Author's Note

I didn't have anyone to proofread this chapter so there are probably a few more spelling mistakes than in the first chapter, if you find any major errors feel free to tell me and I'll correct them asap

Watching the sunset

"That looks painful," Starlight took a closer look at the hole in Ves' wing.

"Naw don't worry about it, it's not the first hole in my wing and it won't be the last," Ves sat back down in the comfy reading chair again, "although it is hurting quite a bit less then it usually would after less than a day of healing. Huh, I guess that tonic really does help."

Starlight perked up at that, "Tonic? Oh did you go to Zecora already?"

"No I met her new assistant in the forest, he helped me get out and gave me something for my wing. Looks like he knows what he's doing," Ves replied.

Starlight looks at her friend curiously, "Zecora has a new assistant?"

Ves nods, "Yeah I didn't know either till I met him, a very nice Pegasus Stalion."

Starlight smirked, seeing an easy opportunity to tease her friend a little, " Is he hot?"

"Starlight!" Ves groaned.

Starlight giggled, "What? I'm just curious."

Ves sighed, knowing that she'll probably have to listen to 'Ves and Crimson are sitting on a tree' songs for the rest of the week now, "Yes, he is attractive, if you must know."

"Oooohhhh," Starlight cued, "What did you two do? Tell me everything, and don't leave out all the juicy details"

Ves facehoofed, "We did nothing like that, we met in the forest, he helped me get out and put some tonic on my wing, that's all."

"So you're not gonna see him again?" Starlight asked.

Ves was beginning to get pretty annoyed at her friends antics, "As a matter of fact we will. As Friends," she looked at Starlight seriously.

Starlight began to smirk again and Ves groaned internally, "You only met him last night and already consider him a friend? My, my, keep going at that pace and you'll land in bet together in like a week."

"Well at least I didn't have to brainwash him with magic to be my friend," As soon as Ves said those words she put her hoof in her mouth, noticing to late how painful that might be for her friend.

Starlight dropped the book she was holding and stared at Ves with a hurt expression, who stood up and hugged her tightly, "I'm sorry Starlight, I shouldn't have said that. You're a great friend, it's just... you can be a real pain sometimes."

To Ves' surprise, Starlight actually giggled at that and said, "It's ok, I shouldn't have teased you like that. I know how much you hate that but it's just so easy."

Ves smiled and looked her friend in the eye, "so we're good?"

Starlight smiled and nodded, "Of cause"

"Great," Ves replied and sat back down on the chair, "What are you doing there anyways?"

Starlight picked the book that she dropped up and put it on a little pile on a desk, "Huh? Oh just doing some research, one of my experiments just won't work and I'm not sure why."

"Oh? What's the experiment about?" Ves asked

Starlight looked at her questioningly, "Since when are you interested in my experiments?"

Ves blushed a little, "Oh well, Crimson may have asked about that once."

"Did he now?" Starlight started smirking again.

"Starlight, don't you dare" Ves warned, looking at her friend seriously.

"I didn't say anything," Starlight giggled, "Well, I tried to modify a spell I found, that shows Magic nexuses in such a way that I can cast it on twilights map, that way we would know where all nexuses in Equestria are."

Ves blinked slowly, "Magic nexuses?"

Starlight smiled in amusement, "A magic Nexus is a place where there is a lot of magical energy in the environment."

"And what do they do?" Ves asked.

"To ponies nothing, even unicorns can't use their magic directly without help," Starlight picked another book, "Some artifacts can use their magic for various purposes. The element of harmony for example, When Princess Celestia banished Nightmare moon to the Moon it created a Nexus in the Castle of the two sisters. Over the following thousand years it build up power and when Twilight and the others used them on Nightmare moon again they could use that power and managed to purge the corruption in Princess Luna. That's why they Turned her back to normal the second time they used the elements, instead of just banishing her again."

"huh... I never thought about that."

There was a moment of silence between the two mares, Starlight picked two more books and put them to the others and Ves was just sitting in the chair.

