These Maroon Feathers

Standing at the edge of the once vibrant and well-lit forest I marveled at how much the light of the setting sun had changed it; now instead of the warm and calming feeling it gave off in complete sunlight it had a dark and eery feeling about it. “Just how I like it!” I laughed to myself, not noticing the curious purple eyes that followed me from behind.

A while later I found my way to a clearing and proceeded to lie down on my back looking up at the now dark and star-filled sky, my chin almost hit my chest; I had never seen so many stars at the same time and it was absolutely beautiful. I stayed in that position looking up at the sky in wonder while thinking back to when I was younger when I was a scout and we went camping.

Back then I never could sleep when the leaders told us too and usually slipped out after they fell asleep to find a nice spot to stargaze from and most of the time fall asleep on, waking up all wet from dew wasn't one of my favorite pastimes though I never regretted a night outside. The leaders always scolded me for risking sickness like that.

“Ahh good ol' times” I sighed and tore my eyes of the starry piece of art and directly got that feeling of being watched, I started looking around as carefully as possible not wanting to give away my knowledge of someone or something being there. I spotted something hastily retreating into a bush from where I originally entered the clearing.

I slowly got up and stretched away the staleness I've gotten from lying still for so long and steadily made my way to the opposite side of the clearing. Entering the thick bushes there I quickly lied  down and waited for whatever was following me to make itself known. I was quite shocked when I spotted the librarian Twilight Sparkle slowly making her way through the moonlit clearing, her attempts at stealth made me want to give her a pat on the back for trying and perhaps give her some sort of consolation-price.

Sure I probably had to work on my stealth aswell now that I had a new body to get used to, back when I still was in my human form I had been the definition of 'sneaky'; I was kinda like a mix between Ezio Auditore, Sam Fisher and Adam Jensen. I mostly used my self-taught skills play pranks on people, mostly jump-scare or 'He's behind me isn't he?' kinds of pranks those are awesome. Waking up in a new dimension was not going to keep me away from pranking anything sentient.

And so my plan to teach the purple pony not to stalk other beings began to form (cough-hypocrite-cough). I made sure too keep atleast one eye on her while I scouted for the perfect spot to hide. By the time Twilight reached my side of the clearing I was already prowling behind her in the shadows. When she stuck her head in the bushes probably trying to locate where I had gone I decided to make my move.

I crept out of the shadows and stood up rolling my shoulders a bit to get that relaxed feeling back I simply walked over to her still with her head in the bush and leaned over close to her ear and whispered “Fresh meat” in the most sinister tone I could muster up.

And here I thought only pegasi could fly. With a girly “EEEEEEP!!” she flew up into the nearest tree screaming at the top of lung. Safe to say I was rolling around laughing my newly gained flank off.

“YOU!?” I heard when my laughing-fit finally blew over “YOU!!?” Oh there it is again, I looked up towards the tree where the unicorn was perched on a large branch looking like she was going to brutally kill me and burn the body.

“Ehehe... Me?” I replied a little creeped out by her unfaltering gaze of death and destruction.

Her glare got a bit more horrifying. “Ehrm... I'm sorry?” I squeaked out. The need to take a piss was back more urgent than ever, 'Great timing body' I mentally sighed.

Her horn flared up and she teleported a few centimeters in front of my face, whereupon I let a tiny most manly squeak escape my lips. She opened her mouth probably to scold me for scaring her. “HOLD IT!” I interrupted before bolting off into the nearest bush to relive myself not bothering to check if I was properly covered before doing so.

“Hey! Where do you thin-...” she trailed off now having a clear view of my stallionhood. “Er-I-ah-ehm...” she started stuttering while blushing profusely her anger abruptly thrown out of the window.

“That's why I said 'hold it', and if you wanted to have a look you could have just asked you know” I said with a wink causing the blushing to increase by the power of a thousand suns or maybe just the power of a tactical light from Battlefield 3. I finished my buissness and  stepped out of the bush.

“Now I guess you have a reason for following me around at this time of the day?” I questioned her while sitting down on a nearby puff of grass.

“Well...” she started, still blushing and not quite looking me in the eyes yet “after you left I couldn't stop thinking about what you really were doing in my garden, I tried to forget about it but it kept me from relaxing so I couldn't sleep and it started to drive me crazy so I decided to follow you home and bug you about it until you told me” she finished while looking quite proud about her plan.

“Ok, there's two problems here” I said “One: You clearly dislike not knowing certain things and you should work on that. Two: I don't have a home so your plan kinda failed there”

“Y-You don't have a h-home?” she asked in a most heartbreakingly sad tone.

“I was thinking about building like a tree-house or some sort of underground home if possible, oh and caves are cool too” I pondered “Say, you wouldn't like to help me with that if I gave you the answer for your question in return would you?”

“Hmm” she looked like she was thinking about it really hard “Sure, I'll help you BUT only if you promise to tell me what you were doing AND if you agree to sleep in my guestroom for the night, I wouldn't want to leave you out in the cold now would I” she answered looking pretty smug about herself.

“Promise, and I could live with a warm bed for the night” I replied pretty sure she offered the bed just to keep an eye on me so I wouldn't bail on her.

“Great!” she quipped and started to walk towards Ponyville while I was stuck in my thoughts wondering if it is such a good idea to follow someone who earlier looked ready to kill me home.

I came to the conclusion that I was probably just being paranoid and started off after her, struggling to catch up and longing for that bed.

When I caught up with her she gave me this sweet little smile, this was either the beginning of something wonderful or the beginning of something horrible. I was hoping for something in-between, after all life's no fun without a bit of action.