As Fluttershy gathered herself and cleaned up her coat and mane, I began to put on my armour. I first put on the chainmail under garb, but while putting on the Carapace, I decided against the idea. 'I’m trying to make friends, not followers.’ As I put it back down, I saw the small, blood-red ruby in the center of the chest. The ruby was cut with extreme skill and was in a teardrop shape. But seeing the ruby reminded me of my Cutie Mark. I spun around to look at my flank, and when I saw it I sighed.

The Cutie Mark showed a golden shield with a sanguine droplet in its center. ‘Anypony with knowledge of ancient history and kingdoms will recognize that mark… oh well. Nothing I can do about it,’ I thought glumly. ‘Let’s just hope none of Fluttershy’s friends are bookworms.’

I met the yellow mare at the door, where she was waiting. I noticed that as before, she wore nothing. I realized that she had not answered my question from earlier, so I asked her about this matter again, saying:

“Pray tell Miss Fluttershy, why don’t you ever wear any form of dress?” The mare blushed in response before saying:

“Well, I guess you can say that Ponyville is a nudist colony. Nopony here ever dresses unless it’s for something special. Other places like Manehattan and Canterlot would frown on upon the idea, but we usually keep to ourselves.” I nodded at this, and then thought about removing my clothing. I shrugged before removing my under garb. I could have sworn Fluttershy’s eyes went wide as I undid the fastenings, but when I looked at her, she was facing away. When I was finished, I folded up the mail and laid it next to the rest of my armour.

"Very well then. I have no desire to stand out. So I suppose I shall simply follow your local traditions." I paused, half-frowning. "No matter how... alien they may be to me." As I walked back to the door, Fluttershy opened it for me, gesturing that I should go first. I instead took the door, and gestured for her to go first. She went ahead, nodding in thanks, and I then followed. I took the keys from her and locked the door. As I handed her back the keys, I heard a very faint but distinct whistling sound. I knew this sound well, from every time I flew at high speeds. My eyes went wide, as I feared the worse. I jumped over to Fluttershy and pushed her to the ground. Unfortunately, that’s all I had time for.

“Halloa! Below there! Lookout, LOOKOUT!” were the last things I heard before something smashed into my left side with incredible force. Upon impact, I heard and felt my wing break again. Tears welled up in my eyes as I was flung to the ground, with my assailant soaring over me. ‘Wow… this hurts more than a little bit. At least it's not as bad as the first time…’ I sat up, wiping my eyes from the accumulated tears and trying my best not to scream bloody murder… at least for Fluttershy’s sake… ‘Fluttershy! I had just thrown her to the ground, forgetting my strength! I could have killed her! I could have-‘

“Oh my goodness, Red Storm! Are you ok?” My mind slowed back to normal, hearing the squeaking voice behind me. I turned around to face the owner, and relived to see that she seemed ok.

“Peachy,” I breathed, still trying to swallow my agony. I got up, and looked her over. She seemed unscathed, except her once straight, well combed mane was now a bit frizzled. Oh well. Better than a compressed ribcage any day. Then, to my right, I heard a mare yell:

“That. Was. AWESOME!... But I probably should have pulled up sooner…” I looked to my right and saw a pegasus mare with a neon blue coat, magenta eyes, and an unusual rainbow-colored mane trotting towards us. From her build I could clearly tell she was an athlete, and a strong flier too. I found it a touch odd that she seemed fine from the crash but I brushed the thought aside. I was more angry with her than anything.

“Who are you? What were you doing flying like that?” I demanded, furious over the mare’s lack of responsibility, endangering myself and Fluttershy. She looked up to me, confused expression on her face. I quickly realized that this must be normal for her, and she was genuinely confused if not sorry.

“Whoa, sorry. I was trying out a new stunt,” she said. “Heyy… I’ve never seen you before! Name’s Rainbow Dash. I see you’ve already met Fluttershy."

“Red Storm, this is one of my friends that I wanted you to meet,” Fluttershy said, smiling. I blinked a few times, surprised that the quiet Fluttershy would associate herself with a mare of this caliber. But then I remembered to introduce myself, even if I was still a bit annoyed.

“I am Red Storm, son of-" I stopped myself, making a silent reminder to stop that. I chuckled “Sorry. Old habits die harder than a Germane.” Upon saying this, both mares looked at me sideways, rather confused. I quickly realized that this expression was probably foreign to them.

“It’s a thing from my homeland… A joke, I suppose but... never mind.” Everypony stared at each other awkwardly until Rainbow Dash saw my good wing. Her expression changed from confused to excited in an instant, and the fire re-lit in her eyes.

“Hey! You’re a Pegasus too! We should race sometime!” I turned to my right so she could see my now-bleeding left wing, vermilion dying the bandages. It certainly looked worse than it really was. “Oh…Oh! Did I do that? Oh man, I am SORRY! I will make it up to you! I promise!” I just shrugged.

“Oh well. Accidents happen. No need to go and start saying you owe me for something so insignificant. “ The mare stared at me, gawking at my indifference of the fact she just re-broke my wing. She then just sighed and said:

“Well… alright. But at least promise me we’ll race when your wing is healed, ok?” Her eyes wore a look of regret, but behind them was a fire of passion burning… maybe fire is inaccurate. Perhaps an inferno is a better word to use. It reminded me of my youth, for better or worse.

“You’re on,” I stated plainly, grinning widely and abandoning my formal form of speech. I quickly added with a blush however, “Though, you should know… I’m a bit of a weak flyer. My wing power average is only a sixteen-point-five.” I smiled meekly, but was surprised when the two mare’s jaws dropped.

“A sixteen-point-five wing power average?!?” Rainbow Dash bawled, “That’s the same as my average! And you’re trying to tell me that you’re SLOW? I’m the fastest in Equestria!” Fluttershy then joined in:

“That’s more than four times my average! How could you ever think that you’re slow?” I looked at each mare, blinking. Then I burst out laughing.

“I say that I’m slow because my father, Red Wing, has a top speed that is at least ten times that of my own! He is so fast, that when we tried to measure his top speed, the wing power meter was utterly destroyed!” Immediately after saying this, however, my smile turned to a frown, as I then remembered my reason for leaving. The two mares stared in disbelief. Rainbow Dash then broke the silence by saying:

“WELL! This just means I’m gonna need to train my tail off! Where’s Micks when you need him…” And without further ado, she took off, her air displacement showing she was going at least a dozen wingpower upon takeoff. Once the cyan blue Pegasus was out of sight, I turned to Fluttershy and asked:

“So, I suppose that that’s one ‘friend’ down; who’s next?”

Author's Notes:

Now I know what you're thinking; "Oh my! Red Storm is as fast as Rainbow Dash? Booo! This fanfic suddenly sucks!" This is not so. One of many plot devices... and very well planned ones, at that... And NO by "plot devices" I dont mean a contraption for a pony's rump... you sick-minded individual, you. Well, anyways, read on if you're not tired of me yet.