them; the rest was large open space consisting of the kitchen, dining room and living room, complete with everything anypony would need for simple living. After a quick look around, the siblings looked at each other and nodded, this was just what they needed, cheap and simple, so Red took the bag of bit out of his pocket and worked out a price with Lyra. After a monthly rent was agreed, Lyra went downstairs with Soul to sort out paper work and keys, Soul having to do this as she was the ‘adult’ of the two. While Soul was downstairs, Red finally had chance to have something to eat, after checking the two bedrooms, he went for the one on the left, his large window facing out towards the mountains. He slung his jacket onto the bed and turned to go, he didn’t get far however as a clanging sound made him turn back around. He looked over at his jacket, on the floor just beside the bed lay a shiny metal object he instantly recognised to be his custom made dagger. Red sighed and proceeded to pick up the blade in his mouth and place it on the bedside table, the straight thick blade shining brightly in the afternoon sunshine shining through the window. After a moment of staring at his only prized possession, he once again picked up the blade with his mouth and went back into the kitchen area, tossing and twirling the blade with his muzzle as he trotted through the apartment. He reached into Souls big saddle bag and pulled out a dozen shiny red apples, putting his dagger down on the worktop he casually began eating away at the fruits, a contented smile on his face. Soul soon returned, smiling happily as she swung the key around her horn, she was relieved to be able to show her Alicorn form instead of constantly having to check her hair to hide her horn. She shut the door and locked it, flinging the keys onto the table with her magic and flopping down onto the sofa with a sigh. Red tossed her an apple and sat down next to her, the weight of the day finally pressing down on him. “Sweet Celestia, what a day!” The Alicorn groaned, slumping into the soft sofa and eating away at the apple, the black Pegasus following suit and the two soon shared a joint power nap on the sofa, ending up snuggled against each other as they always did when they slept alone. Old sibling habits were hard to break after all. They awoke hours afterward to an apartment bathed in Luna’s moonlight, Red quickly got up and starting stretching himself out and shaking himself awake. Soul slowly got up from her comfy spot and made her way over to the other bedroom, then taking a look inside, she decided it was adequate and dragged her saddle bag inside to begin the ‘process’. Red wasn’t going to stick around for all the squealing and screaming; instead he went back to his own bedroom and put on his red jacket, sliding his dagger back into its sheath on the inside. He then proceeded to open his window as far as it would go; he looked out into the night sky and took a lung full of evening air. The black Pegasus climbed out of his window and let himself drop to the floor, slowing his fall with his wings. He looked up at star filled sky and smiled, glad to be out in the cold night air once more, he stretched out his wings and with a few powerful flaps, shot off towards the moon. Nopony would be able to notice Red Eye up in the night sky, only as a shadow or spectre floating through Luna’s night, nopony that is, except Luna herself. Red soared high in the sky, gliding along silently with a small grin on his face, enjoying his time alone with his thoughts. He flew higher still as his wings caught a night time thermal, and took a deep breath as the high altitude made breathing slightly more difficult. He looked down on the moonlit town of Ponyville, the town he could call home, for now. He looked at the various buildings and shops that he would need to know and explore, the many ponies he’d need to know and the many paths leading to various other part of Equestria he would need to understand. He let this thought roll over in his mind for some time, until his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar feeling. The fur on his neck stood on end and his ears began to twitch and shake… somepony was behind him. Red flew on regardless, he was sure he was being followed, but he wasn’t going to let his follower know that, he began flying a circular pattern over the apartment, trying to regain as much height as he slowly brought his head down to his jacket and silently took his dagger from it, gripping it tightly in his mouth. He calmed his nerves and then took a lung full of air through his nose. He suddenly pulled up sharply, a gasp emanated from somewhere behind him as he looped the looped over his follower and was now right above them, without second glance he dived into the pony and placed the dagger to their neck. The black pony froze solid, apart from the constant beat of its wings. Red and the mystery follower were now hovering high in the sky; one now had a rather sharp dagger to their throat too. “It is never wise to sneak up on a pony like that,” growled Red Eye, still not looking up at the pony he had caught. “Now, who are you and what do you want?” he ordered, he didn’t get the answer he had prepared for, however. “My name,” the pony replied with an accent only one pony in the entirety of Equestria had, Reds eyes widened as he looked up with increasing horror, “Is Princess Luna of the night and what I want, is for to take your hooves off me, right this instant!” The royal Camelot voice cut through Red like a knife through butter. He knew he had screwed up big time here and the best idea was to run… now! He took a breath and snapped shut his wings, causing him to plummet towards the ground at an ever increasing speed. As he fell, he put away his dagger and focused on building up as much momentum as possible, but as silently