An Evenings Shadow

"What are you doing here Sunny?" Crimson asked, "I thought you found a new home near Manehatten."

Sunny Haze, Crimsons younger sister, was a yellow Pegasus with orange Mane that had a red strand of hair in it. She was just a little bit shorter than her brother, making her somewhat tall for a mare. Just like Crimson and the rest of their family, she had stopped using her real name a long time ago. Crimson often joked that the only reason she chose 'Sunny Haze' as her new name was because of her coat color.

"I couldn't stand it there anymore," Sunny groaned, "everypony in that city is an asshole, I'm not even kidding."

Crimson couldn't help but chuckle at that, "so you thought you could crash here for a while?" he asked, not really believing that was the reason for her visit. Sunny always preferred living alone.

"What? No! I already found a new place, I just came here to visit my big brother. And stop changing the subject, I asked you what you think you're doing?" she almost demanded.

"I'm afraid I don't..." Crimson started until Sunny interrupted him, "oh don't give me that, you know exactly that I'm talking about the Batpony mare."

"Ves? I spend the day with her, as Friends," he replied, putting particular emphasis on the word 'friends'.

"Oh really?" Sunny asked with not a small amount of sarcasm, "because you looked just a little bit closer than just 'friends'."

Crimson looked at his sister skeptically, "did you spy on us?"

Sunny didn't reply "you have lived her for what? a week now? I don't care how much of that time you spent with her you don't know her enough to tell her..."

This time Sunny was interrupted by Crimson, "I didn't tell her anything!"

Sunny wasn't really surprised, she knew her brother well enough to know that he wouldn't just spread their secret to anypony, "all the more reason to stop this right now. Or do you really want to have a relationship with that kind of secret between you, you know that nothing good can come from that."

Deep down Crimson knew she was right, as much as he liked Ves, he doesn't know her enough to trust her with his families secret. However that still didn't give Sunny the right to tell him who he can or can't date, "don't tell me what to do, you're not Mom!"

For a second Sunny was furious, how dare he bring up their Mother like that! Her mind came up with all kinds of insults and replies to throw at Crimsons head but she stopped herself, taking a deep breath instead, "Listen, it's not that I don't want you to be happy, because I do, but not if your happiness comes at the cost of all of us. You understand, right?"

"It won't come to that," was all Sunny got in response.

Sunny looked at her brother for a second, searching his eyes for any hint of uncertainty.

"Alright," she said after not finding anything, "I trust you. Now come here, give your little sis a hug. It's been far too long."

Ves had to actively stop herself from sprinting towards the Castle, she couldn't wait telling Starlight about last evening. Even though she knew that starlight would probably tease her about it all day but she didn't really care. She just had to tell somepony.

The moment she slipped through the castles huge doors she stopped holding back and started running to where she expected Starlight. The library.

"Starlight you won't beli..." she started to say but cut herself off at the sight of a certain lavender Alicorn princess, "o-oh, p-princess Twilight, I'm so sorry. I-I didn't mean to interrupt," she stammered. Despite being in the castle with Starlight a lot she only talked with Twilight a few times and still didn't feel quite comfortable with her around.

Twilight smiled softly at Ves, "that's alright you didn't interrupt at all, please come in and make yourself comfortable."

Ves sat down on the free chair next to Starlight, the urge to talk suddenly completely gone.

"Hi Ves, sorry that had to run off like that yesterday," said Starlight, "how was your day with Crimson by the way?"

That brought the smile back to Ves' face, "In one word? Amazing! We had so much fun together."

Ves could almost feel the smirk growing on Starlight's face, "oh, sounds like somepony got laid," she said with a light giggle.

Twilight buried her face in the book she was reading in an attempt to hide the blush that was forming on her cheeks. Should she really be there when they were having this kind of conversation?

"We did nothing like that and you know it," Ves said with a slightly annoyed expression, "although..."

Starlights expression shifted from a teasing smirk to curious.

"What? Common, spill it," Starlight put down her book and turned to Ves, her mind already making up all kinds of possible scenarios.

"Well, remember that spot by the Lake I told you about?" Ves asked and continuing after receiving a nod from Starlight, "we ate dinner there, then watched the sunset and... we kinda... cuddled."

The memory of that, her favorite part of last evening was enough to make a considerable blush flare up on Ves' cheeks.

"Aww, how cute," Starlight cued, "so do you like him, are you two gonna be an item soon or something?"

That surprised Ves a little, she had expected Starlight to tease her a little more before jumping to those kind of questions, "I-I don't know. I mean I like him a lot but... we only met like what, 40 hours ago? "Ves said as she stated to frown a little, "it feels like we're going too fast, it's a little scary. I mean, I barely actually know anything about him and he knows just as little about me."

