From Behind Crimson Curtains

"Who are you? Answer me!" Silk Weave demanded, holding Linen close to her.

"I... uh... this is really..." Dash said. "Uh... we can explain this?"

"You'd damn right better explain this," she hissed. "My brother is not one to sleep around with mares, and he's never one to invite anypony else ever into his own house." The amber glow of magic slowly came into being around Linen, and Silk gently lifted her brother's body into the house, and slammed the door shut behind her with a force that could be felt through the entire building.

"Uh, we really mean it," Applejack said, stepping forwards towards Linen only for Silk to block her way and met her focused glare. "I... we really hope you would sit down with us...?"

"If any of you try anything funny, I won't hesitate to throw you all out the window," Silk replied slowly, her voice calm but steadfast, a threat delivered in a way that said that she actually anticipated doing it. "I am going to keep my brother within my sights at all times. Understood?"

"I... understood, ma'am," Applejack said, nervously looking back towards her friend, eyes pleading for help only to find that she was just as baffled as she was. "We're all gathered in the living room..." Applejack gestured towards the doorway with her hoof, as Twilight and Rarity poked their heads out around the corner.

"Um, Linen? What's going on? We heard some commotion out here and—oh, dear Celestia..." Twilight mumbled, seeing the farmer mare, the weather pegasus, and a mare that she hadn't seen before. "Wow, um... I don't remember inviting another mare..."

"Invited?" Silk asked, eyes darting between each of them as she sized them up. "Invited for what?"

"I... uh... hahaha..." Twilight giggled nervously, unable to answer.

"That's what we were here to talk about, Miss Weave," Applejack answered. "It's... a real long story. You see, Ponyville just had its... well, that week, and Linen..."

"Linen moved here around that time, didn't he?" Silk asked, sighing, though the anger in her voice was only partially alleviated by the answer. "Then I guess it would be best to learn how it happened... and why you're all here in his house."

"Poor dear," Fluttershy said, wiping off the sweat collecting on Linen's head with a dry towel. "It looks like he's having a nightmare."

"It's a normal thing for Linen... he's always having nightmares about something," Silk said, sitting at the table in the center of the room absentmindedly poking at a slice of cake that Pinkie had procured for her. She poked off a chunk and ate it with little enthusiasm, instead pushing away the plate afterwards and delving straight to business. "So, with our introductions out of the way, I believe you were going to explain all of this...?"

"Right... ahem..." Twilight said. "I'm sure you're well aware that Linen has had some... mare troubles, especially considering that he arrived right when Ponyville began its estrus period."

"Understandable," Silk said, with another exasperated sigh. "I've been through that myself. Though I guess when one's been brought up in a city where social status means everything, learning to control one's urges almost becomes second nature. So, how did this all start?"

Twilight cleared her throat, opting to answer with her more precise attention to detail lest the others end up tripping over their own words. "Well, shortly after Linen arrived, a mare by the name of Colgate found him first, just standing in the middle of the street. From that, Linen attempted to escape, eventually gathering up enough mares to constitute roughly around half the town."

"Half the town?" Silk shook her head. "You gals don't have a lot of stallions around these parts, do you...?"

Applejack chuckled sourly, shaking her head, as well. "Sugarcube, I don't think there's any stallion that's got enough stones to try and stay in this town. Most of ours just take a vacation or skip on out of here before the season sets in. After that... things get... heated... so to speak."

"And what happened after that?" Silk asked. "Judging by the current state of affairs, I don't think my brother succeeded in his escape attempt..."

"Uh... yeah..." Pinkie Pie said. "That would be my fault. I sort of caught him in the... stallion's room near the park, and then I sort of... knocked him out... with a party cannon blast to the face..."

"...say again? What's a party cannon, exactly?"

"It's kind of like a regular cannon, except it shoots out... you know, party stuff," Pinkie said, her voice low and without the usual exuberance she normally had. This party certainly took a rather dramatic turn on such short notice. "Like confetti... and balloons... and streamers and all that. Except he sort of took it all to the face, so I kind of knocked him out."

"So that's how he was captured. I'm not going to ask what you were doing dragging a cannon along with you... but I take it from how you're all here and Linen's face seems to be intact that the damage to him was minimal?"