as he could. He could hear the beating of wings behind him as the princess had seemed to have given chase; Red cursed himself as he rocketed downwards, smashing through layers of cloud. Soon the ground started to come into view and Red readied his wings for what was going to be a rather scary manoeuvre. “This is how you do it sis” he muttered to himself as he reached rooftop level, with all of the muscle power he had he threw open his wings to their full extent, catapulting him forward mere centimetres off the ground. The sound of flapping wings soon disappeared and Red made a B-line for the apartment, arriving quickly back through his open window and slamming it shut. After taking a couple of sharp breaths, he collapsed onto his bed, only having the energy to fling off his jacket and glasses. He lay there panting; eventually laughing at his own misfortune. Soul soon poked her head round the door of his bedroom. She looked at her little brother, laying there laughing like a madpony, and stepped inside to look over him with a bemused expression. “Rough night?” she asked simply, poking the black Pegasus in the side which caused him to come out of his maddened state. He turned to her and nodded meekly. “Yeah you could say that…” he replied, his eyes suddenly becoming very hard to keep open. “Well I’m sure you’ll tell me all about it in the morning,” she said softly, and in a moment of loving that Soul did not show often, she tucked her little brother into his bed and kissed him lightly on the forehead, sending him to sleep almost instantly. She silently left the room, shutting the door with a quiet click and returned to her own room, to head to bed after a long, LONG day.
Magic of the Mind - Chapter 5Soul was dreaming of Rainbow Dash as she always did, happy in her new bedroom covered in the posters and memorabilia of the one pony she obsessed over, murmuring various parts of her fantasies as she slept through the morning sun. Unfortunately this didn’t last long as she was soon knocked out the depths of her minds by a loud ‘Thud’, quickly followed by a, “BUCKING HELL THAT HURTS!” coming from the other bedroom. Soul merely rolled over in her bed and once again pursued her Rainbow coloured thoughts. “Next time, don’t try to murder a Princess… moron,” she mumbled to herself, slipping back to sleep. Soul had gathered what Red had done the night before by the amount of shouting the Princess of the night had done over the town. As Soul slept on, Red was dragging himself off the floor, pushing himself back onto his hooves, his back and wings aching horribly from the night before. The G-force that he had brought upon himself running from Princess Luna had been higher then he had expected, most probably doing some damage to his back and wing muscles. Finally back on his hooves, Red gingerly tried to move his wings into various positions, each one bringing a new degree of pain to him. He grunted and growled as he brought his wings back into a comfortable folded position. He cursed himself and the Princess of the night under his breath as he walked out of his bedroom and into the bathroom, spending a good fifteen minutes showering and generally getting himself clean and refreshed. After coming out the bathroom looking and feeling squeaky clean, Red put on his jacket and proceeded to poke his head round Souls door, checking if she was sound asleep. Red considered waking her there and then, but then thought better of it. He gently closed the door to Soul’s bedroom and looked at his watch, it was getting onto eleven o’clock. Soul’s body clock would kick her out of bed around midday if she didn’t wake before hand, so Red had an hour to himself. His next thought was breakfast, but that thought quickly dissolved as he realised there was no food in the apartment. Red at least now had something to do; he grabbed the bag of bit from the table and the keys to the apartment, slipping both into his jacket pockets. He quietly left the apartment and headed down the stairs into the small hall, as he past the door to Lyra and Bon bon’s door he thought he could hear… strange noises coming from inside, his curiosity very quickly got the better of him as he pressed one of his ears against the door. His eyes widened as he realised what he was listening to, without a moment’s hesitation he sprung back from the door and quickly made his way outside, an image now plastered on his mind. He shook his head as he wandered towards the town square, hoping he’d find the right shops or stalls, also hoping he wouldn’t run into anypony. It had been a good two hours since Red has left the apartment and he was now carrying a good few bags on his back, all being held into position by his wings, which were still in a bad condition. He had been wandering around now that the shopping was done, simply learning where shops were in the town for future reference. His mind happily wandered as he did so, his attention was elsewhere as he wandered further still through Ponyville, still attracting the stares he did when he and Soul has first arrived. His mental wandering came to an abrupt end when a familiar groggy voice grumbled into his mind ‘You could have at least left me a note or something,’ said a very morning-sounding Soul. ‘Well good morning to you too,’ Red replied sarcastically, trying to keep his chuckles within his mind. One of the major perks of Souls black magic was Telepathy, a very handy tool for social situations. Due to the two being siblings, the distance of which the magical mental communication could travel was unlimited, thanks to that special bond all brothers and sisters have with each other. Soul’s Telepathy was strong as it is, but even more so when she concentrated, with enough focus the pair were sure she could contact Celestia herself. This focus however was not needed when talking to her little brother, Telepathy