Surprisingly for Ves, twilight spoke up at that, "didn't you talk when you were together yesterday?" she asked, having lowered her book to the table. She still wasn't sure if she should actually be part of this conversation, but she was actually a little interested and neither Starlight nor Ves had complained at her being there so far.

"No we did... quite a lot actually now that I think about it," replied Ves.

"And did you learn anything about him from that conversation? I don't necessarily mean about his past, just about him in general." said Twilight.

"Well... he did tell me a few stories that happened to him... and I defiantly like his sense of humor... even though he is a worse tease then Starlight," both her smile and her blush returned as Ves mentally replayed the events of the past evening.

Twilight smiled at that, "sounds like you know more about him that you're giving yourself credit for and unless your conversations were extremely one-sided, he has probably learned a thing or two about you as well."

Ves had to think about that for a few seconds. She wasn't sure why she was actually surprised that Twilight gave good relationship advise. She is the princess of friendship after all, and relationships are like friendships just closer... right? "I-I guess so..." she said, "so, what should I do now?"

"What do you want to do?" asked Twilight.

Ves took some time to think about that, "I defiantly want to do something like last evening again."

This time Starlight spoke up, "Well you did complain that you didn't know enough about each other and talking is pretty much the only thing you could do change that so that's probably the best thing you could do... right?" She turned to Twilight for confirmation.

Twilight shrugged and picked her book back up from the table, "That's what I would do."

"So you're saying I should just hang out more with Crimson?" Ves asked, mostly for confirmation. She could defiantly do that.

Crimson couldn't say how long he was sitting on his couch by now, he glanced at the clock that hung on the wall, it told him that it was almost 10:30am. Unfortunately that didn't help him, he had a hard time sleeping last night and didn't know when he got up.
Like most ponies Crimson too had a morning routine, bathroom, breakfast, back to the bathroom to brush his teeth and maybe a shower (though he preferred to do that in the evening).

Seeing how his current home had neither access to water nor electricity he was forced to modify his routine a little but today he went from his bed, directly to his couch. Try as he might, he couldn't get his mind of his conversation with Sunny. Of course he assured her that Ves and he were just friends and that she didn't have to worry about anything but at the same time, they did kinda snuggle while watching the sunset.

Maybe... maybe I should stop seeing her for a little while, he thought, or maybe I should see her more, find out more about her? Until I can trust her enough to... his thoughts were interrupted by his complaining stomach.

"Hehe, I did kinda skip breakfast," he mumbled to himself, "I wonder if the hayburger has a breakfast menu," he finally got off his couch and made his way to his new favorite restaurant.

"Ugh, walking sucks," Crimson said to himself. He managed to get lost in town and had absolutely no Idea which direction the hayburger was, or anything else including his home for that matter.

"Screw this," he said as he took to the air. Poniville was a fairly small town, he figured it shouldn't be too hard to find were he wanted to go from the air. Instead of the small fast-food restaurant however he noticed a certain bakery that he had almost completely forgotten about.

Hmm, Pike did say she wanted to give me a cupcake, he thought. While cupcakes weren't exactly his idea of a perfect breakfast it wasn't like he couldn't also get something different and eat the cupcake as a dessert.

When he entered sugarcube corner he was greeted by the lovely smell of freshly baked bread that made his mouth water.

"Hey Crimson, you here to pick up your special 'welcome to Ponyville' cupcake?" asked Pinkie from behind the counter, a big smile adorning her face.

Crimson smiled back at her and walked over to the counter, "Hi Pinkie, actually I came here to have breakfast and to get the cupcake."

"Oh, oh can I join you?" Pinkie asked while bouncing up and down, "I was about to take a break anyways."

"Sure, I'd be happy to have some company," replied Crimson, "any recommendations?"

Pinkie stopped bouncing and thought for a while, "hmmm... oh I know, Mrs. Cake tried a new pancake recipe, I haven't tried them yet but they look delicious."

"Sounds perfect," said Crimson, "can I have a cup of coffee as well?"

"Coming right up," answered Pinkie and bounced into the kitchen.

"That was delicious," Crimson put down his fork on the now empty plate sitting on the table in front of him. he didn't think he'd actually be able to finish the giant pile of pancakes that pinkie had dropped in front of him, with a gravity defying throw complete with looping and all... somehow but they were just too good to waist any of it, "why didn't I come here sooner?"

Pinkie just giggled, "think you still got room for that cupcake or should I put it in a bag for you to take home?"

"To go please," he said, "I think if I eat even a little more I'm gonna burst or something."

"One extra special 'welcome to Ponyville' cupcake to go, coming right up," replied pinkie as she, once again, bounced into the kitchen and soon came out with a box easily big enough for five cupcakes, "here you go."