Then vas saw a familiar pony trough the window, "Crimson?"

Starlight turned around and looked at Ves, "Huh?"

"That's Crimson," Ves pointed at the Pegasus outside."

Starlight looked out the window, "Huh, speak of the Devil."

Ves stood up and knocked at the window to get crimsons attention. Once he looked back at her she waved at him and he smiled and waved back, then she motion for him to come in.

"You're right, he is kinda hot," Starlight said.

Ves walked out the library, "Common let's let him in."

Starlight smiled at Crimson, "Hi, Ves has told me about you and it's nice to get to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too miss Glimmer. I have heard quit a few things about you too of course," Crimson replied.

"You have?" Both mares asked simultaneously.

"Uh yeah, Princess Twilight's personal student, saved Equestria from an Changeling invasion, I don't know about you but that does seem like a pretty important Pony to me," Crimson replied.

Starlight blushed a little, "I'm starting to see why you like him."

Ves glared at Starlight but Crimson didn't seem to mind, or if he did, he didn't show it.

"Anyways, what were you up to if I may ask?" Ves asked, still glaring at Starlight a little.

Crimson sat down on one of the chairs, "Well, until Zecora's back I can't really work much and I don't wanna unpack much because I'm defiantly not planning to stay where I live right now for long, so I thought I'd take a little walk, see a little bit of the town."

Ves perked up at that, "If you don't know what to do then maybe we can hang out a little, it looks like starlight is gonna be busy reading for the next few hours."

"Sure, what did you have in mind?" Crimson asked.

"Uhm I don't know, maybe just walk through town and see if we find something fun to do and if we don't we can always go to my place and watch a movie or something."

"Alright, sounds fun," Crimson stood up and took a few steps towards the door, "You wanna go now?"

"Uhm," Ves looked at Starlight, "You don't mind me just leaving right?"

Starlight smiled, "Of course not, like you said, I'll be busy reading. Plus it's not like you just came and are leaving again already, I mean, you have been her for..." Starlight looks at the clock hanging above the door and then said really fast, "4 hours already? Shit, I still have stuff to do. Ok was nice meting you Crimson, have fun, bye," then she ran out the door.

Ves and Crimson looked after her with an surprised expression, "Well that was... something," Crimson said.

Ves chuckled, "Yeah, she gets like that sometimes."

"No, no way, you have got to be kidding me," Ves said in disbelief.

"I swear it's the truth, the guy was covered in purple spots, It was hilarious... well, it was once I knew it wasn't harmful," Crimson replied.

Ves giggled, "How did that happen?"

"Turned out he was one quarter Changeling and that caused him to react to the potion in an... let's say 'unexpected' way" Crimson replied while smiling.

Ves was about to say something when both of them suddenly herd a long, somewhat high pitched gasp. As they turned around a pink pony came right up in Crimsons face, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh your new. I haven't seen you before and I know Everypony in Poniville and I don't know you so that means you're new."

"Pinkie, remember when we talked about personal space?" Ves said

"Oh right, sorry," Pinkie took a few steps back an bounced in place.

Crimson smiled, seemingly not bothered by Pinkies antics, "So I assume you are Pinkie Pie, the element of laughter, I've heard a lot about you and your friends."

Pinkie smiled widely, "Yup, that's me and what's your name, new Pony?"

"I'm Crimson Shadow, it's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too Crimson," Pinkie said happily while bouncing, "come to Sugarcube corner sometimes, I'll make you a free 'Welcome to Poniville' Cupcake."

"Really? Wow thanks, you really don't have to do that," Crimson assured.

"Oh don't be silly, usually I'd throw you a welcome party but I'm afraid that will have to wait a little, busy as a bee these days" Pinkie replied, "Listen I gotta go now but we'll talk some more later, ok?"

"Ok, I'll be sure to get the Cupcake," Crimson said as pinkie bounced away.

"You really should, Pinkies Cupcakes are the best," Ves said.

