"Your Highness" one of Celestias guard ponies called out. "We caught this Pegasus shoplifting. He tried to get away, but we had no trouble catching him. What do you want us to do with him?" The guard pony asked.

He dragged forward a young pegasus, who looked like he was halfway through his teen years. He was a dark red, had a scraggly mane and tail that looked like he hadn't bothered to comb. Ever. He was half starved, and still had yet to get his cutie mark. It wasn't common, but sometimes a pony would go his whole life with getting his cutie mark.

One of the guards had taken pity on him, and leaned forward to whisper in his ear: "Don't worry, the Princesses are very kind, you'll probably get through this with only a short community service. Just tell her the truth, okay?" Her words were reassuring, but the young pegasus was terrified.

Celestia smiled kindly, "What's your name, little one?" she asked. Her voice was sweet and gentle, he didn't feel as scared as he was before.

"I-I don't have a name." he said. "But my father called me 'Brat', if that's any help."

Celestia was taken back, "Brat? But why would he ever call you that? Surely, you must have a name." The red pegasus shook his head.

"No, my father never gave me a name. He hated me, and did everything to make my life a living hell." His eyes were watery. "Are you going to punish me for stealing? I was really really hungry, and..." his voice trailed off. His eyes were watery, tears started to trail down his cheeks.

"Guards" Celestia said. "You may go. See to it that this colt is given a nice room, with a hot meal."

The guards left, Celestia got down from her throne, and strode over to the now sobbing little pegasus. She put a wing around him, comforting him. "It's okay, little one. You can stay here. My sister needs some company while I'm away, and maybe you could do that for me, hmm? Would you like that?"

The red pegasus looked up at her. His eyes were puffy and red. "Th-thank y-you, your hi-highness." was all he could say. He got shakily to his hooves. Celestia levitated the sausage he had stolen over to him, and instructed a page to reimburse the butcher the pegasus had stolen from. Celestia looked at his left wing. It was bent at an odd angle. She also noticed that he was blind in one eye.

"What happened to your wing?" she asked.

He looked at his wing, and answered: "My father was a unicorn with a talent for blacksmithing. In one of his abusive rages, he broke my wing with one of his larger hammers, when I was a little colt. I ran away shortly afterwards, and my wing never healed properly. I can't fly because of that. It's why your guards had such an easy time catching me." That and he also had a limp.

Celestia was afraid to ask about the eye. "I have physicians that can fix that wing, if you want."

The red pegasus replied "No thanks. It doesn't bother me at all, and I'm used to living without the ability to fly." The two strode down the hall. A pair of unicorn servants were standing around waiting for them.

Celestia said: "Feather Dust, Spit Shine, please see to it that this young pony here is cleaned up nicely, my sister will meet him shortly, and I want him to look nice for her. Give him a nice tux or something like that too. And you," Celestia turned to the pegasus "I must bid you farewell now, I have an appointment in the Goblin Kingdom about a new trade agreement, and I believe it will take several months. Farewell." And with that, she was gone in a flash of light.

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*Splash*. The pegasus was sitting in the middle of a tub of hot water. Steam was rising, and he was freaking out about the heat. Feather Dust was levitating a bucket of hot water, and dumped it into the tub.

"Oh, quit complaining, kiddo. It's just water, and it isn't that hot!" Spit Shine started scrubbing the pegasus with a scrub brush, and dumped some soap into the pegasus' mane, a little getting into his eyes. He freaked. "Oh, quit being such a foal, you!" Spit Shine teased, using her magic to get the soap out of his eyes, then splashing some water on them to get any remaining soap out. Scrub scrub scrub.

His bath finished, he hopped out of the massive tub that rivaled the tub at the Lotus Sisters spa in Ponyville. Feather Dust dried him with a blow drier, while Spit Shine brushed his mane and tail. Brushy brushy brushy.

*Prick* "YEOW! Dammit, watch the needle." The pegasus was being fitted for a nice outfit for meeting Luna, the younger Princess, who usually stayed in the Canterlot Royal Library, studying some ‘Princesses Eyes Only’ documents written by Equestrias famous mad scientist, Tesla Zap, or reading the latest novel that was all the rage. He was lead down to the Royal Library in the castle.

"Princess Luna is in here. Don't worry, she knows your description. Ask the librarian were she is. Good luck." The massive door closed with a heavy thud. The pegasus walked through the library, heads turned, those who noticed how he was crippled gave a sympathetic nod, or something like.

There was a large desk. That had to be were the librarian was. A young white, stallion was seated at a computer, tapping away at the keyboard. "Umm, hi? Are you the librarian?" The stallion said nothing, just pointed a forehoof at the plaque on the counter. The pegasus looked at it, but he couldn't read. "Umm, sorry, but I can't rea-" He didn't even finish with what he was saying.