Crimson opened the box and was greeted by the sight of a pink and whit monstrosity of a cupcake, "Pinkie this thing is almost as big as a coconut."

"I know, isn't it amazing?" pinkie asked and giggled lightly, "I made it myself, though gummy helped me of course."

"Pinkie, I'm not sure I can eat it all. It would be a shame if it went to waste," said Crimson while inspecting the huge pastry.

Pinkie only giggled more at that, "you don't have to eat it all by yourself silly, it's more fun to share with a friend anyway," the smile that she had been wearing so far suddenly turned into a smirk, "perhaps with a certain thestral? I hear that you and Ves have become all cuddly wuddly recently."

A small blush formed on Crimsons cheeks, "wait, how do you know about that?"

Pinkie just giggled more, "oh I have my sources. I have to get back to work now, was nice talking to ya."

"Likewise," Crimson closed the box and walked out.

"Oh Celestia that was amazing," cued Starlight as she licked pink frosting off her hoof.

She and Ves had eaten a good three quarters of Crimsons cupcake but he wasn't complaining. It has been a little while since he was able to share tea and cake with one friends, mostly because, until now, he wasn't able to stay in one place for long enough to make friends with anypony.

"You can say that again," replied Ves with a content smile, "thank you for sharing this with us Crimson."

"Thank you for the tea," replied Crimson, also wearing a smile though his was more amused than content.

One downside to living in such a big house alone was that it could become difficult to decorate it. Crimson never really thought about that if he's being honest, but it became glaringly obvious as soon as he entered Ves' largely empty living room.
It's not that she didn't have any furniture it was just that the house was build for a family with children and thus was designed with a lot of room for them play in. Room that Ves was struggling to fill, it would seem.

"Oh before I forget it, I wanted to apologize to you, Crimson, for just running off yesterday right after Ves introduced us," said Starlight as she leaned back into a more comfortable position on the couch that she currently shared with Ves.

Crimson looked surprised for a second, "No problem at all Starlight, I'm sure you're a busy mare."

"It's not that," Starlight started explaining, "but Twilight certainly is, at least recently, and I needed her help for an experiment I am planning."

"Oh?" Crimson perked up at that, "may I ask what kind of experiment?"

"I'm trying to find out if the nexus at the Castle of the two sisters is responsible for the Everfrees unnatural behavior," explained Starlight, "if it is then the forest should calm down quite a bit over the next few decades until the nexus has restored a good portion of the energy it had before nightmare moon was defeated by Twilight and the girls."

"Oh fascinating," said Crimson, "when are you going to do the experiment?"

"I don't know yet, were still in the early stages of planning so it might be another week or two," replied Starlight.

Ves looked at her friend with a thoughtful expression, "how come planning takes so long?"

"We have to stay in the castle and gather dater for a few days, which means that we'll have to set up a small camp. We'll have to bring supplies not to mention food and water and of course the fairly heavy equipment for the experiment itself. It's not that easy to get all that stuff deep into the forest," Starlight explained.

"Ok, that makes sense," Ves said with a faint blush.

Crimson couldn't help but chuckle lightly, she's cute when she blushes like that, he thought.

"Anyway, how is your search for a new home going Crimson?" asked Ves in an fairly obvious attempt to change the subject.

Crimson frowned at that, "not good, it looks like it's going to take longer than expected..."

"How much longer?" asked Ves with a concerned expression.

"Worst case half a year," answered Crimson in a defeated tone.

"What?!" Ves almost shouted, " Crimson you can't live in that place for half a year

"I know," Crimson groaned, "but I don't really have a choice, do I."

Ves thought for a few minutes, then she got an idea, "actually there is one thing you could do."

Both Crimson and Starlight looked at her with a curious expression.

"What if you move in with me?" she continued excitedly, "There is more than enough place for the two of us. I have three rooms that are almost empty, one can be your bedroom, you can store all your potion ingredients and stuff in another and there is even plenty of room her for your couch."

Crimson thought about her offer for a moment, "that's very generous of you but I don't feel comfortable living of someponys generosity unless I absolutely have to."

"But Crimson..." Started Ves, not sure how to replied to that. There had to be something she could do for him.

"What if you don't have to?" said Starlight after a few seconds of silence.

Crimson looked at her questioningly.

"You could live here and simply pay a bit of rent," she said with a smile.

Ves' eyes widened as she heard her friends suggestion, "that's a greater idea."

Crimson remained silent for a while which caused Ves' smile to falter, "Crimson please, I'd feel awful if I didn't try something," she said while looking at him with large, pleading eyes.

There was no way Crimson could say no with her looking at him like that, which actually made him a little uneasy. It reminded him of his conversation with Sunny.