Crimson chuckled, "Oh I will, don't you worry about that."

They kept walking and talking about all kinds of things until Crimson suddenly stopped talking mid sentence.

"Crimson?" Ves looked at him and then followed his gaze to see what he was staring at.

It was a group of three armed ponies, one of them was pulling a cart with what appeared to be their prey on it. It was a creature that Ves had never seen before. It was about as long as two ponies, had black fur, pretty sharp claws and at least some sharp teeth, so it was either a carnivore or a omnivore.

"What is that?" Ves stepped closer to get a better look at it and saw the numerous arrow and spear wounds all over its body, "looks like it was quite a challenge to kill."

One of the hunters looked up and smiled gently, "Oh don't worry about it, these things have become so rare they were considered extinct a few times. Every now and then you find a few of those, usually far away from cities and Ponies in general."

"That doesn't mean they aren't dangerous, those few hunters who do manage to find one usually regret it. To be honest we only managed to kill this one because it was injured and it still almost killed us," added another hunter.

Crimson looked at the corps, "If they're avoiding Ponies and it's so dangerous to hunt them then why are you doing it?"

The hunters looked at each other, "do you know how famous we're going to be once this becomes known in the hunter community?"

"So you're doing it for fame then," Crimson looked at them with a dark expression, "What a Nobel reason to kill," he snorted and walked off.

"What's his problem?" One of the Hunters asked.

"I don't know;" Ves replied before running after Crimson.

Crimson was looking down at the ground, dark expression still on his face.

Ves looked at him a little worried, "are you ok?"

Crimson didn't look up and just kept walking, "You know why they keep away from ponies?"

Ves thought about that for a while, "Most animals that shy away from ponies are scared. We are amongst the bigger and heavier creatures at least on this continent... But I don't know why they would be afraid of us, I mean they look like they could take on a Manticore with little problem."

"We hunted them almost to extinction..." Crimson stated, anger now becoming present in his tone.

Ves stopped, looking at Crimsone in disbelief. She had never heard of ponies hunting any other creature to extinction, quite the opposite actually, ponies have taken great efforts in the past to keep certain creatures from dying out, "are... are you sure? Why would we do that?"

Crimson looked at her for a few seconds then sighed, "it's... never mind, forget I said anything,"

"Are you ok?" Ves asked, starting to become seriously concerned for her new friend.

Crimson started smiling lightly, "Yeah I'm fine, I just... I don't wanna talk about it right now."

Ves loked at him for a moment, then smiled back, "Ok, let's change the subject."

"Thank you," Crimson thanked as they started walking again, "So, where is this 'Sugar cube Corner'? I believe there is a cupcake waiting for me there."

Ves giggled lightly, "I'm afraid you're out of luck. It looked like pinkie was bouncing towards Sweet apple Acers, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for that cupcake."

"That's alright, guess we'll just have to find something to pass the time," Crimson said and smirked at Ves. She couldn't stop her mind from going to awkward places at that comment and she started Blushing lightly.

She tried to hide it but Crimson was looking right at her and she knew that there was no way he couldn't have seen that.

Crimson started chuckling lightly, "I didn't mean it like that," he said with in an amused tone, "I like the way you think but seeing how we only meet each other less than 24 hours ago we might wanna take it a little slow," he looked at Ves with a smirk.

"Ugh, you're just as bad as Starlight," Ves said and shoved him lightly, an amused smile forming on her face.

Ves was having so much fun talking to Crimson as they walked through town that she didn't even notice how time past, her stomach however did seem to notice and started rumbling rather loudly. They stopped walking and Ves started blushing lightly, "hehe, sounds like I could go for a cupcake myself."

"To be honest I more feel like eating a proper dinner rather than sweets," Crimson replied and started smiling at her, "know of any place we could pick up some food?"

Ves thought for a few seconds, "well... there is the Hayburger if you have no problem with fast-food."

Crimson looked slightly surprised, "I didn't take you for a fast-food eater to be honest."
Ves laughed lightly at that, "oh trust me, if it weren't for Thestral metabolism I'd be so fat."