The Unicorn Stallion interrupted him, saying: "You can't read? Well, then what are you doing in the largest Library in Equestria? Did you even go to school?"

The pegasus was taken back. "N-No sir, I didn't. I can barely count. Umm, I'm looking for Princess Luna, Celestia said that-" He was interrupted again. "Oh, are you the little pegasus that I heard about? The one Celestia took off the streets?" The pegasus nodded. "Well, sorry if I seemed rude, earlier, you should've told me sooner. The Princess is right this way!"

Shelves. Hundreds of them stretching dozens of feet high, with thousands of books each, stretching for what seemed forever. It was no wonder that the Canterlot Royal Library was the largest in Equestria, nay, the whole world, with at least one copy, if not two, of every book ever published, every scroll ever written, and even a new section for every movie ever produced and record/CD published, ever. The library was even enchanted to be much, much bigger on the inside. It didn't take long, though, to find Princess Luna. But in the epic vastness of the library, it felt like forever.

"Your Highness, there is someone here to see you." No response.

Luna was way too engaged in her book to look up. The pegasus leaned around the corner to get a good look, and saw the most beatiful pony he had ever seen. She was bigger than he was, but then again, most adult ponies were. She had wings and a horn, was a deep, deep blue, with a purple splotch with a white moon for a cutie mark, her mane and tail were a wavy blue with scintillating stars, and she had a small, black, tiara, and a necklace thing with her cutie mark on it. The librarian, who had introduced himself as Star Strike, and claimed to be a descendant of Star Swirl the Bearded, trotted over to Luna, and leaned over to whisper in her ear.

"Forgive me, your Highness, for disturbing you, but the little pegasus, he doesn't have a name, is here. Pegasus was still dazzled by Luna’s beauty. She looked at him. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of blue.

Princess Luna looked at Pegasus. The first thing that drew her attention was that he was blind in one eye, like, it was just pure white. The other eye, was as red as the rest of him, as was his now freshly combed mane and tail. He was handsome, in a scrawny 'count half your ribs and oh yeah your wing looks like it got busted and didn't heal properly sort of way'. Luna then noticed that he was a blank-flank.

"Oh, hello. As you have probably guessed, I am Princess Luna. But I prefer to just be called Luna, even though everypony insists on calling me Princess." Pegasus was only half listening to what she was saying, the rest of him was enjoying her lovely, lovely voice. All he really got was that she wanted to just be called Luna.

"Wha-whatever you say, Luna." He had fallen head over heels for her the moment he saw her. Her beauty was overwhelming, her presence was magnificent. He thanked celestia that he got to be a companion for her. All he was, was a common street pony, and a crippled one at that. A small part of his mind said that he didn't have a chance with her. He said fuck you to that small part of his mind, and listened to the rest of his mind, which said that he should take it easy, and let fate attend to itself. Wait. Was she inviting him to dine with her?!

"Wait, umm, Luna? Are, are you inviting me to dine with you?"

"Why, yes. Yes I am. It’ll also be a good time to give you a name."  She studied him closely, observing how he fidgeted uncomfortably. "Is there anything that you would prefer to eat?"

Pegasus thought for a moment. "Whatever would be convenient, I guess. I'm just hungry right now, that's all."  He pawed at the ground out of nervousness.

Luna smiled. "I'll tell that to the cooks right away. Star Strike, have one of the guards, or servants, whichever you find first, show this pegasus to his new room. If it's not to his liking, I will personally adjust it to his liking."

The trek to his new room took about as long as searching the library for Luna. He finally arrived at his new room, the guard that was leading him got the door, and Pegasus stepped in and sweet celestia, it was fucking HUGE! It seemed to be as big as the library! He stepped out, got a look out the window and, it was built at the top of one of the Castles turrets. He didn't know geometry or architecture, but even a dumbass could tell that the room was bigger, way bigger, on the inside. The entire damned castle was bigger on the inside.

"Is the room to your liking, kiddo?" He recognized that voice. Looking at the guard, he recognized her as the one who had reassured him when he first met Princess Celestia.

"I-I love it! Could I, erm, get your name please?" The guard smiled.

"My name is Fire Shield. Lieutenant Fire Shield. Her Highness Celestia met with me before she left, and assigned me to you. She then put a warrant out for you fathers arrest. Just let me know if you are going to leave the castle for any reason, and I will accompany you. Alright?" She certainly was friendly for a guard.

He thought for a moment. Then he remembered. She was the guard who had captured him when he was stealing from the butchers shop. "Got it." He was about to start exploring his new room, when his new personal body guard added "Sorry about tackling you earlier, I was just doing my job in catching thieves, ya know?"

