Everything was hazy, I wasn't sure where I was, but then the world around me started to become more and clearer. Soon I was able to sense the things around me and I felt the ground under me, it was warm and soft. I took in my first conscious breath and started to slowly open my eyes as light started to filter through my eyelids. Once my eyes were fully open they were still somewhat blurry so I sat up on the ground and brought my hooves up to my eyes. I rubbed my eyes to get them to see more clearly and set my hooves back down. The first thing I noticed was that I was sitting on a crude cloth bed attached to a stone wall hanging over a stone floor. I looked around and soon noticed that I was in a cell. They must have detained me, I can't blame them, and I guess I freaked out pretty bad. Suddenly I could hear hoofsteps started to make their way over to my cell.
My ears stuck straight up and I looked over to the cell wall kept safe with thick iron bars and a locked gate. Soon out of the corner of the wall I saw two ponies walk out. They were both guards and they were both the guards from the other day, or night… or whenever. The white unicorn was levitating a set of keys with him and completely blocked off most of the black guards body, but I could see his hooves. The white unicorn used the keys and unlocked the door. It swung open and I watched as the two of them entered the room. The black guard made himself visible now from behind the white unicorn and I could see that his face was cut up and bruised badly, that must be my fault. I felt horrible about it, they must be here to kick the crap out of me. They gave me a silent and still look though, not the kind of look you give somepony before beating the shit out of them.
"Oh crap…I'm sorry, I…I didn't mean it, I'm sorry." I said somewhat begging for forgiveness so that maybe at least the white unicorn won't beat the shit out of me.
"While assaulting a guard of equestria is highly illegal, we'll give you a break kid." Said the white unicorn.
"Huh…?" I said astounded by what I was hearing.
"Yeah… you heard me." He added. "After all that's happened we knew that you might have been a bit unstable. Plus it was self defense my partner here shouldn't have tackled you like that."
"Oh... Well, I'm sorry still, I don't know what happened, I think it was because when he hit me it brought back a few unpleasant memories." I said.
"We understand." He said. "Now, we're going to let you go," he said which brought a smile of hope to my face. "But we need you to finish that story you were telling us last night…" he said. "we have it on record, you stopped after seeing the mares head fall off." He said giving me a sullen look.
"Oh…right." I said with my smile fading and my remaining hope diminishing. "Well… let's see." I said recalling the memories. "The next thing that I remember happening was that something must have cut me across the chest." I said pointing out the fresh scars in an X shape running along my chest near the base of my neck. "then I felt some kind of force push me back, the last thing I remember is hitting my head really hard and probably blacking out." I said.
"You're sure you blacked out after that?" asked the guard.
"Pretty sure." I said. "I hit my head pretty hard, and I've still got the bump to prove it." I said rubbing the back of my head where a bruised bump protruded from the back of my head near the base of my neck.
"Well… there isn't any competing evidence to be held up against your story, so I guess that technically means everything checks out." he said bringing a smile to my face. "But…" he immediate added making my smile fade instantly. "Since that you are classified as still being unstable, and you are a witness, you can't stay in Canterlot anymore." He said.
"What?... I have to leave?" I asked worriedly.
"The killer is very dangerous, and you can still be in danger, so we have decided to move you to a small town not too far away called ponyville." Said the guard. "Not only is it a subtle and quiet town, but the legendary elements of harmony live there, ensuring your safety." He said. I can't believe this, moving like this is a big deal, but… I guess it doesn't make much of a difference; I don't really even live in Canterlot, I'm just here for college. I live in dorm and I'm broke as hell. So I guess it isn't much trouble.
"So… when am I leaving?" I asked.
"Now…" he said which made me shiver in shock slightly. "Me and my partner wish you the best of luck and once again we're sorry." He said. "I'm speaking on my partners behalf, because well… when you attacked him you were blindly flailing at him, and a lot of those punches ended up hitting him in the neck, so you kinda fucked up his vocal chords." He said.