"Oh, yeah, totally harmless!" Pinkie said, nodding. "It's not supposed to hit hard enough to hurt anypony, just cover their face with all the party stuff. I think he might have just... you know, fainted, or something. Er, not that I'm saying that it was his fault or anything! I know it was totally not nice of me to do that to him, just that... he was a stallion, and I hadn't seen a stallion for a while by that time, so I couldn't resist following him, and he was playing hard-to-get with the whole town! So I thought if I could catch him, then everypony would be hap—"

"I think I get it," Silk interrupted. "So you knocked him out. Then what?"

"Pinkie sort of... delivered him to all the mares in town. We all gathered at the town hall once news started to spread that we managed to capture a stallion," Twilight said. "Even me. I'm not really experienced with the.... opposite gender, so I had to check it out. And when I got there, Colgate was practically out of her mind, and claimed him before any of us could."

"This Colgate mare... what's she like?" Silk asked, a number of voices screaming in her head to just flip the table right at that moment and go on a marehunt throughout all of Ponyville. Her heartbeat pounded in her head, and she forced herself to remain still.

Twilight gulped. "She's usually a very... normal mare. She's friendly, very nice, and outgoing. It was kind of surprising to see her like that, but I guess estrus can do some pretty crazy things. Apparently, she has a thing for shy stallions... like your brother. I know for sure that Pinkie and Applejack were there... but I don't remember much after I had... well, my turn."

Silence fell, and the tension in the room grew thick enough that one could cut it with a knife, until Applejack spoke up.

"...for what it's worth, I never laid a single hoof on your brother... it was... I just felt really bad for doing that. I just left and... did it myself," she said. "I'm not sure 'bout the other mares, but I'm pretty sure Pinkie had her turn with him. Along with every other mare in the room."

"Wait... you meant he actually did it with almost every mare in town?" Silk said, covering her open mouth with a hoof. "How... how is that even possible?"

"That would be me, again, hehe..." Pinkie said, raising her hoof. "I sort of have this... thing, a food, that allows mares to not end up with foals in their bellies, and I had enough for the whole town! Just in case, you know, so I really hope it ends up okay. But I also had this thing for stallions that could keep them going all night long, and then some. And I gave it to him."

"Sweet Celestia..." Silk mumbled, rubbing the side of her head. "This is all sorts of messy, isn't it? I think I'm starting to get the general point now... keep going."

"And then after that, he sort of woke up in the middle of the night, and disappeared from the town hall," Twilight continued. "We don't know where he went after that, but we assume that he ran, since Pinkie claims that he ran into him in Sugarcube Corner, Ponyville's premier bakery, the next night, only to be knocked out by an overdose of sugar over a rogue bowl that she left in the kitchen."

"Yeah, it was actually a good thing that happened," Pinkie said. "I saw him from the second story window from Sugarcube Corner, and I immediately knew that he was trying to look for food. The doors and windows were locked, because the Cakes told me that they didn't want anypony get inside, but I unlocked the door in the kitchen for him. And then I set out some more of those special keep-stallions-going cupcakes for him, and he ate them all up! Then I tried to get him and that was when I got knocked out."

"I guess from there..." Twilight said, looking to the mare sitting near the couch, facing away from the conversation as she focused intently on Linen's haggard breathing. "...he ended up at Fluttershy's place."

"Yeah... he did," Dash said, rubbing her arm as Silk tilted her head at the sight of the pegasus' uncharacteristic fidgeting. "He sort of ended up there, and I think that was where it got the... well, it was really bad. Really bad on my part," she whispered.

Silk maintained her facade of neutrality, and leaned forward on the table to stare directly into Dash's magenta eyes. Dash could only idly open her mouth several times in response; the gaze was intense, and a chill suddenly descended upon her body as she unconsciously began to start shuddering. She simply waited, as Silk took the initiative and made the first move.

"So... what did you do to my brother, Rainbow Dash?" Silk asked.

"I... uh... listen, it wasn't like I really meant any harm by it, but Linen was... okay, I guess I could probably explain it as the wrong place at the wrong time? He totally just appeared out of nowhere, and Fluttershy and I were just sort of... getting it off at her house, and it was way out of Ponyville, so we didn't get the news about a stallion showing up. Fluttershy brought him back to her house, saying that she'd found him just laying under a tree right outside of Sweet Apple Acres."

"That would be my farm," Applejack said. "Right outside of Ponyville."