Pegasus looked over at Fire Shield. "It's okay, I understand." He hopped up onto his new bed. It was the most comfortable thing ever. He was about to drift off, when he asked Fire Shield to wake him for dinner time. He thought he heard her reply, but he drifted off quickly, and didn't catch what she said.

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"HEY KID! WAKE UP!!" Pegasus awoke with a start, and found himself staring a very aggravated Fire Shield in the face. "Shit man, you sleep harder than my son Golden Hoof and that's saying something." Pegasus looked at her.

"You have a kid?"

"Yeah, I do. That's why Her Highness Celestia assigned me to you. Thought I'd understand you better. It's dinner time, I've gotta walk you down to the main dining hall. You ever drink? Y'know, mead? Brandy? Those are two favorites of Her Highness Luna."

Pegasus thought for a moment. Sometimes he had stolen a bottle of alcohol, and he preferred straight rum, sake, and champagne, and those were what he asked about.

"Well, kid, we have rum, but the cooks use it for their cooking. Sake is typically not in the castle, neither of the princesses like it, and we ran out of champagne last night, when Her Highness Luna was celebrating her birthday." Fire Shield chuckled at the memory of Luna's party, particularly the one where she got hammered big time. "I'll try to pry a bottle of rum from the cooks, but if I can't get it for you, you'll have to settle for whatever the Princess offers you." And with that, Fire Shield was off.

Spit Shine and Feather Dust rushed in to tidy the bedroom. Neither of them spoke, but Spit Shine levitated up a pair of comforters for the bed, one of them gold, and the other one blue. Pegasus chose the gold one. He took a peek in the fridge, and was amazed by what he saw; fresh manchego cheese, the sausage he had stolen had been placed inside. Fire Shield poked her head into his room.

"Well, c'mon! We haven't got all day." Pegasus hurried after her.

True to her word, Fire Shield had procured some rum for him. A unicorn stallion in a butlers outfit was standing next to Pegasus, levitating a bottle of said rum, while a unicorn mare in a french maid uniform was standing beside Luna with a bottle of white wine.

"Ahh, it's you. So good of you to join us. Please, be seated."  

Luna was sitting in a large, blue, heavily decorated chair. Pegasus looked at his chair. It was red, with some ornate carvings. The butler pulled it out for him to be seated, then pushed it back in once Pegasus sat down. Several cooks walked in, carrying a large silver platter. They sat it down, and lifted the lid off of it. "Bon apatite" said the chef. What Pegasus saw amazed him. A large roasted pig, with an apple stuffed in its mouth, several apples surrounding it, then a ring of daffodils and daisies, finely garnished flowers of a variety that he didn't recognize. One of the cooks cut into the thigh, and served Luna a heaping slice. Luna promptly thanked him. Then, he leaned over to Pegasus.

"Sir, which slice would you like?" Pegasus thought for a bit.

"Erm, I'll take a thigh piece, also, please."

The other thigh was placed before him, along with several daisies and daffodils, and the garnished flowers and a couple of apples. It was glorious, he didn't know where to begin. He looked over at Luna (which he loved doing). She had started with the apples, so he did the same. An amazing explosion of flavor. He finished the apples, and started on the flowers. Those were also amazing. He tried the rum. It was the most amazing tasting rum, ever.  The pork thigh was great, too.

"You like the pork? It's a human recipe." said Luna. "Well, you probably have never heard of the humans. They are a race from another world. It's really hard to describe them, and my sister isn't too fond of them. Says they resort to violence too much, but she has some working in the kitchen, and another is acting as a 'military advisor', whatever that means. Heh, I really should know. When I returned from the moon after a thousand years, she put me in charge of the military to keep me preoccupied. Got her angry when I had the guard force out a Diamond Dog mining group after they ponynapped, damn, what was her name, element of generosity, Rarity! That was it, Rarity! Sheesh, remove a potential threat, and Celly goes ballistic! Got upset at General McCalister, too! He's the military adviser I told you about." Luna went on and on.

Pegasus didn't mind, she had a lovely voice that he could just listen to for days on end. Luna mostly focused on the humans, and after dinner introduced him to the cooks, the guards and General McCalistor, and a platoon of soldiers from the British SAS and the Israeli Defense Force, and a small group of humans who were working with the pegasus guard, who were 'Green Berets' (Pegasus didn’t know what that meant, but it was obviously important sounding). Luna then gave him a tour of the rest of the castle. He focused less on what she was saying, and more on her perfect voice. Then, finally, she gave him a name. She named him,

Red Bolt.

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