"oh… sorry." I said.
"it's fine… now, we should get going." Said the guard.
"Alright then." I said getting up and walking over to the two ponies in armor. They both turned around and started walking out of the cell. I followed right behind them and kept my head down the whole time. We walked through the large Canterlot castle and passed groups of guards along the way. Soon we passed through a large doorway where the cool chill of night greeted our senses. I looked up to see that we were outside now in the courtyard. We walked down one of the hedge lined paths and took a sharp turn to the right. Just up ahead was a platform where a chariot stood with two pegasi guards at the reins. The two unicorn guards helped me up onto the chariot and before I knew it I was off to ponyville. The chariot carried me away across the sunset sky. It wasn't much longer until a small town snuggling next to the infamous everfree forest came into view. When I looked back the only noticeable structure of Canterlot was the large and ornate castle which had grown smaller and smaller with every minute.
The small town grew closer and closer until the moment of truth came when the chariot was only inches above the ground. The two pegasi guards circled around a large circular building g in the center of town and soon touched down with a smooth lean jerk. I help tightly on the chariot as it slowly creaked to a stop. We were parked right next to the large circular building. The two guards unlatched themselves from the chariot and walked over just as I walked off and onto the dirt ground. I took a moment to look around and took in my surroundings. This was a nice town from what I could tell, definitely not like Canterlot. All the houses are small and have straw roofs and all the roads and streets seem to be dirt. Down the road I could see what seemed like a large trading street with lots of stalls and stores. I turned away only to catch the eyes of the two guards who seems to wait patiently for me to acknowledge them. Once I looked at them they started talking.
"Our orders are to escort you to the library…" said one of the guards.
"The library?" I repeated with a confused expression. "Why do I need to go to the library?" I asked.
"That's where miss. Twilight sparkle is residing, you'll be staying with her until further notice." Said the other guard. Wait a minute… did he say twilight sparkle? As in THE twilight sparkle, the twilight sparkle who is the bearer of one of the elements, who brought down nightmare moon, discord, and the changeling queen chrysalis. I feel like I'm more than just a witness to some crime, whatever happened that day must have really gotten the attention of a lot of very important ponies. To say the least I was rather excited, but I'm still worried too so I'm not going to let many of my emotions show, but I can't really help it if they do anyway.
"Are you ready to depart?" asked the first guard.
"Uhm… yeah… let's go." I said. The guards nodded and turned around and started walking. I stayed close behind them and we soon left the center circle where the large round building stood and took off into the streets. As we walked by houses and buildings we sometimes saw other ponies that stopped and looked over with interest. There weren't many ponies out today, but it is getting late, they're probably all inside getting ready for bed. Just thinking about a bed made me yawn. I could feel my eyes starting to grow somewhat heavy even though I was just woken up not even more than a few hours ago. On our way down the street we passed by a large and lovely looking park with a big lake in it and a lot of tall and shady trees that glowed in the sunset. I kept my eyes on the ground and we kept walking. Nopony said anything and that was the last time I saw another pony on the street that night, everypony was off to bed as the sun had finally set and night loomed overhead.
Soon enough I decided to look up and check to see where we were and in front of us was a large tree that had been carved out to look like a house. It had windows and a door too. I kept my eye on it because it seemed interesting but what was even more interesting is when the guards turned onto the walkway leading up to the large house. I accidentally overstepped not knowing that was the library but I caught up to them. They walked up the small brick laid walkway up to the door. One of the guards raised a hoof and knocked on the thick wooden door. Everything was silent for a second and the guard knocked once more, then a quiet voice emerged from inside the house.
"Spike… gets the door." A young female voice said. If I had to guess it must be twilight sparkle.