"Ah, the apple trees, hmm...?" Silk noted with interest. "I've heard many good things about the Apple family, especially about your little group here in Ponyville. But I digress." Her casual smile disappeared and she looked back to Dash. "Continue."

"Anyway..." Dash began, taking a quick dainty sip from the cup of water in front of her to assuage the butterflies in her stomach. "Pinkie said earlier that she gave him that food that makes the stallion all ready to go, and stuff, so when we found him, I sort of wanted to... do it, just right there and then. That conversation sort of woke him up, and then I just sort of pushed it onto him and then we just... rutted him. Hard."

"And you also had that miracle pastry for mares that Pinkie was talking about earlier?"

"Yeah, I mean, Pinkie was handing them out, and they were free, so I figured I might as well pick some up." Dash ran a shaky hoof through her prismatic mane, wiping away a sheen of sweat that had begun gathering. "I didn't realize how useful it came in later. I couldn't hold myself back, and we ended up doing it a few times." She paused a moment, contemplating her next words. "I'm sorry. I should have known that he was totally out of it, and that we shouldn't have done what we did."

"You don't have to apologize," Silk said. "I know estrus is an incredibly stressful period of time, and certain actions might have been made with... clouded judgment. Not that I'm any less displeased for saying that." She slammed her hoof into the table. "I knew we should have stopped him from moving to Ponyville, but he was just... we didn't know it would happen. Things just seemed normal, and Linen wrote back after a while saying that he was completely fine..."

"Does he keep secrets from you a lot?" Applejack asked.

Silk nodded. "He's oftentimes very nervous about what he lets out, even to us... his own family. Normally, it takes a bit of coaxing for him to reveal anything, but it was hard for us to tell about this particular situation. The written word is in no way a good judgment of his current state of mind. I should have visited sooner."

"It's alright," Twilight said, sadly looking at Linen's sleeping form on the couch. "I guess part of the blame lies on us, and the whole town for using him like that. No stallion should ever be put in that sort of situation, especially one like Linen. I suppose it was just lucky that he caught a break afterwards when Applejack found him. Well, again, if you could take it like that."

"Wasn't she with the other mares in the town hall?" Silk asked, raising a brow towards the cowpony. "You rutted him like the rest of them did."

"I swear that I didn't lay a single hoof or any part of my body near 'im," Applejack said. "It just... felt wrong, so I just... stopped myself from doing it, just walked away like nothin' had happened. I would have stopped the rest of the mares, but that whole darn buildin' was like a boilin' teapot just waitin' to whistle. And I think if I stayed any longer than I did, I would have joined them. But I didn't, and I went straight back to Sweet Apple Acres and tried to sort out this whole sorry affair on my lonesome."

"And what reason do I have to believe that you're not lying?" Silk asked.

"I..." Applejack went silent. Her word against Silk's, and Linen's sister had absolutely no reason to believe that she was telling the truth. That bit her harder than any lie she could have told; to have told the truth only for it to be readily as accepted as a lie instead. "I swear I'm tellin' the truth, but that's all I can say about it... I'd understand if you didn't believe me."

"I guess that remains to be seen, especially when I hear Linen's side of things. And you found him and took him in?"

"Yes, ma'am. Gave him a healthy serving of Apple family hospitality, and set him up right and proper with some food to fill his belly. By that time, he was already plum tuckered out, so I gave him our guest room to sleep in. I think that was when things started to cool down."

Silk decided to no longer ignore the absorbing gaze of adoration from the beaming Rarity sitting just off to Twilight's right. "Is something wrong, Rarity?" she asked.

"Are you really... the Silk Weave? The premier fashion designer from Canterlot?"

"Yes, I am. And I have heard a great deal many things about you, Rarity, especially from one Fancypants. What is your role in all of this?"

"My role?" Rarity echoed. "Why, I believe I may have been the first voice of sanity to Linen during such dark times for him," she said, priding herself on her lack of intimate attention. "As one who understands and appreciates the nuances of maintaining a proper image, I normally isolate myself from the rest of the town during estrus and attend to my own needs as best as possible. I decided to visit Applejack that day to indulge in some cider, and conversation, as we're usually two of very few mares in town that can maintain a normal demeanor even during the worst of the urges."

"She talked with him 'bout... tailorin' stuff," Applejack said. "Linen's a tailor, isn't he? Likes to sew and all that?"

