An Evenings Shadow

"You know if you wanna talk to me you can just come visit," Crimson said as he pick another of the red flowers. The Everfree might be somewhat dangerous but there were just so many useful plants growing inside it.

"I tried that, turns out Somepony doesn't find it necessary to tell his sister he moved," Sunny responded.

"I was gonna tell you," Crimson assured, "I just moved there yesterday."

Sunny looked at him with a serious expression, "and I assume that you were also going to tell me about her? What's her name again? Ves?"

Crimson just sight lightly, "so we live together, what about it?" He said and turned around to face his sister, "you should really come visit. I think you'd like her."

"Crimson you said you weren't gonna start anything with her!" Sunny exclaimed.

"I said no such thing. I said that there is not going to be any danger from my relationship with Ves and I'm sticking by that." Crimson responded almost instantly.

Sunny stepped closer to Crimson, standing right in front of him now and glaring at him lightly, "and how can you be so sure of that?"

Crimson glared back at her, "because I know her, at least a lot better then you. I think I can judge the situation a little better then you."

This caused Sunny to take a step back, looking unsure now. Crimson had absolutely no doubt that Ves was not going to be a danger to them, "Dad is not gonna like this."

Crimson turned around and started collecting plants again, "Dad is far away, he doesn't have to know for a while," he said and after a few seconds of hesitation continued, "and he doesn't control me, if he has a problem with me and Ves then that's his problem..."

"He can make it your problem fairly quickly and you know that," Sunny said with a concerned expression.

Crimson paused for a moment, "I can handle Dad if I have to..."

Sunny looked at her brother for a few seconds and the sighed, "your love for these ponies is going to be the end of you one day."

"And the unconditional hatred the rest of us have towards them is the reason why we're still hiding in the wilderness like animals," Crimson shot back, "I'm not defending what they did but that was nearly 300 years ago, a lot has changed since then."

"I know, I know," Sunny said and waved a hoof at Crimson before sighing lightly, "alright... if you're so sure then I'll trust you."

Crimson looked back at her and gave her a thankful smile.

"But I'm expecting you to introduce me to her, clear?" She almost ordered.

Crimson sat down on his bed and looked around, seeming quite pleased with his work. Ves was going to be away for a few more hours and so Crimson decided that it's probably about time to unpack his things.

The bed now had a small nightstand next to it, on which stood a small reading light and Crimsons alarm clock. On the other side of the bed was a small bookshelf filled with maybe a dozen books or so. Across the room and directly opposite of the bed was his cupboard, containing what little in the way of clothing he owned. On top of it was Crimsons small TV and two picture frames, one of Sunny an him from about 5 years ago and one of Crimsons Mother.

Well this is definitely a start, Crimson thought. There was still enough room for a few more things but he didn't really have anything else he wanted to put in this room yet, I wonder if Ves knows a...

Crimson was ripped out of his thoughts by the ringing of the doorbell. He glanced at the clock on his nightstand, which said that it’s just a few minutes after 1pm. Who could that be?

Crimson made his way down the stairs and opened the front door," Oh hi Starlight, Ves isn't here I'm afraid," he said as he stepped aside to let her in.

Starlight smiled at him as she entered, "I know, I came to visit you."

"Oh?" That surprised Crimson a little.

Starlight looked at him with a questioning look on her face, "why do you look so surprised? I consider you a friend too you know."

"Of course I know that," he said as he closed the door again, "it's just... I didn't really have any visitors in a while. Well, not counting my sister that is."

"Your sister?" Starlight asked.

"Mhm. She lives not too far from Ponyville so she drops by every now and then," he responded with a nod, "anyway, was there anything you wanted from me?"

"I was hoping I could talk to you a little," Starlight said with a smile, "unless I'm interrupting anything of cause."

Crimson chuckled lightly, "no don't worry, I was just unpacking my things."

"And, making progress?" Starlight asked.

"The bedroom is just about done," he responded, "you wanna see?"

"Sure," Starlight said with a nod and they walked up the stairs and to Crimsons room.

"Oohh cozy," Starlight said, "but a little bit empty still don't you think?"

"Yeah but I don't really have anything else that I would want in my bedroom." He responded.

"Is this your sister?" Starlight asked as she picked up the picture of Crimson and Sunny.