"Sure thing twilight." said another voice form inside the house. It was an even younger sounding male voice. Soon the pitter patter of small hooves started to slowly rise as the knob of the door turned and the door swung wide open revealing the pony that opened it. At least, in most cases it would be a pony that had opened the door. I stared down and to my surprise a small baby dragon stood there with a blank stare on his face holding the door open. He was purple with a green underbelly and spikes along the top of his head. He had a short stubby purple tail and big dragon eyes. "Oh right… the guards," he said putting a smile on his face. "Come on in… twilights in the shower." He said gesturing us to walk in.
"We can't… but thank you… were just here to deliver the witness." Said the guard. Wait…deliver?
"Give miss sparkle our regards." Said the other guard as they both bowed and turned tail. They started walking back down the walkway and onto the road leaving me here. I watched them go and then turned back to see the same little dragon still standing there and holding open the door. To be honest this was pretty awkward, and I feel like it's only going to get more awkward from this point on.
"Umm…." I murmured not knowing what to say.
"So you must be the witness…" said spike. "Come on in, twilight will be done in the shower soon." I did what he said and slowly walked into the house with my ears and head down low since I was shy. Spike closed the door and I picked my head up so that I could look around at the house. The first thing I noticed was that the walls were covered in bookshelves which were all stuffed with books. To the left was a doorway to what seemed like a kitchen. At the end of the room was a door which was slightly opened up. I could see past it and saw even more books as well as a bathroom and other doors. Now that I was inside I could hear the shower running upstairs to the right.
"Whoa… how did you get those scars?" asked spike who was right in front of me pointing one of his claws closely at the X shaped scars on my chest near my neck. They were still red and slightly open. I'm pretty sure they could easily be reopened but they don't hurt at the moment. But I'm also sure that those scars will be there for the rest of my life, haunting me.
"From…the uh… the incident." I said in a shy voice turning away so he couldn't see the scars anymore. Suddenly from upstairs I could hear the sound of running water come to a halt and the creaking of a squeaky faucet handle. It wasn't long until a heard a few hoofsteps and then the sound of a hairdryer. I figured that twilight must be almost done with her shower now. I stood around awkwardly for a while longer and soon the hairdryer stopped and I waited for her to come downstairs and see me.
"I'll go let twilight know that you're here." Said spike as he ran off into the other room. I followed him with my eyes until he was gone then started to scan across all the books that were on the walls. I'm not exactly a huge reading fanatic but I do love a good book every now and then. Scanning across some of the books I began to recognize some familiar titles. She has a really good collection here; well… it is a library after all. I kept scanning through the books and I was completely unaware of my surroundings, I usually get distracted often by things I find interesting or relevant. It wasn't until I heard a voice close behind me that I finally snapped out of my distracted trance.
"Hello there… you must be the pony the princess talked about." Said a voice behind me that startled me slightly. I jumped a bit in my skin and quickly looked back to see a bright purple unicorn mare with a purple coat, and a midnight blue mane with purple stripes through it. This must be twilight sparkle; her coat and mane were still somewhat damp and frizzy since she was just in the shower. She had a bright caring smile on her face and I was just looking at her with a blank stare. "Welcome to ponyville," he said. "I'm sure the guards told you that you would be staying here for a while… anyway… I'm twilight sparkle, what's your name?" she asked.
"Oh… uhm…" I said. "My name is sunset strider"… yes… that's my name, sunset strider. It's not the most masculine name ever but most of my friends just call me strider. "But uh… you can just call me strider." My name and my colors match very well considering most ponies. My coat is a dark grayish blue color and my hair is a swirling mixture of every color from blue to red, like the sunset sky. My cutie mark is a faded orange half sun, and believe it or not my special talent is painting. That's what I was going to college for actually, to study in the finer arts…but now I'm here.
"Oh well, strider, it's nice to meet you." Said twilight with a warm smile. "I had heard about what happened, even the ponies of ponyville are somewhat afraid of this murderer, but… I was hoping that you would tell me what happened from your perspective." She said somewhat embarrassed at the question. It is a bit of an awkward question to ask I guess, but she got over it and gave me the same warm smile.