Crimson joined Ves in her laughter, "Hayburger it is then, lead the way."

"Ok awesome," Ves said as she started walking again, "hey do you mind if we order to go? I kinda have a favorite place where I often eat dinner."

"Oh, and where would that be?" Crimson asked.

"You'll see, trust me it's great," Ves responded with a smile.

"To go it is then," Crimson was mirroring Ves' smile now as they walked towards the restaurant.

"This is... not what I expected," Crimson stated as he looked around. They were sitting on a small hill by one of the many lakes around poniville. It was a nice place, very quiet and peaceful thanks to the fact that they were a little ways outside from poniville but from what little Ves told him about her favorite eating spot he expected a little more.

"That's because we're too early," Ves said and started unpacking their food, "in an hour or two the sunset will look absolutely stunning from here."

"Oh?" Crimson perked up at that and looked around again. Poniville was to their west, the sun would set just a little to the left of the city. "that... could look pretty beautiful," he mumbled mostly to himself."

"Crimson? Your food is getting cold," Ves put down the last box of food containing Crimsons fries next to her. Crimson set down next to his friend and they started eating

Crimson grabbed his Burger and looked at it for a while, "wow this looks way better than fast-food usually does."

"Yeah apparently they have some kind of agreement with both the apples and the Cakes," Ves took a sip of her Soda, "the cakes make the burger buns and some of the deserts and the apples supply them with vegetables, hay and most of the other ingredients they use. That way they always have pretty fresh food for a fast-food restaurant."

Crimson took a bite of his burger, "mmmm yeah I can taste that."

They had a bit of small talk as they were eating, Crimson told Ves about the village he lived in before moving to poniville and Ves told Crimson about the experiment Starlight told her about, "fascinating," that was all Crimson had to say to that particular subject but that was probably because Ves didn't actually know that much about her experiments.

The Sun had started to set by now painting the landscape in a beautiful orange light. Crimson could barely look away from the beautiful scenery, "wow... you weren't kidding when you said the sunset looks stunning from here."

"I'm glad you like it," Responded Ves. They watched the sunset for only a few minutes when Ves started to glance at Crimson again and again, who pretended not to notice. Then she, slowly and hesitantly leaned closer and gently nuzzled against his neck.

Much to Ves' delight, he didn't draw back, rather he nuzzled back without saying a word or even hesitating. They were both blushing at this point but neither of the cared about that, they were much too busy enjoying the moment.

They staid like that for a while, neither of them saying a word. Even after the sun diapered behind the horizon making way for Lunas night, they didn't move for almost another hour, simply watching the night sky instead of the sunset.

Eventually, much too soon for Ves' taste, Crimson gently spoke up, "think it's about time to go home."

"aww, but you're warm," Ves complained making Crimson Chuckle lightly, "Yeah, you're probably right though. I only slept a few hours after getting back last night."

"Common, I'll walk you home," Said Chrimson as he got up and started walking Ves back to poniville.

The streets of poniville were already almost completely empty, with only a few ponies still walking about.

Ves stopped in front of one of the houses, "This is my place."

Crimson looked at the house that seemed a little big for one pony alone, "do you have a roommate or something?"

"No I live alone. I know the previous owner, he moved into a bigger house after they had a third foal and he offer to sell me the house for a really good price," Ves responded with a smile on her face.

"Wow lucky you," Crimson said.

Ves giggled lightly," thanks," then she stepped a little closer to Crimson, "I had a ton of fun today, can we do this again soon?"

Crimson smiled gently at her, "I'm glad you asked, I had a great time too."

"Awesome, I guess I'll see you soon then," with that Ves leaned in and kissed Crimson on the cheek as a goodbye and went inside.

Crimson the walked to his own home with a big smile on his face

"What in Tartarus do you think you're doing?"

Crimson jumped at the unexpected yet familiar voice coming from a yellow Pegasus sitting on his couch.

"Sister?"