My first week living in the castle had had its ups and downs, but all in all, I couldn't say it wasn't... interesting.

The Princess had wanted me to get acclimated to castle living before she started my lessons, and to that end I had spent most of that first week simply wandering around and getting familiar with many of the different areas of the castle and getting to know some of the castle staff.

Princess Celestia had put me under the care of one of the Castle Guard, a stoic looking pegasus mare with a deep red coat by the name of Crimson Storm. At the time I thought the name was both odd for a mare and a little on the nose given her coat color, but I didn't outwardly say anything about it.

As we were introduced, I smiled up at the mare with my friendliest grin, trying to put my best hoof forward. I wanted to get along with everypony, sure, but more important than that, the Princess was watching.

"Hi there, my name's Twilight Sparkle!" I greeted cheerfully as we stood on either side of the doorway to my then new bedroom in the castle's residential wing, "the Princess said you were the one that was gonna show me around the castle?"

In response, the tall and rather lean mare just stared at me with impassive golden yellow eyes and my bright smile slowly slipped from my face as I waited for an answer. Eventually I turned back to Celestia, whom I'd been conversing with about my extended stay here in the castle.

She sat near the desk that'd been set up for me in the room, and my nervous expression turned to one of bemusement when I saw she was looking not at me, but at the golden armored mare in the doorway.

She tilted her head slightly with a questioning raise of her brow. Before I could make sense of it, I heard a small cough and turned back to the guard. She had that same impassive expression, but this time she spoke, her voice both surprisingly deep and surprisingly quiet.

"It's... a pleasure to meet you, Twilight Sparkle," she said in a rather flat and uncomfortable tone, as though she wasn't used to speaking in general, "the name's Crimson Storm, and yes, I'll... be showing you around the castle... for the time being."

"Uh... yeah," I replied, caught off guard and now just as uncomfortable in the rather awkward atmosphere, "thanks, and... um..."

I once again looked to Celestia for help and she chuckled before giving me a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, Twilight," she replied, nodding towards the soft spoken mare, "she may look rough-and-tumble, but she's actually a bit shy and doesn't speak much. Believe it or not, she was actually the one who volunteered to show you around, isn't that right, Storm?"

"As you say, Your Highness," Crimson Storm replied with a curt nod, "I've... been told more than once that I need to learn to... communicate more."

I took another look at Crimson Storm, trying to guage her true feelings on the matter, which itself wasn't an easy feat. The mare's face was a mask of stone and in the end, I couldn't discern anything from her. Apparently that wasn't the case with Celestia.

"I understand this isn't exactly what you expected when you asked me for help, Crimson Storm," Celestia said, as though reading the mare's mind, "but I believe you may just gain more out of this venture than you realize."

I gave the Princess another bemused frown, one she returned with a mysterious smile. This had been the first time I'd seen her wear that kind of smile, and it certainly wouldn't be the last time.

I would come to learn that whenever she wore that smile, life would always get a bit more interesting for me.

In any case, I turned back to Crimson Storm, determined to try my hoof at another, more successful introduction, but the mare had already stepped away and began trotting down the large hall.

"Wha—hey, wait!" I cried out, scrambling after the mare, "wait for me!"

I stopped and turned at the sound of Celestia's laughter.

"Be patient with her, Twilight," the Princess said with a small smirk, "she can be a bit... difficult to deal with, but she really is a good mare beneath all the hard faced stoicism."

I didn't quite see it at the time, but I nodded anyway and hurried after the pegasus guard. She had already gained a good bit of ground while I was speaking to Celestia and I had to gallop a bit to catch up.

I dodged out of the way of the other castle staff wandering the halls of the castle as I made my way to Crimson Storm. Eventually I managed to catch up and frowned up at the mare, who had finally noticed I wasn't following and slowed her pace somewhat.

"Sorry," she muttered dispassionately, "I thought you were right behind me."