"Uhm… I guess." I said. "I didn't see much, a mare in front of me had the top half of her head sliced off…then I was attacked, I was pushed back into a wall and blacked out, that's all I remember."
"Whoa… a mare got decapitated?" reiterated spike. I looked down at him.
"No… what happened to that mare I think is worse." I said. "The top half of her head was sliced off… not all of it. Right across her face likes this." I said drawing a line across my face right above my snout with my hoof. I could see a shiver run down the little dragon's spine and the spikes on his head and back shook.
"Alright that's enough of that… I can assume you haven't had a minute to relax since you blacked out, if you want you can go and use the shower upstairs while I get you a bed set up." Said twilight.
"Uhm… sure, thank you." I said to twilight giving her a quick smirk. She showed me to the bathroom and I walked in and she handed me a towel. I turned on the shower and stepped in. it was a small shower, but I don't care, it was a shower. The whole bathroom was completely girly, lots of shampoos and conditioners stacked on shelves inside the shower. She didn't even seem like the kind of mare that would wash her hair with more soap than water. Seeing as she's a bookworm I sort of guessed that she wouldn't be the kind of pony who would have a million different soap bottles in her shower. She also had a bunch of makeup and eyeliners and stuff in an open mirror cabinet right above the sink. Once again, she doesn't seem like the kind of pony who would wear makeup all the time.
I kept my mind distracted with those kinds of trivial things as I let myself soak under the warm shower water. The force of the showerhead on my skin and the warm feeling of the water were very relaxing. I soaked my head and let the water wash over my whole body. I turned around to face the showerhead and let the blast of water hit my chest. It sprayed up against my scars and a wave of searing pain washed over my body. I let out a grunt of pain and too one step back and in that one step a sudden flash of memories seemed to flash through my head and past my eyes. It was like I was there now, the moment of the incident. Except now I can see every single gruesome detail. The mare in front of me gave me that horrible look of terror and fear.
A line of red cut across her face as blood started to drip down across a thin red line going diagonally across her face. Suddenly the top half of her head slid off the rest of her body and fell to the ground. Any brain matter in the top of her head had spilled out onto the ground in a squishy mess of grey matter and blood. The slice was perfectly positioned to cut one of her eyes right in half and that too fell out of her skull and onto the floor in the form of a gelatinous puddle mixed in with her blood and brain matter. Soon her whole body went limp and fell to the ground as blood spurted out and the rest of her brain poured out onto the pavement with the rest of her. The limp body of the mare that used to be standing in front of me was now only slightly twitching.
Suddenly there was a sharp pain on my chest, much like when the hot shower water hit my scars. Soon my own blood spurts out in front of my face in a thin wall. And beyond the blood I swear I saw a face. Yes… a face. Red eyes…and, that's all I can remember, red eyes. But they weren't close, they were far away… but they were looking right at me. They were big eyes that seemed to look right at me, even look right through me. Then I hit the wall end everything went black. Suddenly I found myself back in the shower again still halfway back going to take a slight step. I lost my balance and reached out for something to grab onto. The first thing I grabbed was a towel hanging over the shower curtains. I went to grab something else to keep me from falling but when I reached out to grab something all I could feel was the thin air… so I fell back. I landed backwards on by back and hit my head. my vision went fuzzy for a second and I lost my breath as a moist towel fell over my head and blinded me.
I quickly thrashed and threw the towel off of me. I felt like I needed to run… just run away, but the last remaining sane part of me told my body to stop everything and just sit there. So I did, I just sat there and started to calm down. The warm shower water beating on my lower body helped to keep me calm and I started taking in deep breaths trying to catch my breath again. My head really hurt now, it wasn't even that much of a fall, but that must be where I hit my head during that incident. Now that I think about it, it was like by body completely replayed the whole thing. And even now that I look down at my scars I can see that they had reopened and are bleeding again. They aren't as bad, but just a bit of blood seeping out along the edges like a small cut. The next thing I heard were frantic hoofsteps trotting their way up towards the bathroom. Soon the door burst open and I could hear twilights voice.