"Yep, that's Sunny," Crimson said with a smile as he looked at the picture.

Then Starlight looked at the picture a little closer, " are... are you wearing braces in this picture?" she asked seemingly quite amused by that.

Crimson chuckled lightly, "hey a stunning smile like this doesn't come naturally you know."

Starlight laughed a little but then she noticed the other picture.

It had a young Pegasus mare with dark purple coat and a Blue mane and tail on it.
"Who is this?" Starlight asked as she looked at the gently smiling mare.

"That is my Mother," Crimson said after a small pause, a bit of sadness noticeable in his voice.

Starlight looked up at Crimson and saw him looking at the picture with a small, sad smile on his face.

"I... see," she said as she carefully put the picture back on its place.

"Hey can I ask you something?" Starlight asked after a moment of silence.

Crimson smiled lightly at her, "sure."

"Did anything happen between you and Ves after you left yesterday?" Starlight asked with a knowing smile, "I met her earlier today and she seemed ecstatic about something."

Under different circumstances Crimson might have pretended not to know what Starlight was talking about or something similar to get a bit of fun out of her but right now he was just thankful for the change of subject and decided to simply tell her, it's not like she wouldn't find out sooner or later anyway.

"I asked her out," Crimson stated like it was the most normal thing in the World.

Starlight was more than a little taken aback by that answer. She had expected that exact answer but the way Crimson said it seemed wrong to her, "o-oh?" was all she managed to stammer in her confusion.

"Yeah," was all Crimson gave in reply as he walked past Starlight and back down into the living room.

Starlight needed a second to collect her thoughts but then she hastily made her way downstairs as well.

"You don't seem very happy about that," she said once she caught up with Crimson.

Crimson was quiet for a while, "I am happy that she said yes but..."

"But what?" Starlight asked and stepped a little closer.

Crimson sighed quietly and closed his eyes. After a few more seconds of silence he opened them again, "did she tell you what happened when we spend the day together for the first time, you know, the day when you and I first met?"

"Uhhm," it took a few seconds for the memories to come back to Starlight, "yeah, she said something about eating dinner by the lake and watching the sunset and cuddling. It sounded like she was quite happy with how the evening turned out."

"Exactly, it was perfect," Crimson said in a defeated tone, "that evening felt more like a date than anything I've ever had before."

"Ok..." Starlight said slowly, still a little confused, "but how exactly is that bad?"

"How do you beat something like that?" Crimson asked.

Starlight looked at Crimson with a confused expression, “I’m sorry?”

"I want our first date to be special, something like watching the sunset but I just can't think of anything that would come close," He said and looked down at the floor, "Ponyville isn't exactly huge, there are only so many things we could do here."

To Crimsons surprise and confusion Starlight began to giggle a little. His ears dropped and he gave her a confused and slightly irked look.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to laugh at you," Starlight said once she calmed herself down a little, "it's just that I really didn't expect that from you of all ponies."

That statement only confused Crimson more, "huh?"

"Crimson you're over thinking things. This isn’t a competition or anything, you don’t have to ‘beat’ that evening as you put it," Starlight said with an amused expression, "I know Ves and I've seen how she acts around you. Honestly as long as you two can spend some quality time together I think Ves will be more than ok with that."

Crimson thought about what Starlight said for a little, "You really think so?"

"Totally," Starlight exclaimed with no hesitation, "honestly if watching the sunset with her was so amazing then why don't you just do that again?"

"Huh..." Crimson finally started smiling again, "I just might do something like that... thank you Starlight, you helped me a lot."

Starlight just smiled gently at Crimson, "that's what friends are for."

Finally Crimson had something to work with. He had no intentions of simply repeating that first evening he spend with Ves, no that just wouldn't do but it was a start. Plus he still had today and tomorrow to figure out the rest, plenty of time... I hope.

Ves had gone on her fair share of dates in her life, some of them were the start of a relationship that would last for several years, others turned out to be minor catastrophes and most were somewhere in between. There was one thing all of them had in common though, Ves had always been nervous. No matter how well she knew the Pony or how long they had known each other she just couldn’t help but imagine all the ways it could go wrong.

Not this time however, maybe it was because for the first time she didn’t know what exactly Crimson had planned for them but even now, less than two hours from the time they’d agreed upon she was completely calm. She couldn’t explain it but she wasn’t exactly complaining either.

