"A one, two, three, four. A one, two, three, four!" Was the sound that rippled out of a pleasantly smiling maw, that belonged to a happily prancing stallion, who sang his number song to the beat of his hooves. His movements chopped and changed, shortening his stride before lengthening it, his song switching tempo to match each precise movement. He carried on like this for sometime, not noticing the air heating up around him, too oblivious and caught up in his imaginary world of floating castles and soft, pink clouds. A world of a mad horse, an innocent mad horse who had lost his head a long time ago when visiting the tiny fairies. Well, that was the story the Niceshade believed and he was a very nice shade at that. His tail perched high in the air and tassels of black rippled attractively as a mass of mane adorned his handsome neck. Glass horns so delicate on his childlike face as dual coloured gems followed the flight of a blue butterfly that flittered nearby, he marvelled at it's beauty and then continued onwards. Blissfully unaware that another lay in his path.

He was made aware, however, when he almost bumped into a black mare with pretty feathers. d'Artagnan fumbled over his own cloven hooves and tripped up a few times until he finally managed to stop his dancing prance a few beats away from Psyche. Bringing himself to a rather graceful stand considering, which he inwardly congratulated himself on before turning shyly to look at the strange mare he had bumped into. "Uhm, eh sorry. Home? Is this your home? My home is in the sky, a giant castle that floats by itself! I can never find it though, it keeps running away from me every time I get near it. I wonder why that is..." His voice trailed off in sadness, if only he had wings and then he could fly after it. That would be excellent. Then he could finally become a King and be loved by all who lived among the fluffy pink clouds. The red boy almost drifted off further into his made up world, but he remembered that he was not alone and instead his gaze zoned in on the strange newcomer with funny squiggly markings.

"You look strange" he laughed, even though the question wasn't directed at him and instead at the mare with the pretty feathers called Psyche. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he knew he belonged somewhere else in a land much colder than this place, but reality was such a hard world to live in. It was much better away with the fairies. Where he could be d'Artagnan the Niceshade and not d'Artagnan the Nightshade. The latter sounded creepy.

He looked at the strange marked Friesian mare with blatant curiosity before stepping back and raising a brow. "Do you think there is something wrong with her? Maybe's she's ill?! Yet... Yet she doesn't look ill" his voice cracked and panicked as he ran over to Psyche with fear in his eyes. He'd never seen an ill horse before, so how was he meant to know if one was ill?! She could be dying right in front of him and all he was doing was standing around. He quivered as he looked over the black mare, unsure what he was looking for. "Are you ill? You don't look ill! But you could be..." His voice quailed and as it trailed off he attempted to pick up a piece of her mane as if examining it.

What should he do?!

The tall bay pranced around with the attention span of a child, his dual coloured eyes lighting up when the dark mare expressed her wish to find help him find his home amongst the blushing clouds and the cute rabbits. He was, obviously, stark raving mad but in a boyish innocent way. In no way was he aware of his years, yet in odd moments of thought there was a great intelligence there. He had bounded up to Psyche in glee when he heard her wonderful words of glorious fun and danced around on the spot, like a puppy begging for a pat as he nodded his head furiously in approval of the mare's help. The Niceshade laughed again when the pretty feathered mare told him to be quiet, taking joy in her teasing and sighing in relief when she notified him quite appealingly that she was not in fact ill. Her tone was enticing and it drew him in more, though he was not quite sure he would have been able to fix her. To the knowledge of his dream world, he knew nothing about healing.

The seducing mare finally offered her name to him and he played around with it in his head for a while, rhyming it in the strangest of ways before he finally parted lips to speak his own, but he stopped and frowned. What was his name? It was right there, in the back of his mind yet, he couldn't quite bring it to his tongue. He huffed in exasperation, why did horses always want to know his name?! Surely it wasn't that important, a name was a name after all. He sighed and huffed some more before it finally came to him "I'm King d'Artagnan the Niceshade, Lord of the pink domain and Master of the rabbits." He said, quite proudly.

His attention wavered then and he pranced off to stare down the fiery hole, making strange high pitched noises as he watched the flames flicker in a strange sort of amusement. He wondered what it would be like to jump in and for a moment he was even more strangely entertained by the thought. It was... So pretty to him. He regretfully turned away from the hole to listen to the strange marked mare who Psyche had called pretty. Eyes widened in panic as her voice turned into hysterics, she seemed confused for some reason and wildly announced that Psyche was not who she said she was and neither was he. His mouth fell open and he was left utterly speechless before he frowned and walked over to the stockier mare with swirls. "Calm down girl! What did you say I was... A Doctor?! Do I look like a Doctor to you?" he laughed quite girlishly before his voice turned more incredilous. His emotions forever changing from one thing to another. "My mind is perfectly fine, I've never touched a drop of poison in my life. Only the good stuff for me."

He then rather dramatically stomped away after a blue butterfly he saw fluttering into a nearby bush, muttering something about stupidity.