"Oh, of course," Silk said. "We grew up sewing lots of things together... though now I regret that because it resulted in him being teased in liking 'filly' things during his early school years. But he enjoyed it, and wouldn't pick another hobby over it. If anything, talking about such things with him is the easiest way to calm his nerves, and to get to know him better."

"And that's exactly what I did," Rarity said. "Then when he mentioned that he was the one who created pristine velvet—ah! That was absolutely amazing, and to think..." She levitated the small shard of cloth in front of her eyes. "...he actually went so far as to produce a single sample for one such as myself." She sniffled. "I'm so touched. But, yes! I believe he went to work with Applejack for a while afterwards, and I don't think much else happened after that."

"A little scuffle with RD happened..." Applejack said. "But it wasn't anythin' that we couldn't keep under control. He even helped 'round my farm a bit, too. Always good to have a helpin' hoof around when we need to finish up the rest of the harvest. My family usually tries to finish up the applebuck season early on so we can avoid problems like this, but we were a little bit behind schedule this year, so I guess it ended up like it did."

"And, uh... yeah, that was basically the gist of it," Twilight ended. "We're really, really sorry about what happened with Linen, and this little party that we had was sort of our way of expressing that. Well, I guess it would have..."

"...until I showed up," Silk said. "Very well. Until then, I'm afraid I must ask that this party be cut short, and for all of you to leave. I can take care of Linen for the time being."

"Oh, um... okay..." Fluttershy said, stepping away from the couch. "I... I could help if you need me to..."

Silk smiled softly at her. "I'd appreciate that very much, if it doesn't inconvenience you. I only expected this to be a short visit, not anything as bad as... this. So I would like to have your help in taking care of Linen for the time being. But!" she suddenly cried out. "Do not take this as a sign that I've accepted all of your apologies, nor does this mean that I'm any less angry about it. I would simply like sometime to think this over before I invite you all back here to either throw you all out the window or accept your apologies."

Twilight merely nodded, and the five other mares exited without a word, not willing to incur Silk Weave's wrath any further. As soon as the door had closed, Silk sighed and shook her head, then walked up to Fluttershy with a cordial smile pasted on her face.

"Really, now... of all the mares I'd have expected my brother to bed, I didn't think the Elements of Harmony would be among them, of all ponies."

Fluttershy gasped. "You... knew about us?"

"Despite the willful ignorance of some of Canterlot's high society ponies, there are some of us who quite clearly know who you and your friends are, Miss Fluttershy. Especially not after Rarity's little escapade with Fancypants and your time as a model. And Twilight certainly is not unknown, by any means. In academia gatherings, her works are a subject that comes up quite often."

"Oh, my..." Fluttershy shrunk away from Silk, gazing at her from behind her pink mane. "So does that mean that...?"

Silk nodded. "Honestly, if this was—agh, Celestia curse my indecision—if this was any other group of mares, I'd probably have flattened you all where you stood. But you mares are the element bearers, one of Princess Celestia's most trusted ponies, and I would be foalish to try and harm such important ponies, especially when you've all shown exemplary character... though I might just go around town later on and just slap the living daylights out of every mare that I see. Especially this Colgate that I've been told about."

"Um... please be careful," Fluttershy warned. "Some of the mares... well, I guess I should say that they sort of think like Dash. And some of them aren't really afraid to show their thoughts about it."

"I guess we'll see about that. Until then... I think I won't do anything. Yet. I don't want to burn any bridges for Linen so long as he decides to live here."

"Decides to live here?" Fluttershy wondered out loud. "But wasn't it him who wanted to move here in the first place?"

Silk nodded, picking up a quilt hanging off the side of the couch and wrapping up Linen cozily in it. "Yes, I know, and he's a brave one for trying to move so far out of his comfort zone," she said quietly. "When he first proposed the idea to both me and our parents, we had thought that he was simply finding his own home in Canterlot. We didn't press it any further and only learned too late that he was going to move to Ponyville... where he didn't know a single soul. Well, except for Davenport."

"So he knew Davenport before he came here?" Fluttershy asked, sitting down next to her as they watched over him. "I didn't know Davenport was so..."

"Involved?" Silk laughed daintily. "You'd be surprised. Linen first met him at one of the social gatherings that my kind are so predisposed to attending. I let Linen venture off on his own, but I always kept a sharp eye on him. When he bumped into Davenport, it nearly made my heart stop, and I half expected Linen to faint on the spot because I had expected indignant shouting to start soon after. But Davenport didn't do that. He... talked to Linen. Like he was normal, and not some sort of outcast."

