An Evenings Shadow

The next morning was slightly awkward. Both Crimson and Ves wanted to talk about last evening, they wanted to tell each other how much they enjoyed it and how they would like to become even closer as they already were but they also knew that it was still very early for that kind of things and they were afraid to scare the other away by trying to go too fast.

And so they spend most of the morning in an awkward silence, interrupted only occasionally by meaningless Smalltalk.

"I hope you could sleep well in the guest bed," Ves started another attempt to breach the silence,
"I know the mattress isn't the greatest but it's better than the couch."

"Ah don't worry, " Crimson assured with a smile, "the mattress was fine."

"Oh good," Ves said and glanced at the clock again.

11:30AM, another 30 minutes until Starlight would come to help Crimson move and hopefully end the awkward silence between Crimson and her once and for all.

Hurry up, damn it. She thought

"Hey Ves?" Crimson started, causing Ves to turn around and face him, "I was thinking, why don't we go to my house and at least pack my things together? That way when Starlight joins us she'll only have to help us bring it over and unpack."

Ves looked slightly surprised. She had expected another attempt at Smalltalk to give them a brief pause of the painful silence between them but this was actually a pretty good Idea.

"Sure," she said with a smile on her face, "you wanna go now?"

"I don't see why not," he responded and got up from his chair.

"How did all of this stuff fit into such a small room?" Ves asked as she put jet another box on top of the quickly growing pile.

"You only notice how much stuff you own when you have to move it all to a different place," replied Starlight.

Despite having a 20 minute head start, Ves' and Crimson weren't nearly done packing all of his things when Starlight joined them.

"I'm just glad Crimson didn't convince you not to help us," said Ves, causing Starlight to giggle a little.

"Yeah that makes two of us," Crimson said as he came out the door, carrying the last box on his back, "we gotta find some way to repay you Starlight."

Starlight waved a hoof at Crimson, "that's alright, I'm happy to help."

Crimson put down the box he was carrying and looked at Starlight with a raised eyebrow, "you sure? We're not done yet after all, we still have to actually bring all this stuff to Ves' house and unpack it again."

Ves groaned as she heard that, causing Starlight and Crimson to laugh a little.

"Hey this was your idea, remember?" Crimson asked in an amused tone.

"look at the bright side," said Starlight as she started levitating all of the 15 or so boxes at once, "you don't have to unpack all of this stuff right away."

With that they started walking back towards Ves' house. They didn't get very far until Pinkie noticed them and started bouncing towards them, she was being followed by a yellow Pegasus mare that Crimson hadn't seen before.

"Hi you three, what'cha doing?" She asked, looking at all the different boxes that Starlight was levitating.

"Hi Pinkie, we're moving Crimson's stuff to Ves' place," Starlight answered.

"Ooohhh moving together already? Wow you two are going fast," said pinkie with a wide smirk and in a teasing tone.

"I-It's not like that," replied Ves with a blush, "but yeah he is moving in with me."

"It's not like what?" asked Pinkie while still smirking.

"Well... it's not... I mean we're not..." Ves stammered, her blush deepening, "Crimson you say something."

Crimson chuckled and turned to Pinkie, "Ves was so kind to offer me to move in with her when she found out that I would otherwise be forced to live in a ruined house without water or electricity for half a year."

"Oh my, t-that's very kind of you Ves," said the yellow mare next to Pinkie, in a tone barely louder than a whisper.

"Fluttershy's right," Pinkie said as she started bouncing in place, "hey, you know what this calls for?"

"Pinkie you can't throw them a party, us and the girls are going to Canterlot for a few days, remember?"

"Oh... right," Pinkie said and visibly deflated a little, "then I'll just have to throw them one when we're back, pinkie promise."

Pinkie drew a cross on her chest with her hoof and then put it over her closed eyelid.

How does she go from sad to ecstatic in this short of a time Crimson wondered.

Starlight giggled at that and then turned to Fluttershy, "Fluttershy this is Crimson Shadow, he's Zecoras new assistant. Crimson this is Fluttershy, the element of kindness and Ponyvilles resident animal caretaker."

"I-I think I've heard about you," Fluttershy said, surprising Crimson, "aren't you the pony who helped Mrs. Fox with her hurt leg a few days ago?"

Crimson looked at her surprised, "how do you know about that?"

"Oh, she told me, she was very grateful. Uhm...m- may I ask what you used on her leg? It seemed to work much better than anything I've tried on that kind of injury."

"That's a little complicated," replied Crimson, "I can give you some more though, in case you ever need it for one of your animals."

"oh yes please," she said, becoming a little louder as she started to become more comfortable talking to Crimson, "thank you, both for the medicine and for helping Mrs. Fox."

"Always happy to help," he replied with a smile.

"Fluttershy we need to go now," Pinkie suddenly said, "we don't wanna miss the train, bye you three."

With that Pinkie and Fluttershy left towards the train station and Starlight, Ves and Crimson continued to Ves' house.

"Do you and Fluttershy know each other, Ves?" Crimson asked.

