Red's Precious Little Life
“From all of us together, together we’re friends. With the marks of our destinies made one, there is magic without end.” -Starswirl the Bearded (spell completed by Princess Twilight Sparkle)
The late winter sunrise brought a layer of frost that covered the long lawn in front of the Section P. The branches on the center tower in the inner palace glistened with a frosty elegance that rivaled the Section S palace to the north. Red awoke shaking in the cold, his heating magic-in-a-jar from the night before had somehow escaped its confines and the wind was eating at his coat with a painful nip. He grumbled and stood up from his make-shift bed on the floor, ate a small bundle of hay, then headed out for work. The walk on the path to his work place, although bitter, was peaceful and pleasant as it always was. This point in the morning, the due was frozen around the branches of the woods near the edge of the lawn, making the forest have a crystalline glow, it was always Red’s favorite part of the winter, and by this time the next week, the alicorns would run through and rid the trees of their beautiful frozen companion.
Red reached the old wooden plow, hitched himself into it, and started back from where he left off at the day before. His job this time of year was to clear the palace grounds of the snow and plant new rows of various fauna as he was told. It was horribly tedious work, doing the job by himself, hauling that cumbersome plow through the deep snow was beyond tiring, and was slow work, not to mention boring, well, aside from Lady Pink, the resident brown-snout of the Section P palace. She was a hateful, middle aged Earth mare. Any time not spent kissing alicorn flank, was spent showing that she hated other Earth ponies as the alicorns did. Fortunately for her, Red happened to be the only other earth pony in the entirety of Section P, and was an easy target for her abuse. Despite everything, Red enjoyed the work in a way, during the winter, Lady Pink didn't come out as often, and he didn't have to put up with the other alicorns inside the palace walls. Red hadn't been working for long before the plow made a violent shake; it had hit rock hidden beneath the snow, and the plow blade had become detached and was lying on the ground. Red cursed under his breath as he unhitched himself and moved to the side to reattach the blade. All the while, he couldn't help but picture Lady Pink storming out of the wall to find him fumbling around with the old blade and the verbal assault that ensued. After a great amount of wedging and wiggling the blade, it popped and locked back into place. Red let out a tired sigh and turned to get back into the plow when his is imagination materialized before him in the form of the petit, maroon manned Lady Pink.
She was dressed in an overly lavish winter coat, as if she had just attended a gala not even ten minutes ago. She stood in a practiced stance to show her dominion over Red, despite how much bigger he was compared to her, least one of the court alicorns spot her not looking having control of the situation. Her mane was whipping around in the bitter wind. Even though her eyes were squinting from the cold, Red could still feel the malice and hate spew from them as they always have. The two of them stood in a tense silence for a brief second before Lady took in a short breath and snootily asked, “Why haven’t you finished the lawn yet?” Red opened his mouth to explain that the reason he was so delayed was because of the old plow breaking constantly but was cut off by Lady, “Lord Blossom does not want to come out in a week and see ice and snow still on the ground, so enough of your excuses and get back to work.” Her forced voice sent shivers of anger up Red’s back, “I know your tricks, don’t think you can pull one over me mud-dabber.” Red’s body tensed up, normally when an alicorn in the town or on the guard’s watch would call him by the typical insult he’d brush it off, but seeing Lady refer to him that way drove him up the wall. Lady’s face turned to a proud smirk, “What’s wrong mud-dabber? Angry are we? Want me to go away? Get to work and don’t stop until you’re finished, understand?” Lady leaned in to Red and whispered, “Do this and I’ll leave you to your work”. Red could smell the thick cloud of perfumes that radiated from her body and he repressed the urge to gag, “Y-yes ma’am”. Lady backed away and walked behind Red, she poked out a hoof and kicked the side of the plow blade, knocking it out of place again and causing the plow to fall over on its side. Lady walked back towards the castle, a malevolent smile across her face, “Oops”. Red glared at her as she walked away laughing.
Red turned and pushed the plow back up and re-fixed the blade back to where it was, hitched himself back into the plow, and started working again. Miraculously, the plow did not break down again for the rest of the day, allowing Red to finally finish the lawn. Completely exhausted, Red walked to the rickety, old back door to the palace kitchen. Red carefully walked through the back door and entered the grungy make-shift dining space he managed to convince Lady into arranging for him. He sat himself down on the dirt floor and waited for the cook to bring his dinner. This time in the day, like his walks to and from work, allowed Red to think about the next day’s work. He started to draw in the dirt a rough map of the palace lawn, marking where he had already started the new crops and flower beds for the spring, and planning out a way to try and knock out all the work in one day, giving himself a day or two to relax and admire the last few days of the winter. Red had become so engrossed in his map making that he didn’t notice the chef entering the back room with his meal of scraps for the evening. The chef placed the pot of food and a flagon of water on the table in front of Red, and looked at his map. “Always been a planner Redsy” the chef said with a smile, “Ever since Lord Blossom ordered Lady to teach you to read you’ve been planning every day on that dirt floor”. Red looked up at the chef, his eyes filled with a nostalgic glint, “Eat up champ.” The chef took off his hat and stepped outside, and stretched his wings. Red looked at the old alicorn, flecks of grey in his hay yellow coat and light brown mane stood out in the light from the kitchen, like the light gas magic used in Las Pegasus, making him look older than he was. Red smiled at the chef, “Thanks Joe”. The old alicorn nodded, “No problem, see you again tomorrow.” Joe smiled and winked, “Keep that chin up champ” Red nodded, and the alicorn took off into the twilight sky.