"That was very nice of him," Fluttershy said, feeling the mood brighten at the revelation of Davenport's character. She hadn't ever spoken much to the stallion, but it was nice to know that he was about as caring as most of Ponyville's denizens were.

"Yes... it was. And you could tell that Linen began to panic, as soon as he locked eyes with him. I don't think there was any way Davenport could have missed his nervous ticks, darting eyes, or sweating head. He actually managed to calm Linen down, and that's something that I thought only we could do. He became Linen's first... friend, if you could call him that, shortly after."

"Oh... I guess that was probably why he wanted to move to Ponyville. I like it here myself... it's very quiet."

"I can tell. This town has such a... rustic charm, and I'm sure Fancypants would agree with me." She stared out the window for a moment, watching the night sky as the stars twinkled on and off, a veritable menagerie of Princess Luna's hoofwork. "When I spoke to him on the way back home after the party, he was so... ecstatic. He managed to talk to someone that he'd never known before, and it hadn't ended in total disaster. That was the first milestone in our belief that Linen could break out of his shell."

Linen mumbled something incoherent, tossing and turning around until he settled back into a position laying on his back, his face stuck in a frown. Silk merely patted his mane several times, calming the stallion as his hastened breathing returned to a normal rate.

"...and then half a year later, he took a massive step forward; he said he wanted to move to Ponyville," Silk continued. "Oh, we gave all the excuses we could, trying to persuade him to stay here. But he wouldn't have it... and he had just the most calm look on his face even as we shouted ourselves breathless with anything we could think of. And do you know what he told us?"

Fluttershy waited to answer, unsure if Silk had been expecting one. When they met eyes, and Silk merely nodded, she pressed on. "...what did he say?"

"He simply told us... 'I'm growing up'... and it meant so much to him. To us. That he could finally be a normal pony, and maybe, just maybe, he could be just like any other stallion. Try to talk, make friends, and just experience life not from behind his curtained windows... but outside, all firsthoof. Yes, I know how he still likes to lock himself up, but that's just part of himself, and I don't think that'll ever change. Small steps first."

"Were you always this worried...? About him, I mean," Fluttershy asked.

"Not always, but that's a story for a different time. Normally, we always feared for him whenever he went outside. Any amount of stress on him could easily send him off the deep end, and that was not something we wanted to happen. But we still wanted him to be normal, and not lock himself up in his room with all his needles and threads and spending the entire day just knitting things. Getting him to outside was probably one of the most challenging things I've ever done, and I've done lots of things... and at the worst of times, we couldn't even get him to leave his room."

"Not always...?" Silk didn't bother to answer, instead merely staring blankly at the corner of Linen's quilt, deep in thought over memories Fluttershy had feared she had unwittingly dredged up.

"So..." Fluttershy trailed off. She'd obviously stumbled on a sensitive note, and decided to veer the topic of conversation to something more recent. "Um... you said something about Linen's birthday coming up soon?"

"Oh, yes, I almost forgot about that when this whole debacle decided to rear its ugly head. Yes, his birthday is in four days. I thought I would at least take a week off from work to celebrate it with him... he gets terribly lonely when nopony remembers his birthday, but our parents are still busy dealing with Sapphire Shores and her recent tour in the north. I'm almost sure Davenport doesn't know when it is... so the task was left to me. Not that I minded."

"Do you think he might like it if... if the whole town threw him a birthday party?"

Silk stood up, prancing around the room as Fluttershy could do nothing but watch the mare mull over the decision. Certainly, without truly knowing what Linen thought, this could have the potential to end in disaster. That many ponies, most of which Linen had only met by fervently attending to his little stallion, could send him back to square one. And Silk didn't want that. But if they could also have the party serve a different purpose...

"...what would be the chances of having all the mares apologize to Linen at the party, if we decide to invite everypony?" Silk asked Fluttershy.

"Oh, well... I think we might be able to do it. If you let us help you, I think we can get all the mares in town to agree. Some of them might require a bit more effort than other ones, though..."

"That's not a problem," Silk said, breaking her ladylike demeanor and cracking her neck and hoof joints. "If push comes to shove... I can solve that."