"Strider, are you alright?" she asked frantically trotting over to the shower curtain. She went to grab the curtain but stopped knowing I was in the shower. "Uh… do you need help?" she asked
"No…no I'm fine." I said getting back up. I opened the shower curtain slightly and poked my head out. "I just slipped and fell…I'm fine." I said giving her a reassuring smile.
"You're sure?" she asked.
"Yes twilight…" I said reassuringly. "Don't worry…I'll live." I said cracking a funny joke. She smiled lightly and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Alright, because it sounded like you had fallen pretty hard from downstairs." She said.
"Yeah, well I'm a heavy guy." I said which is true, I'm bigger than most stallions, and it is true that I could be more careful with what I eat, but I'm not a huge blob that eats everything. I work out sometimes… maybe, when I feel like it. but I have been losing weight recently which is good, I'm down 12 pounds from last month which I'm very proud of. All my past achievements aside twilight smiled and turned around to walk out of the room.
"alright… well, I've got your bed made, I'll be in my room reading a book if you need me." She said.
"alright." I said. I looked back into the shower to see the wet towel still being showered by water. "wait twilight…" I said urgently making her stop.
"Huh…what?" she said now somewhat alert.
"Well…uh, can you grab me a new towel?" I asked.
"a new one… what about the old one that…isn't…there anymore." She said eyeing the spot the towel used to be in.
"Well uh… yeah, when I was falling I tried grabbing something and that was the first thing I grabbed…sorry." I said with an embarrassed smile on my face. She let out a sigh and smiled back.
"No problem…" she said with her horn glowing. Suddenly a freshly folded towel with a purple aura around it floated into the bathroom and landed right by the sink. She gave me another quick smile and left the bathroom. Once she was gone I let out a sigh of relief and kept my head under the hot shower water. I carefully made sure that I was used to getting hot water on my scars. I slowly eased on the water and now I can just stand under the running water without freaking out like before. It still does sting a bit when the hot water runs across my wounds, but it doesn't hurt enough for me to care. Not long after I reached for the faucet handle and turned the shower off. I stepped out of the bathtub and onto the mat. I reached over, grabbed the towel by the sink and started drying myself off.
I finally finished drying myself off and grabbed both the wet and dry towel. I wringed out the wet towel so it doesn't drip and carried the both of them with me out the door into the main area. I looked to my left first and saw a laundry basket with crumpled up towels and other articles of clothing in it. I just threw the two towels in that and turned the other way. This room was a lot like the front room which I guess is the library and this is twilight's actual home. There was a stairway leading up to an overhang where twilights bed was sitting on, and just like she said, twilight was laying on her back, in her bed, with her face buried deep in her book, deep enough that she didn't notice me. Down here on the ground level was another bed. It was already made with dark blue sheets and covers.
"Thank you twilight." I said walking over to my bed. I got over to the side of the bed she had given me and still hadn't gotten a reply. "Twilight?" I said looking up to see that she was still reading. I looked even more closely and saw that the reason she had her face buried so deep into that book was because she was sleeping and the book was just lying on her face. I almost wanted to burst out laughing but I kept it to a dull snicker so I don't wake her up. I crawled into the premade bed and pulled the covers over myself. I closed my eyes and started to doze off with a smile on my face. I don't know much about this town or its ponies but I have a feeling it can't be all that bad.
I'm starting to like this place…
-Authors Note: I think its safe to say that ive become very interested in this new story of mine. i think im going to keep with this story too along with working on reborn and the rest of the crimson series. just so you all know this takes place after season two when the changeling queen was defeated, but is still before the events in season three actually begin, but i might end up having the story intertwine with season three. but tell me what you guys think, i hope you all like it, and until next time my friends, stay shady.-End of Note-