Red didn’t have much time to eat before he was interrupted by Pink Lady, who was red in the face and looked like she ran quite a distance to get to the room. She was breathing heavily but managed to say, “You…. we… water… water, please” Red pushed the flagon to Lady, “Thank… you”. She hastily drank the water, some of it running down her snout. Something had to have gone very wrong, the fact that Lady hadn’t greeted him with the usual sneer and snide comment, not to mention she was dressed a little more casually raised too many warning flags with Red. “What’s wrong?” Red asked, half serious. Lady put down the flagon and caught her breath, “Her lordship, Sol Blossom, requires you presence for a special task.” Hearing this, everything clicked in Red’s head; Lady wasn’t beat read because she ran, she had been furious, Red’s guess was she walked up length of the palace wall screaming and kicking the stone on her way here. Red repressed a chuckle and asked, “Can her lordship wait for me to finish my me-“ Lady answered Red’s question before he finished with a searing glare and a hoof sliding across the table, knocking the food to the floor, “Just go.” She said coldly. Red got up slowly, never breaking eye contact with Lady’s glare. Once outside, Red could hear Lady as she let out a feral yell and started to smash the little dining area.
The stars shined brilliantly against the bight sky’s black canvas. The late winter air still held its nip from the day, but the wind had died down quite a bit since then. Red traveled along the outer wall of the palace the dirt path turning to cobblestone. The main tower glowed from the light of the inner palace, the cobblestone beneath Red’s hooves was cold, and the sound of his movement reverberated loudly as he reached the gate, the silhouette of a massive alicorn guard stepped in front of Red. “Who goes there?” the guard’s wings rustled a bit, as if Red actually posed a threat to him. “I am Red, the grounds keeper here, I am under orders of Lord Blossom to go to her court to receive further orders for a job she wishes complete.” The guard leaned forward, a skeptic glare and frown on his face, now visible from the light of the torch nearby, “What would her lordship want with an earther like you?” Red returned the snide question with a confident smirk, “Well how would I know?” he pointed to his head, “I don’t have one of those horns, can’t read minds, but when she tells me, I’ll be sure to let you know when I come back through here.” The guard stepped forward, his reflecting the torch’s light in a brilliant manner, his horn was pointed to an almost needle point and looked equally sharp. His wings were larger than most of the alicorns guard or otherwise, in Section P, which told Red that he was more than likely from Section R. “Watch your tongue filth, an Earth stallion like yourself is in no position to have such a sharp tongue” Red instantly lowered his head, realizing he needed to just keep quiet, ‘This isn’t Lady you’re dealing with dumb-ass’ Red thought to himself, “My apologies sir, I was sent here by Lady Pink to enter Lord Blossom’s court and await further instruction there.” The guard chuckled and smirked, “Much better, you may enter, just stick to the side path to the court, no need upsetting the civilians”.
Red passed through the gate after thanking the guard and made his way down the small dirt path to the court, in attempt to avoid gaining any unwanted attention. The palace was full of life, hundreds of the resident alicorns bustled about, some eating in one of the various stores and restaurants in the area, others seemed to be making their way home, keeping themselves bundled up from the cold as they traversed the narrow streets and marble walls and buildings of the palace. The light from the lamps and stores reflected off the walls so brightly that if somepony hadn’t actually looked at the night sky, they’d think it was high noon. Red moved down the dirt track quietly, knowing what would happen if an alicorn were to find him. After what seemed like hours, Red reached the grand, marble arch-way to the court. The white columns extended several feet into the air, complemented by multiple white statues of alicorn lords of the past, ran along the massive center tower. Just like the buildings earlier, the columns and statues reflected the light from the palace with an almost blinding immaculateness. Above the top of the arch, the tower rose into the night sky, its branches blocking out most of the stars. Red quickly and quietly made his way through the archway and into the court. The court itself was composed of the same marble as the walls, buildings and statues outside. The massive torches attached to the marble columns that lined the hall did a great job to illuminate the windowless area. Red made his way towards the center of the court, a giant plaza opened up and upwards into the center of the main tower, the marble changing into petrified, ancient wood. In the center sat the alicorn lord of Section P, Sol Blossom. She was young, tall and beyond beautiful. Her mane was as yellow as the sun itself and flowed down her back in fiery golden waves, a small bow sat near her ear, and made her look younger that she really was. Her light red coat was just as brilliantly vibrant as her mane in the torch-light. Red moved out moved from the shadows of the column he was hiding behind and moved to Blossom.
Red cleared his throat, being sure to bow is head before she turned to him. Blossom looked at Red’s bowed head and smiled, “You must be the infamous Red” she looked closer, “you’re much larger than Lady lets on.” She stepped down from her throne and raised a hoof, “You may raise groundskeeper. What brings you here?” Red raised his head and quietly answered, “I was told by Lady Pink that you required me to complete a special job for you.” Blossom looked to one of the guards nearby, “Fetch the basket” she commanded, and looked back to Red, “I am expecting a very important guest and I need you to retrieve apples, there should be some in the forest just outside of the palace. Please make haste.” The guard tossed the now floating wicker basket at Red. He caught it and quickly strapped the basket onto his back and bowed again, “I will return as soon as I can m’lady.” Blossom smiled again, “You’re much more polite than Lady lets on as well, thank you groundskeeper, you may leave”. Red stood, nodded his head and quickly made his way out of the court.and back into the winter winds of the night.