"Alright," Crimson finally agreed with a smile, "let's try it then. But don't think that I won't repay you in some way"

"Awesome," Ves almost cheered, "tonight you can sleep in my guestroom and tomorrow we can go get your stuff."

"If you wait till noon I can come help you," offered Starlight.

Crimson looked at her slightly surprised at the offer, "Oh you don't have to do that Starlight, I don't have that much stuff anyway."

Starlight waved a hoof at him, "nonsense, I'd be happy to help."

"It's settled then, we can agree on how much rent you'll pay after we brought your things over," said Ves with a satisfied smile.

"Are you sure your cooking is not your special talent?" Crimson asked for the third time that evening.

Ves giggled and blushed, "oh common it wasn't that special."

"No, 'special' is not the word I'd use," he replied, " 'amazing', or 'delicious' seems more fitting. Seriously why do you ever eat fast-food when you can just make something this good yourself?"

He was exaggerating a little but Ves looked just too cute when she blushed like that for him to resist to sweet talk a little.

"You better not be saying that just to get me into bed," she joked but regretted it the moment she saw Crimsons smirk.

"Naw if I wanted that I would say something about that sexy flank."

Ves' blush shifted from a light pink to red, "oh you're impossible!"

Crimson laughed at that, "just telling the truth," he said, causing Ves' face to turn an even deeper shade of red, "besides, you started it."

"I didn't... I..." Ves started stammering, trying to find a good comeback. When she couldn't think of anything she just sighed, "what have I gotten myself into?"

Crimson laughed again but didn't say anything in response.

"It's still fairly early," Ves said after a moment of silence, "anything you'd like to do?"

Crimson checked the clock hanging on the wall, "actually there is but it's too early for that."

"Oh?" Ves looked at him curiously, "and what would that be?"

"there is a small meteor shower in about two hours," he said

"Oooohhh I've never seen a meteor shower," Ves said excitedly.

"Really? Well then it's about time. I think the balcony should be a good place to watch," he said with a thoughtful expression.

"Sounds like you know a bit about that kind of things," Ves noted.

"My sister Sunny got me into it a few years back," replied Crimson, a small smile forming on his face, "I remember how she used to sit outside watching the Stars for hours when we were little."

Ves didn't say anything, instead she just smiled at Crimson.

"Anyway," Crimson spoke up after a second of silence, "like I said we still have some time until it starts. Anything you'd want to do?"

"Hmmm," Ves thought for a few seconds, "I dunno, you wanna watch a movie or something?"

Ves blushed a little, finding her suggestion to be rather lame compared to Crimsons.

Crimson didn't seem to mind however, instead simply smiling at her, "sure, why not."

The movie, while actually being a fairly good one, ended up being a rather forgettable part of the evening. They talked throughout most of it and didn't really pay attention to it. There was still almost an hour left to the movie but seeing how Ves had watched the movie before and neither of them had really paid attention to, and thus missed the majority of it, they agreed to just turn off the movie and watch the meteors.

And so they found themselves sitting next to each other with a bottle of wine. It was a little bit cold for Ves' taste, which wasn't surprising seeing how it was still the middle of spring. She didn't say it but she wished she had brought a blanked or something.

"Beautiful isn't it?" asked crimson, barely louder than a whisper, "in a night like this you can really see the center of the galaxy."

Ves didn't answer, instead just looking up at the starts. It's been a while since she just sat outside and looked at the night sky. It really did become prettier after Luna returned.

That was when the meteor shower started.

Ves gasped lightly when she saw the first shooting star burning up high above them, followed by another one soon after and then another one. Soon the sky was lit up by dozens of little lights shooting through it. Ves felt like she should say something but she couldn't think of the right words

"Wow," was all she finally got out, causing crimson to look at her with an amused smirk.

"I take it you like it then?" he asked.

"It's... it's beautiful," she answered.

She was so entranced by the meteor shower that she didn't even notice that she started leaning against Crimson, gently snuggling him in a similar fashion as when they watched the sunset the prior evening.

They sat like that for a little while and watched the meteors. When a gust of wind made Ves shiver, Crimson wrapped his wing around her and pulled her a little closer. Only then did Ves realize that she had been cuddling with Crimson for a few minutes now, it just felt so... right. She blushed and looked up at him, crimson looked back down at her and started to blush now as well. They looked at each other for what felt like minuets, though it was probably no more than two minutes at most, until Ves gently nuzzled Crimsons neck and he rested his chin onto of her head.

Ves could have stayed like that forever, and Crimson was feeling similarly. Crimson made up his mind right there. If Ves wanted him, she would have him no matter what Sunny thought about it. Not right now of course, there was no rush and it was still too early for them to really start a relationship but he was confident that they'd find a way.