to the two was second nature and required little to no effort to do so. Red was also the only pony Soul knew that could block out her out of their mind, she never properly knew why, but she was pretty sure it had something to do with the sibling connection and what was contained in his red eye. ‘I’ve got breakfast and a good amount food to keep us going,’ Red said trying to sound cheerful, Soul never was a morning pony… even if it was half way into the afternoon. ‘Good’ she replied, sounding happier at the concept of food ‘Would you mind teleporting this lot back to you? I need to do something about these wings…’ Soul simply flashed him an image of her nodding, then Red felt the weight of the bags on his back lessen, as a black aura surrounded them, then they disappeared in a flash of white. ‘Cheers sis, I’ll be back home soon, have something ready by the time I do plleeaassee?’ He didn’t get a proper reply from her, merely a grunt. ‘Home’ Red thought to himself, ‘feels weird calling this place home… yet strangely comforting.’ The thought floated around Reds head as he wandered on. He didn’t get too far however before an image of a freshly made apple pie was plastered forcefully into his mind, Soul standing proudly next to it. Red could see this was a clear attempt to make him jealous, so he merely replied, ‘Bitch, if that ain’t for me, you can kiss goodbye to your Dash plushie collection.’ Before Soul could mentally rip him to shreds, he booted her with all his might out of his head. He soon came to a posh looking building near the edge of the town square, the front was very clean and well kept, the sign out side simply read ‘Ponyville Spa’. Red looked at the building with curiosity, thinking that maybe, just maybe there was somepony in there that could do something about his wing muscles. As much as he hated social places like these, anything was worth a try to be flying again. He bravely wandered inside; as he walked through the glass door his senses were assaulted by the various aromas of flowers and smelly stuff. Red snorted as he walked up to the counter where a sky blue pony was busy working, he approached quietly and waited patiently for the spa pony to notice him. Moments later the pony looked up casually to check for customers, what she wasn’t expecting was a tall black Pegasus staring down at her with multi-coloured eyes. The spa pony yelped and fell off her chair in surprise, Red merely rolled his eyes and waited for her to get a grip of herself; he really did hate his look from time to time. Finally the spa pony, who Red later found out was named Lotus, had composed herself, Red asked about his pulled muscles. Lotus had told him that her partner Aloe could give him a back massage that would sort of his wings in no time. Reluctantly Red had accepted to have said massage and was taken to a room with a weird bed and lot of candles, Aloe had entered and got him somewhat comfortable on the strange bed and soon began massaging the areas Red had specified. All was going well until, due to Reds relaxing experience, Soul had broke through his mental barrier, most probably to get some revenge. Red however was not having any of it, and with a loud mental ‘BUCK OFF YA BASTARD’, he launched her out of his mind once again. It’s fair to say, he enjoyed the rest of his massage.
Her Head in the Clouds - Chapter 6After his massage from the spa Ponies, Red had gone back to the front desk and paid his bit. His back and wings felt fantastic, better than they had in years! He flexed and stretched them as space would allow, making him long to be back in the sky as soon as possible. As he began to walk out of the spa a rather elegant purple haired unicorn came through the door, walking in humming to herself happily. Red, being a gentlecolt at heart, let her enter before making his own way out. She nodded to him in thanks as Red trotted out in the afternoon air before then doing a double take in his direction. The unicorn looked on wide eyed as the black stallion walked out into the street, unfolding his huge wings as he did. “A new stallion in town?” She whispered to herself in disbelief. “How do I not know of this yet!?” As she stared, the tall Pegasus flapped his massive wings and disappeared upwards in a cloud of dust. Rarity turned to the two spa ponies, both staring to where Red was once standing. She approached them with haste, “Ladies, tell me, everything!” Red rocketed into the sky, a huge grin plastered on his face; he was finally back in the sky where he belonged! He couldn’t help but twist, turn and roll as he flew back towards the apartment. After taking the long way round back to the apartment, Red arrived home, unlocking the door and trotting in, humming happily to himself. “Yo sis, I’m home!” he called as he locked the door behind him and threw the keys on the kitchen counter. The lack of reply from his older sibling worried him slightly as he noticed the still warm apple pie on the table, Red quickly proceeded to open the door to Souls bedroom, but she was not there. He then tried his own, to his surprise she was there at his window, staring up at the sky. She was frozen in place, barely breathing, focused completely on the sky above. Red slowly came up along side her, following her pink snake eyes into the clouds above. There, flying high above was none other than Rainbow Dash. “Go figure” Red chuckled to himself, he could only imagine what was going through his sister’s head right now. “She’s just… I can’t even… ugh…” was all Soul could manage and it was barely a whisper at that. It was at this point that Red had one of his crazy ideas… and it wouldn’t be the last he would have before the day was done. Without a word of warning, he pushed the window wide open, took his sister by the hoof and dragged her out into the evening sun. Before Soul knew what was going on she was