"Yeah, I know all of the elements because I hang out with Starlight all the time," Ves replied.

"Fair enough," said Crimson, "and how do you and Starlight know each other?"

Ves was never a pony that takes a lot of naps, it just isn't really her thing but she too had her fair share of hard and exhausting days. Today was such a day and Ves was already almost asleep as she lazily flew over the hills just outside Poniville. She was initially planning to take a quick bath in one of the many lakes near Poniville but she quickly discovered that swimming wasn't a lot of fun in her current state and so she quickly decided to fly back home.

Her mind was so occupied by the thought of her soft, warm bed that she didn't notice the kite heading straight for her.

"Watch out!" was shouted by the pony flying the kite just a little too late.
The Kite hit Ves right in the face and caused her fall to the ground. Luckily she wasn't flying very high and only suffered a few bruises that would heel quickly on their own.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry, are you alright?" asked a pink unicorn mare as she ran over to Ves and helped her get up.

"Yeah I'm all right," replied Ves, defiantly wide awake now, "guess I better watch were I'm flying. Sorry about your kite."

Starlight looked at the now broken kite that Ves had landed on.

"Oh that's ok so long as you're not hurt. that looked pretty painful," Starlight said in an concerned tone.

"Ah don't worry about it, I've had worse crashes before," replied Ves, who really looked a Starlight for the first time now.

She's kinda cute, she thought while trying not to blush.

"Are you new in town? I don't remember ever seeing you before," Ves asked, partially to keep her mind from straying to places that she didn't want it to go right now.

"Yeah, I've only lived here for a little over a month now," Starlight said before snorting lightly, "hell of a first impression right?"

Ves laughed a little at that, "oh don't worry, I've had worse. I'm Ves by the way."

"Starlight Glimmer," replied Starlight with a smile, "nice to meet you."

"likewise, what made you move to Poniville?" Ves asked, causing starlight to frown and rub her neck with a hoof

"That's... kind of a long story..." Starlight said, averting her eyes.

Ves noticed Starlights discomfort and tried to smile reassuringly, "you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Starlight said nothing for a few seconds, then she sighed and looked down again, "no it's all right, you'll hear about it sooner or later anyway. When I'll tell you I can at least be sure that it's not mixed with lies or half truths or something."

"And then I told her everything. The Village, the time travel spell, I even told her about Sunburst," Starlight explained, "to my surprise she was very understanding and we became friends fairly quickly over the following days."

"Aww what a nice little story," Crimson said. He didn't know who Sunburst was but he figured it probably wasn't important.

By the time they finished telling the story they were almost done putting Crimson stuff away. Part of Crimson wanted to actually unpack everything right now just to get it over with.

"Anypony have any ideas on what to do next?" Ves asked once she put the last box in what will soon be Crimsons new bedroom, "I expected this to take a lot longer and don't really have any plans for today."

"Well, Twilight's gone to Canterlot as you know so I'd be alone in the Castle," Starlight responded, "I was kind hoping I could hang out with you guys."

"Sure, If we can actually find something to do," Ves said with a smile before turning to Crimson, "you got any ideas?"

Crimson thought for a while, "Well I want to take another look at your wing but that's probably not what you mean."

Ves giggled lightly, "No but we might still wanna start with that."

With that she took of the bandage that covered the small hole in her wing and let Crimson take a look at it. After looking at the wing for a little while Crimson nodded to himself with a pleased expression.

"It seems to heal quit well," he said with a little smile, "a little better than I expected actually."

"I wish I knew some healing spells," Starlight suddenly exclaimed, "maybe I should look into that."

"Yeah you do that. In the meantime, seeing how none of us seem to have any ideas, I guess I'll just make us some tea?" Said Ves.

"...and then she was like 'there is no revenge that you could imagine that would ever come close to what I will do to you' or something like that and then she flew off. Nopony has heard from her since as far as I'm aware," Starlight said after drinking the rest of her tea. Her story made Crimson completely forget his now cold tea.

"She swore revenge?" Crimson asked slightly surprised.

Starlight simply nodded appearing completely unfazed.

"And that doesn't worry you at all?" He asked.

"Well... maybe a little," Starlight said slowly, her expression shifting from neutral to thoughtful, "I mean so far her plans were... not exactly top notch as it was and now that she's alone and her former hive one of our closest allies I'm not too worried."

"Fair enough," Crimson said as he picked up his cup and took a small sip which he almost spit back out again, "how can something be so delicious when it's hot be so disgusting at room temperature?"

Ves and Starlight laughed at that, "maybe next time you should drink it as long as it's still hot," said Ves while picking up Crimsons teacup and then, to Crimson greater surprise and even greater delight, she kissed him on the cheek before turning around and putting Crimsons cup in the sink.

Crimson's blush was only matched by the one Ves was wearing and which she made sure none of her friends could see. Crimson on the other hand made no attempt to hide his blush, instead simply smiling happily. Ves was already preparing herself for the barrage of embarrassing jokes that was sure to come from Starlight any second now.