"What? No, I wasn't!" I replied incredulously, "you never even said you were leaving! You didn't look back! You just... left!"

Crimson Storm said nothing in response, merely glancing at me sideways for a moment before shifting her wings slightly and looking ahead. My own petulant frown deepened and I went to complain again, but then I remember Celestia's words and let out a grumpy, resigned huff instead.

"Okay, let's start over," I said, forcing a smile, "my name's Twilight Sparkle. It's nice to meet you, Crimson Storm."

I held out a hoof for her to shake, but she stopped and merely looked at me. She blinked once and I could just make out a slight frown of confusion.

"We already met back in your room," Crimson Storm replied flatly, "why introduce yourself again when I already know who you are?"

My mouth opened, but nothing came out. Even as an eight year old filly, the mare's complete non-understanding of social cues had left me speechless.

"It's... I mean, w-we didn't really... um..." I rubbed the back of my neck feeling an odd mix of irritation and embarrassment, "w-when we introduced ourselves before, it didn't... really go the way I wanted..."

It was then that I remembered that, while I was nowhere near as bad at social interaction as Crimson Storm seemed to be, I wasn't exactly a social butterfly myself, having spent most of my time before moving to the castle indoors studying.

Sure, I had a friend or two, but I rarely hung out with them, and other foals my age may as well have been grass on the side of the road for all the attention I paid them.

Then there was Crimson Storm.

She was a full grown mare in Celestia's Royal Guard, and she was even worse at talking to ponies than I was. I found the whole idea incredibly odd and a little creepy for some reason.

"I see..." the mare finally replied tonelessly, "I'm sorry to hear that."

With nothing more than that, she began briskly trotting down the corridor again. I gave a half sigh, half groan as I followed after her. It looked like Celestia was right about the mare, and I wasn't going to get through to her so easily.

"Where are we going?" I chose to ask instead, "what's our first stop?"

"Kitchen," Crimson Storm replied, "then the great hall."

Honestly, that was fine with me. It had been a little more than a few hours since I had eaten breakfast and I was starting to get hungry again. Of course, this was all assuming Crimson Storm was going to the kitchen to get something to eat.

"I skipped over lunch to come see you," Crimson Storm replied when I asked her as much, "I've decided to get something to eat while showing you both the kitchen and the great hall."

"Oh, okay," I replied, nodding in understanding, "I guess that makes sense."

And so we continued onward towards the kitchen. We moved past a host of maids, guards, and the general public that had been waiting on Celestia to finish her break and return to the throne room for Day Court.

On the way, I began to notice something odd.

As I trotted after Crimson Storm, I started to hear various whispers and mutters from passersby. My ears perked up and I cast a curious glance around.

A few mares and stallions had stopped a little ways behind and I noticed, with some apprehension, that they were all casting furtive glances in my direction.

In trying to avoid their gazes, my eyes were instead drawn towards a lavishly dressed earth pony stallion and a unicorn mare wearing some sort of fancy frilled dress as they spoke in hushed tones.

"...filly from the exam?"

"Yes indeed, nearly destroyed the entire school and everypony in it from what I've heard. Turned her own parents into plants and summoned a full grown dragon big enough to break through the ceiling. The expenses to reverse the damage must be immense."

"And the bits are no doubt going to come out of our pockets. How dreadful. And to think, the Princess is letting her stay here in the castle! What on Equus is she thinking? Honestly..."

"It does boggle the mind to think that our fair princess would put all our lives in danger like that. Such an unstable child should be kept away from the masses, or at the very least away from the castle..."

Their voices weren't as quiet as they seemed to believe, and I heard every word.

The conversation came to an abrupt halt as the stallion's eyes finally wandered over to the very filly they'd been discussing. His own eyes widened as he saw me standing there staring back with my mouth hanging slightly open.

He nudged the mare he'd been talking to and nodded towards me, causing the mare to also look in my direction. The mare's face as she noticed me was the very picture of disdain—the expression so caustic that I winced and looked away, my ears folding back in shame and embarrassment.

