Pepper looked at the wall clock, then glanced across her newly plowed orchard field. The water-testing pony had been out there for a while, easily two hours.

Maybe she should go check up him. Odd speaking aside, Toxic seemed to be quite a gentlecolt. It wasn't every day that someone showed up to clear some brush for free.

Carrying a bottle of water in her saddlebags for the stallion, Pepper trotted to the top of the hill, the largest one on the property in fact. It overlooked the stream, as well as as her other fields.

Pepper's jaw promptly fell open, and she carefully walked down the slope as she observed the incredible sight before her eyes.

Most of the trees had been felled, a few of them cut and stacked in a neat pile to the left of the stream. Toxic was busy cutting the final few down. The stallion's fur was wet with sweat, and splattered with a fair deal of mud as he seemed to dance across the marshy area that held the trees entombed.

It was his method of removing the trees, that Pepper couldn't take her eyes off of.

A single beam of light, about half a pony in length, and as wide as ones hoof, hovered in front of him, weaving to and fro. Toxic reared on his hind legs, sending the blade slicing down into the trunk of a tree, almost severing the pony-sized trunk. It was as though the blade was on a invisible rope or wire, moving with Toxic as he moved around the tree. His movements were a dance of destruction, the light moving to the already-felled logs, hacking them into smaller pieces.

A few steps backwards, and Toxic seemed to brace himself, sending the light blurring down at the last tree. The trunk was unable to withstand the assault, and the final dead tree came crashing down. The unicorn made short work of the wood, attacking it with frightening ferocity. As she got closer, Pepper saw the faint glow of armor surrounding his frame. Was he some sort of undercover spy?

As the light faded, Pepper got a glimpse of Toxic's eyes. His face had returned to its stolid expression, but his eyes told a different story. There was a feral energy in them, fading, but still burning brightly. His features seemed to relax as the light faded. The energy seemed to bleed out of him, his shoulders slumping as he glanced to the chopped up logs. Levitating a few at a time, he carried them over to a pile of already-stacked wood, then repeating the process.

It was on the second trip that his eyes met Peppers. The logs fell to the ground with a dull 'thunk' as he lost concentration.

For a few seconds they just stared, but it was Pepper who spoke first.

“Are you one of Celestia's guard?”

Toxic blinked, his shocked expression quickly being replaced by a slightly amused smile. He was interrupted however, as he began to levitated the parchment in front of him

“Ok, enough with the parchment, I don't care if you sound funny. Where did you learn to do all that?”

Toxic picked up the fallen logs, sending them flying to the other pile.

“I t-taug-ght mys-elf, so-rta. Le-earned the b-basi-cs, the-n res-earch-ed m-mor-e.”

Pepper finally sat down, shaking her head with wonder.

“I thought you had to be a royal guard, or something like that! That was amazing!”

Amazing? That wasn't what Toxic thought would be her reaction.

“R-rea-lly?”

Pepper nodded, indicating the felled trees with a hoof.

“Look at all this! It would have taken me days of work to do this! You did it in but an hour or two! I will admit, it was a tad scary, but still amazing. Would you like to stay for dinner? It's only an hour or so away...”

Wait, did she just invite him for dinner? Even after seeing his...outburst?

Well, not many would know it as that...

Toxic shook his head sorrowfully, not wanting to get into details.

“I wou-ld l-ike to, but n-ot ton-ight. Ma-ybe s-ome ot-her t-ime?”

Pepper nodded, still ecstatic her workload had been cut down so drastically.

“I understand. I can't thank you enough for this...”

Toxic just shrugged, levitating the final pieces of wood onto the large pile.

“My ple-asure.”

Pepper then returned to her home, not able to suppress a surprised smile after receiving another refusal by Toxic at any payment.

He, on the other hand, took the long road home, despite being exhausted. He hadn't used that spell in some time, and it had sapped most of his energy. He couldn't control the beam of light and his armor terribly well, hence his reluctance to use it on the alley against the stallions.

That, and it wasn't meant for incapacitation, nor felling trees. That spell...

His legs still shook slightly as the remnants of the pent up emotions bled away. For some reason, they ran deeper this time. The emotions usually were superficial.

But when he had been felling those trees, his emotions had finally bolstered him enough to perform that spell. It was one he was both terrified of using, yet it gave him an immense feeling of power and control every time he practiced.

No, it wasn't just the spell that frightened him. It was the emotions that came with it.

Sorrow. Loneliness. Frustration...all the negativity that was bottled up inside his mind. The more dominant emotions were what scared him the most.

Anger. Hate. Rage...

What scared Toxic Shield, was the fact he liked it.

-

Pepper stirred the pot of boiling soup, nodding approvingly as it began to simmer. Perfect, just in time.

A knock at the door caused the unicorn to happily prance to the front of the humble home.

“You made it!”

Throwing the door open, the two unicorns embraced, each laughing with delight.

She hadn't seen her friend in years...

A fellow unicorn like herself, Sky Duster had a light blue coat, contrasting her dark blue mane. Her cutie mark was that of a similarly-colored star with specks of white on it, almost like a sprinkled cookie. Her eyes were a soft amethyst, the kind capable of either being as sharp and fierce as crystal, or soft and as gentle as a flower.

She had met Pepper during their years of higher-up schooling, and had been inseparable ever since.

At least, until work and more school got in the way.

Pepper trotted into the kitchen, taking the soup off the stove before it burned. Her home was like many others in Ponyville, gentle colors blending into each other. The light green walls looked quite nice with the brown floorboards, at least she thought.

“Goodness Dusty, how have you been? I heard you had some trouble in Canterlot.”

Shooting Pepper a faked look of annoyance at the use of her childish nickname, Sky nodded, helping locate some dishes and such for the dinner.

“I'm surprised you heard about that...”

Pepper chuckled, poking her nose into a cupboard to search for some rolls, causing her voice to echo around the kitchen.

“Heard about it? It was all the talk in Canterlot I'd imagine, and then the news reached here. I'm just so glad you're ok! What happened exactly?”

The two were more than happy with an early dinner, and Sky began the story, unable to resist the eager eyes of her friend.

“Well, there were these stallions...”

Author's Note

Yay! Chapter thirteen! Lots of chapters today!
Another thank you for Ten Speed with helping me proof these chapters. ^_^

Also another thank you to the various users mentioning the small grammer/spelling errors that are missed! I try to fix those faster than Pinkie Pie eating a cake!
Which is to say....very fast!