“You ready to go?” Crimson asked as he came down the stairs.

“Already?” Ves asked and looked at the clock on the wall, “I thought we have two more hours.”

“We do but there is something else I wanted to do before our date,” he responded and walked over to Ves, “let me see your wing.”

He took off the bandage on Ves’ wing and examined it carefully. The hole was gone, leaving only a small scar in its place, “Looks pretty good so far,” he looked at Ves and smirked, “good enough to fly I’d say.”

Ves’ eyes lit up like Canterlot Castle at hearts warming eve, “Really??” she asked with a huge smile.

“If you’re careful,” Crimson said with a serious expression, “put too much strain on it and it will tear again so you really need to take it easy ok?”

Ves gave him a nod, still smiling like a filly counting her candy on nightmare night. Something that Crimson thought was absolutely adorable.

They left the house and Crimson took a quick look around, “let’s start with something easy, how about we fly to that cloud over there.”

Ves lifted off the ground with a few flaps of her wings and slowly made her way to the cloud. Crimson followed close behind her, carefully looking for any signs of pain or injury.

“How was it?” Crimson asked once they made it safely to the cloud, “any pain or anything?”

“No, everything’s fine,” Ves replied and took a look at her wing, which appeared to be just fine.

Crimson gave her a warm smile, “great, let me know if that changes,” he took to the air again,
“You ready to go for a proper flight then?”

“Like you have to ask,” Ves said with a smile as she jumped up and started flapping her wings again.

Ves couldn’t help but smile as they flew above Ponyville. It had been les then a week since her accident and yet it felt to her as if she flew for the first time in ages.

Crimson couldn’t help but chuckle at Ves’ expression, causing her to shoot him a questioning glance, “You look adorable,”

“Oh shut up,” she said with a blush, which made Crimson chuckle even more.

“Oh hey Ves,” they suddenly heard from above in a voice that was unfamiliar to Crimson. They looked up to see a certain blue Pegasus mare with a rainbow colored main sitting on a cloud a few meters above them, “glad to see your wing’s doing better.”

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who she was, even if Crimson hadn’t seen her on a few Wonderbolt posters.

“Hi Rainbow,” Ves greeted and joined Rainbow Dash on her cloud, “back from Canterlot I see.”

“Yup, just got back about an hour ago,” she said and then looked at Crimson who sat down next to Ves, “let me guess, you’re Crimson Shadow.”

Crimson and Ves gave each other surprised looks, “you’ve heard of me?” Crimson asked.

“Yeah Pinkie told us about you on the train to Canterlot,” she said and the started to smirk, “something about you being Veses new coltfriend.”

Ves facehoofed and started to flush a little while Crimson just chuckled, “of course she did,” he said.

“That mare, I am going to kill her,” Ves said through clenched teeth.

Rainbows smirk only grew as she heard that, “ah so it’s true then.”

“Oh shut up Rainbow,” Ves said. Crimson opened his mouth to say something but Ves cut him off, “don’t Crimson, just don’t.”

Crimson made a motion like he was sipping his mouth closed, causing Rainbow to giggle.

“Anyways,” Rainbow started after a few moments, “where you guys going?” she asked and then started to smirk again, “a date?”

Crimson said nothing and just looked at Ves, “w-well… yes actually,” she said, a faint blush still visible.

“Wait really?” Rainbow asked visibly surprised, “I was just joking.”

Ves smiled weakly and shrugged.

“Wait so if you actually are dating then why were you so pissed at Pinkie?” Rainbow asked, “Is nopony supposed to know yet?”

“No it’s not that,” Ves said and sighed, “it’s just today is our first date.”

“Oh so you weren’t dating when Pinkie told us.” Rainbow finished for Ves, who nodded in confirmation.

“Well in that case I’m gonna get out of your hair,” Rainbow said after a moment of silence, “I’ll catch you guys later,” Rainbow started to fly away but after a few meters she turned around to face Ves and Crimson again, “oh and remember to use protection,” she said a little louder than necessary and with a wink.

“Oh fuck off Dash,” said Ves with an annoyed expression.

This however only caused Rainbow to smirk, “gee, do you kiss Crimson with that mouth?”

Rainbow managed to dodge the pieces of cloud that Ves threw at her and she flew away, laughing as she did so.