flying up towards the clouds that Rainbow dash was practising on. Before Soul could even make any attempt to resist or struggle, Red dragged her all the way up into the sky and along towards the field where Rainbow was practising. He plonked his dumb-founded sister on a cloud slightly higher than the ones Rainbow was using for her training, and by the time Soul had processed what had just occurred she was once again mere metres away from her life long crush. Soul’s pink eyes were wide, her breathing was rapid and sharp, and her body shook erratically… All of this simply because she was once again in close proximity to Rainbow Dash. A million and one thoughts raced through her mind, all of which were of this one mare, the one which her eyes were again transfixed against as she flew below. As Soul was once again loosing her sanity over Rainbow, Red was readying himself for his next stupid idea, the second one of the day! Red began to remove his jacket, watch and glasses; fully revealing his true black form. He really was a sight to see, even in the day, black from eye to hoof with nothing but a brown mane, matching tail and multicoloured eyes to break the darkness. As he set his items down on the cloud he reached into one of the larger pockets of his jacket, pulling out a set of very sleek silver flying goggles, complete with blacked out lenses. He put them on and tightened the strap around his head, letting the goggles fit snugly onto his eyes, his was now ready to do three things: one, scare the buck out of Rainbow, two, see what his newly massaged wings could do and three, tear up the sky with some crazy-ass flying! Red, with an ever growing smirk on his face, tapped his older sister on the shoulder. She turned to him still in a rainbow coloured daze, then raising an eyebrow at her brother’s new attire, she stared at him for a few moments before her eyes once again went wide. “Oh you’re not are you!?” she asked in disbelief as she watched her brother spread his wings and bend his legs. “Oh my god you are…” *whoosh* “Oh for Celestia’s sake he has…” was all Soul could manage as Red shot upward off the cloud and began rapidly climbing into the sky. He quickly became a black dot in the afternoon sun getting ever smaller, then stopping, then rapidly getting bigger again. Soul didn’t have the courage to warn her favourite mare before Red plunged head long into the cloud formation she was practising on, making the fluffy masses disperse from the air blast alone. Red swiftly recovered from his dive and began circling around; assessing the damage he had done with an evil smile. Rainbow Dash, having been thrown off balance by Reds arrival, was now recovering on what was left of her cloud assault course. She looked up at the black Pegasus, his huge black wings barely moving as he circled around, her shock and surprise was quickly turning to rage as she looked at the ever grinning Red Eye. She snorted up at him and prepared to go up and give him a good thrashing for ruining her days practise! She took to the air once more and instantly went shooting after Red, who upon noticing the angry cyan pony, turned tail and began to accelerate away. Soul could only watch from above as her little brother was chased by the most perfect pony in the entirety of Equestria. “What an afternoon this is turning out to be” she sighed as she too took flight trying to keep an eye on the black dot that was Red, usually she wouldn’t dare go flying after Rainbow, but she had a responsibility to make sure Red didn’t do something too stupid. Which at this moment in time, she knew was a possibility. Reds little plan was working nicely as he put on full power, accelerating faster than Rainbow ever could, who was lagging behind him as he flew onwards over the fields. Of course, Rainbow was the fastest flier in Equestria, so naturally, when she got up to speed she quickly closed the gap between her and Red. Just as he’d planned; When Rainbow was close enough to Red to be able to reach out of grab him, he pulled up sharply and braked hard, causing him to stop dead in the air, before Rainbow had time to even blink, Red had rolled over and blasted himself in the complete opposite direction. It took Rainbow a good couple of seconds to realise what had just happened and a good few meters for her to stop and give chase once more. By which time Red was already roaring up into the sky, heading for his ‘target’, Cloudsdale. Soul had watched all this unfold from high above, despite the fact it was Rainbow that Red was giving grief, she couldn’t help be smirk at his skilful and extreme flying, he always had been better than the rest, not faster… just, better. Red sped towards the floating cloud city, if he wasn’t about to cause as much trouble as he was, he would of stopped to admire it, but now wasn’t the time. Now, now was the time to make himself known to the rest of the area. He knew that rumours and gossip were already making there way around Ponyville about him and Soul, all that was left was Cloudsdale. Any normal pony would wonder why in the hay he would be doing this, the answer to that is simple. Red and Soul considered themselves to not be ponies, to themselves they were monsters, beings that really should never be in Equestria but somehow are. How somepony gets into this kind of mind-set is not something that should be discussed, but this is how they were and because of it, the more ponies that thought the same about them, the more normal they felt. So, Red was going to make sure that both Ponyville and Cloudsdale were fully aware of the two scary new ponies that were now in the area, and tearing up the sky was one of his best methods! Anyway, back to the action! Red was climbing upwards towards Rainbows home town at great speed, with said pony in tow. The wind whipped at his mane as he pasted through cloud layer after cloud layer, scaring the feathers off weather crews and birds alike. There would be a ‘Fwump’ every time Red smashed through a dense cloud, most of which were destroyed when Rainbow did the same, this carried on until Red was faced with a much darker and larger cloud, one that Rainbow quickly recognised as a storm cloud. She began slowing expecting her adversary to turn to avoid it, but he did no such thing. Rainbow watched in horror as Red slammed head long into the black and grey mass, there was huge crack of thunder and lightning sprang out in all directions, almost striking Rainbow as she came to a stop and hovered, staring at where Red had entered the cloud. Soul, who had just caught up in time to watch this happen, wasted no time in contacting her brother ‘Did you really just plough head first into a huge storm cloud?’ she asked as she entered Reds mind. ‘Yes, yes I did. Problem?’ Was the reply she got, Soul mentally face-hoofed at this and once again fixed her eyes on Rainbow, who by now was in utter shock at what she had just seen. She had just watched a fellow Pegasus, a horribly scary and rude one at that, but still one of her own kind fly into a storm cloud full of lightning. She couldn’t take it anymore, he hadn’t appeared yet, he must be still in there somewhere. Without another moments hesitation she flew into the cloud the same place Red had, and Soul watched in horror as Rainbow disappeared and more lightning discharged from the cloud. Soul, for want of a better phrase, was now having kittens. “No… she didn’t? … Oh god she did, oh no, no, nononono!” Soul was panicking, she had no idea what to do, her crush had just flown into a storm cloud after her little brother and as she stood there on a cloud, pretty much everything she ever wanted and needed in her life was most likely being torched by bolts of electricity. With this thought in mind, Souls body started to move all by itself. She leaped from high up cloud and plunged into the storm cloud. ‘Red, its Rainbow, she’s in the cloud with you, I’m gonna try and find her’, Soul didn’t even believe she was saying this to her brother, telepathically of course but still, it was like she was a observer in her own body, watching as herself charge into danger to save the mare she loved. ‘Understood, I’ll keep the lightning off you as best I can.’ Red stopped himself making any negative comments about Rainbow the moment Soul contacted him, now was neither the time nor the place. Now, now was the time to bend some physics! Red tightened his goggles and then proceeded to fly to the very core of the storm cloud, when he finally reached it he began flying a tight circle. As he did so, the lightning from the cloud began to strike him, instead of flying out into the rest of the cloud. Yes, it was fair to say it hurt… a lot! But, it was nothing Red couldn’t handle; pain to him was as much a blessing as a curse. As Red continued to contain the lightning, Soul was franticly searching through the rest of the cloud, still having no idea how or why she was suddenly being so heroic. She scanned all around her with her horn, trying to locate Dash in the black sea of cloudyness. After two 360s, Soul picked up on Dash, without a moment’s hesitation she shot towards her. ‘Soul…’ Red’s voice sounded very strained in her head ‘Hate to hurry you… but I can’t hold it all for much longer.' Red grunted loudly, trying to finish his final sentence ‘If you’re gonna do something, do it now!’ Soul took this new information into account and wasted no time in grabbing Rainbow with her magic and teleporting her and herself out of the cloud, not a moment too soon either as multiple bolts of lightning came whipping out. Red couldn’t go on a second more, whether they were out or not he had to release the couple of hundred volts he’d absorbed, with a blast of his wings he pushed himself out of the top of the cloud, landing on its surface. Lightning and static electricity surged round his body; it physically whipped around him from head to hoof. (To those Pokemon fans reading this, he looked like Pikachu charging a thunderbolt attack) With a triumphant roar he reared up and brought his front hooves down onto the cloud, with the almighty crack of thunder he released the energy back into the cloud, which finally returned to its dormant state. Soul sighed in relief as her magic relocated her and Rainbow Dash to a cloud a few metres away from the large cloud that screamed ‘danger’ in Soul’s mind. She took a moment to watch as her younger Brother sorted out the grey mass, then froze as she realised what it was she’d just done. She heard groaning and the shuffling of hooves behind her, and slowly turned herself around to face the Cyan and Rainbow coloured pony staring at her. Soul wasted no time in contacting her Brother through their mental link, ‘RedpleasehurryupI’malonewithheryouneedtocomeandhelpmepleaseplease,’ her mental words jumbling together into a giant mush as she tried in vain to calm her internal freakout. Rainbow cocked her head to the side as she studied the turquoise pony in front of her who was simply staring at Dash like she’d seen a ghost. Dash moved in closer to the other mare and waved a front hoof in her face. “Hello? Equestria to Soul? Anypony in there? I just wanted to thank you for saving me ba— Wait, how did you get me out of there?” Dash asked in confusion, she didn’t remember being flown out, but she did remember feeling a sharp crack of pain course through her body for a few moments. That was something Dash was not okay with. The reply into Soul’s mind from Red was one she was expecting and was very much prepared for. He was cocky and sarcastic as usual, responding with ‘Well excuse me! You aren’t the one who just got bombarded with LIGHTNING.’ He exaggerated the last word with a mental push, trying to force Soul out of his mind, but not before she managed to get a response in. ‘IDON’TCAREABOUTHELIGHTNINGJUSTBEHEREOKAYINEEDYOU’ she managed to mentally scream at Red before she was forcibly booted from his mind. She was about to attempt to force her way back in when she realised Dash had asked a question. A very difficult question for Soul to answer without firstly squealing because her idol was talking to her, and secondly, it would be very difficult for her to answer without blowing both her and her Brothers’ covers. She needed to pull herself together for this one, oh how she wished her Brother was there right now with her. She sucked in a deep breath and broke herself out of her fangirl stasis, she needed to be in complete control of herself right now so that she wouldn’t mess everything up. “I used my magic to teleport us both ou—oh SHIT.” Soul didn’t even take note of Dash flinching at her cursing, she simply backed away a few paces as she realised exactly what she just said. ‘Oh Celestia no. Did I just… oh Celestia I did. Perhaps she didn’t notice? Of course she noticed how could she not notice I’m hiding my horn so she thinks I’m a Pegasus and Pegasi don’t have magic oh no what have I done I—’ Her second internal freakout of the day was interrupted by a loud ‘fwump’ and a powerful gust of air as her younger brother landed wearily onto the cloud next to her. She sighed heavily in relief, she’d never been so relieved to see the younger pony in all her life, well, apart from the time he saved her from a stampede of hungry kittens, but that isn’t the point. “Red I’m so glad you’re here you have to help me,” Soul slipped into conversing with him mentally without even realising it, ‘I accidentally told her I used magic,’ Red conveyed the image of him face-hoofing, but it went ignored by Soul as she continued to freak, ‘but she doesn’t know that I can because she thinks I’m a Pegasus but obviously she knows I can use it now because I told her but I didn’t mean to I swear I’m so sorry please forgive me Red oh Celestia what are we going to do I—' Her mental words were stopped in their tracks as Red used all his concentration to shield his mind from her words. Once he was sure she’d stopped, he let down his barrier again and held up a hoof. ‘Calm down, Sis. I got dis.’ He turned his head to face Rainbow, but was not expecting her to be right in front of them with both her hooves poised next to their heads. He gulped and said outloud, “Maybe I don’t got dis,” before Rainbow used her hooves to knock both of their heads together. Red dropped to the floor holding one hoof to his head, the impact of Soul’s horn on his forehead leaving a lovely cut. He groaned once, then snapped his head up to the two mares after he heard a sharp intake of breath from Dash. He followed her shocked gaze to Soul rubbing the side of her head with her hoof and— her horn. Her horn was exposed. Soul knew exactly what had happened as soon as she heard Dash gasp, so she didn’t even bother trying to be subtle about it. She opened her eyes and looked up just to check, then moved her gaze over to Dash, and smiled sadly. Dash couldn’t believe what she was seeing; “You’re… you’re an Alicorn! But… how the hay is that possible?” Dash looked between Soul’s impassive expression and the look of annoyance on Red’s face then took a step back. “Who ARE you?” Red shook his head and stood up, spreading his wings out to their full length to stretch them, whilst still clutching his hoof to his bleeding head. He knew they had no choice now but to either explain themselves to Dash, or teleport themselves the hay out of there. There was a small voice in the back of his mind giving him the option of killing Dash, but Red thought to himself that he really wasn’t prepared to be dismembered by his own sister, so he disregarded that option. He chose the first option, considering the fact there was no real point in hiding anymore. “We’re—” He was interrupted by a sharp pain at the forefront of his mind, a signal from Soul for him to shut up. ‘Easy on the mind crush there, Sis’ he retaliated. Soul cast a quick glance at Red and rolled her eyes, then turned her attention back to Dash. “We’re just two Ponies who’ve had a pretty bucking rough life, and we’re just looking for somewhere for us to settle down.” Before Dash could ask questions about how Soul had both a horn and wings, Soul quickly explained their situation, leaving nothing out, except for the piles and piles of Rainbow Dash merchandise she’d collected over the years. That was something Dash didn’t need to know about. Dash listened to Soul’s whole story, quietly making her own judgements about the two strange ponies. She definitely felt sorry for them, but the fact that Soul could only use dark magic unsettled her a little bit. Then again, the mare’s black magic did save her life, so Dash had to be grateful for that. Dash nodded to nothing in particular, then looked to the two siblings and grinned. “Alright, I’ve decided I’m going to be your friend.” The two ponies looked startled, and cast suspicious looks at each other. “But on one condition,” Dash began. “You,” she looked pointedly at Red, “Have to race me.” She smirked at Red and puffed out her chest in triumph at the look he shared with Soul. Red turned back to Dash and smiled, “Alright then, but on one condition,” he suddenly grew serious, “There has to be a bet.” Dash grinned at that comment. “Fine. If I win, you have to do all of my weather duties for a whole month.” She knew she had this in the bag; she was the fastest Pony in all of Equestria, there was no way this strange new Pony would be able to beat her. Red laughed curtly and turned to smirk at his sister, having had this third and final crazy idea of the day. “Okay then, but if I win,” He turned back to Dash, “You have to go on a date with my Sister.” He’d already prepared himself for the metal barrage that