After several seconds of silence Ves turned to look at the suspiciously quiet Starlight, the smirk that Ves could have sworn she saw on Starlights face had disappeared, instead Starlight looked deep in thought for a moment before lightly nodding to herself.

"Hey it's not that late yet, how about we go out and have a little fun," Starlight suggested with a Smile.

"What did you have in mind?" Ves asked slightly confused. This was not what she had expected.

"We could go to the café and eat a slice of cake and maybe some tea," Starlight suggested.

"We could do that," Ves said, "but we just had tea."

"You had tea, I didn't have anything" Crimson corrected.

"And whose fault was that?" Ves asked with a smirk.

"Starlights," he responded.

"Excuse me, what?" Starlight asked while looking at Crimson slightly confused, "how was that my fault?"

"If you wouldn't have told such an entertaining story I wouldn't have forgotten about my tea," he responded with an amused smile, causing Ves to giggle.

Starlight started mirroring Cimsons smile, "fine, I guess I won't tell you any more stories then."

This time both Ves and Crimson laughed , "I have an idea," Ves said once she and Crimson stopped laughing, "why don't we show Crimson the castle? The view from the towers is greater."

"Oohh that sounds interesting," Crimson said.

Starlight smiled at that, "sure, why not."

"Wow," Crimson said while looking over the town and its surroundings, "you were right, the view is amazing."

"I honestly didn't think views like this would impress you," Starlight said as she sat down next to Ves, "I mean all you have to do is fly up and sit on a cloud. Honestly does anything really beat the view from Cloudsdale?"

"I wouldn't know," he responded, "I've never been to Cloudsdale."

Both Ves and Starlight perked up and looked at him incredulously.

"Really, you've never been to The city for pegasi?" Starlight asked.

Crimson just shook his head, "never had any reason to go there."

"Huh... don't let Rainbow her that," Starlight said with a small, amused smirk, "the way she always talks about it she'll drag you there and give you a tour."

Crimson chuckled at that, "I'll remember that should I ever meet her."

Now it was Starlights turn to chuckle, "unless you're planning on avoiding both me and Pinkie for the rest of your live I'm afraid that will be unavoidable."

Crimson looked first at Starlight and then the ground with a small frown, "I don't know... from what I've heard about Rainbow Dash, she doesn't sound like the type of pony who'd hang out with someone like me."

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Ves asked, sounding somewhat upset, which surprised Crimson.

He looked at her for a few seconds and she arched an eyebrow in return.

Did I say something wrong? He wondered.

"I mean... you know, she's a wonderbolt and super athletic and I prefer spending my time either alone with my potions or a good book or sitting around talking with friends," he said before sighing, "I guess I figured she'd be bored with me."

"Hey you are NOT boring," Ves responded, "you are a very kind, very funny stallion that anypony would be happy to have as a friend."

Each complement made Crimson blush just a little bit more but he didn't look away, instead he simply smiled at Ves.

"I agree with Ves," Starlight chimed in, "it is true that you and Rainbow might not share a lot of interest but she doesn't really share many interests with Rarity either and they are still friends."

Crimson thought about what the two said for a while, "I guess you're right. I guess I was a little unfair towards her."

"Towards her and yourself," Ves corrected, "don't ever say you're boring again Crimson, because you're not," with that she stood up and gave Crimson a tight hug.

"You two would make a great couple, you know," Starlight said with a smirk.

Ves' face turned deep red and Crimsons blush got stronger as well, Ves stopped hugging Crimson and turned to Starlight with a shocked expression. Starlight had to keep herself from laughing at her friends display.

"You thinks so?" Crimson asked while rubbing his neck, when did it get so warm?

"Totally," Starlight responded with a more honest expression, "I think you two would be really cute together."

"Uhm, thanks... I guess," Crimson said.

Ves looked back and forth between Crimson and Starlight with her mouth slightly agape. This caused Crimson to chuckle lightly and he closed her mouth with his hoof, only to have it fall open again almost immediately, causing Crimson and Starlight to laugh.

"I think you broke Ves," Crimson joked with a smirk, "I better get her home and re-boot her before she swallows and insect or something. See you tomorrow?"

Ves glared at Crimson at that comment and Starlight laughed a little more, "sure, I'll come and visit once I'm done with my research."

With that Crimson and Ves left. Once they were outside the Castle and Ves' face had mostly returned to its natural color, her expression turned thoughtful. Crimson gave her a curious glance, "something on your mind?"

Ves remained quit for a few seconds before looking up at Crimson, "Starlight said we'd make a good couple, what do you think she meant by that?"

Crimson shrugged after thinking for a moment, "you know her better than I do but I think she meant that literally. What do you think?"

"I dunno..." Ves stated, her expression going back to thoughtful, "I mean she likes to make jokes like that to make me blush but... I don't know something felt... different ," Ves started blushing again after a short pause, "y-you think she's right?"

"Well I only see one way to find out for sure," he responded.

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

Crimson started smirking, "you wanna go out with me?"