I looked back just in time to see the mare open her mouth, no doubt to shoot some kind of scathing remark my way. The stallion however, put a hoof on her shoulder and she turned back to him with an irritated scowl.

He in turn simply shook his head and ushered her away. The mare made to argue, but seemed to decide against it and followed after the stallion, but not before throwing one last scowl my way.

Mercifully, the others who'd stopped to stare and whisper had also decided to clear out one by one. Soon enough, Crimson Storm and I were once again left alone as the last of the onlookers returned to what they were doing or moved on to wherever they were going.

I watched them all go for a moment before sinking to my haunches. Up until that point, I hadn't even considered the consequences of what I had done that day. I really had very nearly destroyed the school, but all I cared about then was the fact that I had gotten my cutie mark and became Celestia's personal student.

I was so happy.

The fact that so many ponies might've died if Celestia hadn't intervened when she did never once crossed my mind. Well... it had, but not in the way that it should've.

Thinking about it then, it still hadn't really. Sure, I did feel guilty that I hadn't once given any thought to how my actions had affected others—had affected my own parents—but when I thought back to my vision, all those ponies being reduced to ash and scattered away along with the school and the rest of Canterlot...

I wanted to laugh.

I wanted to laugh like I supposedly did back then, and that alone caused me to shiver slightly. It wasn't like I didn't know right from wrong, and I knew intellectually that such a thing would be a tragedy, but I couldn't help what I felt.

Maybe that wealthy stallion was right, maybe I did need to be kept away from other ponies like some sort of freak. I would've continued to sit there in the middle of the corridor feeling sorry for myself had it not been for a strong hoof on my own shoulder.

I looked up, eyes full of unshed tears, to see Crimson Storm gazing past me and towards the direction of where the two noble ponies had left. To my surprise, her eyes were narrowed slightly in disgust and there was a deep scowl on her face.

"Trash."

I blinked, completely taken aback by the sheer amount of venom the mare managed to pump into that one single word. It was to the point that I forgot my own sorrow in favor of sudden curiosity.

Did Crimson Storm hate the nobility?

My question of course, went unanswered, but with that one word, Crimson had lifted my mood, if only slightly. It wasn't that I myself hated the nobility—I honestly had no real opinion of them despite what had just happened—but it was just nice to know somepony was on my side.

Maybe.

She hadn't really agreed or disagreed with them, and the look on her face didn't really give anything away either. What did convince me that she might be on my side after all was what she said next.

"Don't let them get to you," Crimson said, her tone neither reassuring nor comforting and her expression as stony as ever, "they treat everypony that isn't a noble like scum. You get used to it."

With that, she gave me an awkward pat on the back and continued towards the kitchen. I looked after Crimson Storm a moment before wiping my eyes, letting a small smile cross my muzzle, and trotting after her.

It wasn't exactly an uplifting speech, but at the very least, the mare's words managed to lift my spirits somewhat. It was the intent that mattered, and it was something I was able to acknowledge and appreciate, even as a filly.

We eventually reached the kitchen and, much to my surprise and the head chef's irritation, Crimson Storm piled a mountain of food onto a tray while she mostly let the kitchen staff show me around.

We headed back out and towards the great hall, the pegasus guard with a large stack of several vegetable dishes atop her back, and myself holding a more modest tray of carrot soup, a few sticks of celery, and some seasoned bread in my magic.

As we both finally entered the great hall, I could see a few more guards eating and chatting at one of the two lengthy tables that took up a large amount of space.

I tried to start some small talk on the way to the hall, but hadn't managed to get much out of Crimson Storm other than a few muttered and mumbled one word answers and short, curt sentences.

I wouldn't give up though, and as we made our way to one of the tables, I resolved to get Crimson Storm to open up one way or another. With my mind so focused on the difficult task ahead, I had almost completely forgotten about the incident with the two noble ponies.

Almost.