was his sister’s anger, but he knew she’d thank him for this later. He hoped. He ignored the low growl that emanated from Soul’s throat beside him and moved a few hoofsteps forward, one of his hoofs extended to shake. Dash wasn’t expecting that as his part of the bet, but she took it in the stride regardless. She grinned at Soul, whose head was bent low to the ground, growling at her brother, then back to Red. She stepped forward and grabbed his hoof, “Fine. I’ll give you a week or two to prepare; you’ll need all the help you can get if you think you’re going to beat me.” She grinned at the two of them for the last time, then turned on her hoofs and bolted off the end of the cloud, snapping open her wings as she dived off, soaring away from the cloud they had occupied for far too long. Soul lifted up one of her front hooves and whacked Red in the side of the head, then collapsed to the ground, letting out exasperated sigh. Red accepted the punch with no complaint, he knew he deserved it, plus he had a better idea to help the smaller pony out of her misery. “Fancy a drink, Sis?” Soul stared up at her Brother looking absolutely dejected, then didn’t even say a word and she placed her hoof on his leg. Tapping into her magic, a black aura surrounded them both as she used her energy to teleport them both to their favourite place, The Blank Spot. After the day they’d both had, drowning their sorrows in a beer glass seemed like the best idea ever.
Drunk and Disorderly - Chapter 7When the pair opened their eyes again they were stood in a dark, dingy alleyway, surrounded by tall skyscrapers. They could hear the night time din of Manehatten echoing down the alley, the stench of filth and waste coming from the nearby bins was pungent and burned the nostrils. Now when I say they, I really mean Soul - Red was still shaking away the excruciating pain that came with long range teleportation from black magic. It’s a painful thing, the dark arts. It hurts all normal ponies apart from the caster, but Red had generated a certain level of tolerance these days due to the sheer amount of magic Soul had used on him over the years. The pair even think he’s started to absorb it too, building up his own little reservoir within his soul… but that’s just a theory. “Ooohhh sweet Celestia, that one stung!” Red groaned as his senses abruptly returned to him. Soul merely scoffed and began using her magic on herself, making sure she looked presentable before they entered the bar. “I swear, Red,” chuckled a shadow behind them, “You say that every time!” Red simply turned around and met the eyes of the big grey earth pony stood in the shadows by a tacky looking steel door. “And good evening to you too, Lockdown.” Red replied with a grin. “You miss me?” The bouncer Pony simply laughed and unlocked the steel door. “Get in there you pair of trouble makers!” He said with his usual friendly grin, “The Unknown Cause are on tonight, you wouldn’t want to keep ‘em waiting now would ‘ya?” Red and Soul trotted inside, thanking Lockdown as he closed the door behind them; there was a series of bangs in the darkness, and finally a second door opened in front of them, letting them enter ‘The Blank Spot’. ‘The Blank Spot’ was no normal bar - far from it. It was the bar that served Equestria’s best-worst ponies. Criminal, rejects and lunatics alike would make their way to this place, a place they could be free of what society thought of them and how the world viewed them. All those who entered ‘The Blank Spot’ became equal; their past became irrelevant, once inside you were you. Nothing more, nothing less. The bar itself had a simple set up, a long wooden rectangular bar in the centre, a medium sized stage at the right end of the room and a big open dance floor on the left. Scattered everywhere were tables, chairs and stools, all of which were worn and aged. The lighting was kept to a minimum inside apart from the spotlights that pointed onto the stage, the smell of booze and tobacco was strong as ever and the sound of drunken chatting was music to the two Pony’s ears. Red grinned as he took it all in for the hundredth time, he had always loved this place, it was like a second home to him - the home they kept going back to. Soul had a small smile on her face, after the day she’d had she was definitely ready for a good booze up! As the pair stepped forward into the dim light, both of their eyes shone, illuminating each others faces, causing a series of gasps from around the room. Like a ripple effect, the ponies sober enough to think turned to stare at the siblings. Slowly, smiles and grins began to appear and drinks rose. Without warning, the guitarist who was setting up with his band on stage began to play a riff on his guitar, the drummer and the bassist soon joining in. As the beat echoed through building the pair began to walk towards the bar, their hooves hitting the floor to the time of the music as they made their way past the groups of smiling drunken ponies. The band stopped playing as the two reached the bar and sat down. “Welcome back you two, it’s been a while!” said the bartender, he nodded to his two regulars, glancing knowingly at Soul, who was now slumped against the bar. “Long day?” Soul merely groaned, which was pretty much the best answer he was going to get from her right now. Red simply rested a hoof on Soul and sighed. “The usual please, chief,” Red said with a chuckle, the bartender nodded and went to get their drinks. As he did Red turned on his stool and whistled to the band who had finished setting up on the stage. “Yo Mann!” The drummer unicorn looked up from his kit and waved at his friend. “Strike up, mate!” Mann nodded and motioned to the rest of the band to get ready. As the band began to play their first song the bartender returned, sliding over one bottle of vodka and a pony bomb. Red smiled as he took his vodka and screwed off the top, he had no need for shot glasses! He took a large swig of the bottle, the familiar burning in the back of his throat making him grin - oh how he had missed alcohol. Soul was doing the same, happily drinking away her sorrows and listening to the sweet music the band was playing. The night went on like this until Red got sufficiently drunk, allowing him to relax a bit more than usual. The band had just finished a song when Mann called out to Red from the back of the stage, ”Red!” Red turned from the bar to face his drummer friend, “You gonna come sing something or what!?” A smile instantly plastered itself onto the pegasus’s face as he set his bottle down. He practically leaped onto the stage as the crowd gave a small cheer as Red took up position behind the microphone. His gaze shifted back to the bar, Soul sat there, now stuck in her depressive drunken state. Drink did this to her, after a few hours of hyper-ness she would slip down into nothing but sadness and sorrow, an almost unbreakable state… but that didn’t stop Red trying. Red turned to the band and whispered about his song of choice, they nodded and took up their positions. Red cleared his throat and with a devilish laugh, he started the song: Almost midnight, I'm just sittin' at the bar, Soul’s ears perked up at Red’s song choice. It wasn’t enough to do anything to her mood, but she still silently applauded her little Brother for trying to make an effort. Even when she was in this state, she still couldn’t help but love her Brother. Wakin' up the devil, Rattlin' the cage inside of me, I miss him a little, When he gets out, we're one hell of a team, I know I ought to leave, Him locked up and throw away the key, But his hand's on the wheel and my hoof's on the pedal, Wakin' up the devil. I didn't come here lookin' for a fight, But if you're gonna bark boy, you better have a bite, I ain't been crazy in a really long time, But you're about to meet a good friend of mine. Pretty girls and whiskey, Quarter bags and dimes, Put it in my face, I'm gonna do it every time. But try to keep him quiet, Try to hold him down, Damn it feels like heaven every time he comes around. As the music faded Red turned his head and let out a long breath, trying to quell the emotions that rose up within him whenever he sang a song he held dear. The small crowd of ponies cheered as Red bowed and waved, he then gave the band all bro-hoof and thanked them for another great song. Red had sung with The Unknown Cause many times at the bar, it’s partly how he and Soul became so well known. Both of them had very unique singing voices, both of which they used only when they really felt the moment was right. Soul maintains the belief that her singing voice is nowhere near as good as everypony says it is, which is rubbish, but that’s just Soul. Red floated down off the stage and trotted back over to where Soul was sat, she was still drinking away but… just on the side of her mouth a tiny smile was visible. She wasn’t happy, far from it, but hearing her little brother singing that song at least brought her a bit of enjoyment. Red ordered another bottle of vodka and let out a contented sigh. “Not gonna go up and sing us a tune, sis?” Red asked, cocking an eyebrow at his sibling. Soul simply finished off her drink and stared at her glass, a grin flicking on her face for just a second. “If you had asked me five glasses ago, then, maybe…” She looked at Red with eyes he’d seen a million times before, “But right now, I think I’ll leave the singing to the happy drunks.” Red simply laughed at this remark and went back to his drink. He spun round on his stool and lent against the bar, watching the band play, his hoof idly tapping against his stool with the music. “We should totally get them playing in Ponyville you know,” Red said gently prodding Soul in the wing. She sat up and looked over her shoulder, starting to listen to the music rather than her own thoughts. Soul nodded slowly, giving her silent approval of the sweet metal ‘The Unknown Cause’ was producing. They sat there listening together for a few more songs until Red finally looked at his watch; it read four a.m. With a sigh he set down his last bottle and wobbled onto his hooves. “About time we left sis, still got plenty to do tomorrow.” Despite the amount of alcohol Red had consumed his thought and speech were still impeccable, it was just his body that acted completely hammered. Soul merely groaned as she joined him as he walked towards the door, saying goodbye to his fellow drinkers as he past them. Soul remained silent and simply walked behind her brother, looking more zombie than pony. The pair made it outside without incident and Soul weaved a new teleportation spell to get them from the bar to their apartment. Red took his position beside his sister and with a flash of light, the spell was cast and home they went… well, sort of. When Red had once again regained his senses he was upside down on the roof, being soaked by a rain cloud. Meanwhile, Soul was now lying in her bed, all tucked up and cosy, and already falling asleep. Red, as you may have guessed, was not best pleased. Clearly, his sister was utterly and completely out of it, in many senses of the word. The mixture of alcohol and a rather stressful day had clearly bucked her magic entirely. “Well… bollocks!” Said the now soaking black Pegasus as he got to his hooves, looking up at the rain cloud that was the cause of his dampness. With one swift blast of his wings he sent the offending grey mass away into the night sky. Red considered going down and shaking himself off in Souls bedroom as a form of revenge, but he valued his life so he didn’t. Instead, he floated down to his window, slipped inside, and promptly fell asleep on the floor. His last word before flopping to the wooden panelling was simply, “Bitch…”
