A Dusk's New Dawn

by ThatWritingDragon

3- A Rather Daring Move

Time passed by rather quickly after that fateful meeting. The days since then of lonely trots and feasting on food alone were now filled with poor Dusk's head being smacked by the ever so vigilant owl and joyful hunts where the bird had to work to maintain pace up with the bloody stallion. Good times, really. Great times even.

Smack!

"Ow! This is the third time in the row! The heck is wrong!?" Dusk turned to the owl nesting on his back with annoyance. This was the third time in the journey. What was wrong with the thing? The bird simply narrowed its eyes at the stallion before smacking him once more.

Smack!

He growled and gave his companion the stink eye before continuing his trot, it wasn’t painful. Far from it but he still felt the impact and it was more of an annoyance, really. "I know that you don't smack me for no reason but I just don't get what's wrong with exploring those ruins." How I didn’t notice the crumbling buildings is beyond me. “Besides,” the stallion continued, “Hunting has started to get boring while exploration has not."

Before, he would’ve thought twice before entering such places but when you’re in a whole new world with barely anything to do and peace just everywhere, you can’t help but feel a bit…

Enclosed.

It wasn’t his fault that he lived in danger for years- 

The sudden change was jarring and if exploring places where he could possibly get such a thing helped then yes, he shall do it.

The bird glared at him and nipped his ear, somehow knowing his thoughts and punishing him for his recklessness.

"Yeowch!"

Dusk glared viciously at the bird who had been relegated to the timeout corner as his hoof lightly rubbed against the side of his left ear which was now clearly missing a sizable chunk, appearing to have been bitten off. 

That bag of feathers was lucky that he knew instant healing magic, if he hadn't... Dusk clicked his tongue. The bird had clipped an artery and he would've bled to death if he hadn't acted quick enough. He chuckled at the very idea of death by bird peck, and gave an amused shake of his head. That would be a rather lame death that Rainbow Blitz would clearly not approve of. The amusement he felt dimmed as memories flashed into the forefront of his mind. Memories of a dark sky, rain and broken hopes and wings

("Hey Dusk..." 

"Yeah?”

A crackle of thunder came from the distance, the pittering of the rain slamming onto his coat but even with such loud sounds and blinding lights, it couldn’t drown the harsh beating of his heart and the dimming of rose colored eyes.

"If I'm gonna go out, can you?..."

...A huff and a rueful chuckle escaped, eyes half-lidded as it stared at the pegasus laying on his forelegs.

"Sure... I'm an egghead after all. I can do anything")

His eyes focused on the campfire before him, the crackling of the burning wood comforting as he sighed. Not like he would’ve died anyways. His magic would've kept him alive until it fully burnt out which would have taken a very long time. 

Dusk couldn’t help but wonder how Solaris and Artermis dealt with the fact that they would live for that long. He even found himself wondering how Roll - Or Prince Amorcito Roulade if you wanted to be fancy - dealt with it.

Dusk leaned back onto the fallen log behind him, his eyes trained onto the beautiful night sky above him. His form would occasionally tense before forcefully relaxing. He exhaled roughly, his eyes shifting to the fire once again. 

He didn't feel like stargazing tonight and instead attempted to go back to sleep, even though he knew that he probably wouldn't get any rest at all. When the overgrown bag of feathers finally decided to slip underneath his wing sometime during the night, Dusk didn't say anything instead simply shifting to accommodate his feathered companion.

It was comforting to have someone close. Someone that isn’t clearly out for him.

Even after realizing that he had in fact managed to sleep well, the pony maintained his silence after he woke up the next day with the bird still sound asleep underneath his wing. Though he refused to acknowledge it, Dusk had a warm feeling in his stomach as his mind swirled.

Dusk knew that today would be a crappy day the moment he’d felt that warm feeling. Whenever something good happened it was inevitable that something bad would appear to balance it out and as always he was right.

What a pain.

Because if he was wrong then he wouldn't be stuck underneath some dumb chamber because of a stupid activation seal! 

Dusk clicked his tongue as he brought out a flashlight from his pouch and with the help of his hooves, he strapped it to his chest. After several short moments the stallion looked around in annoyance as he realized that he still couldn't see even with the extra lighting. 

Damn this place!

It was a waste-

(not really, he was just making excuses and he knows it)

-To use magic but it was dark and he’d rather not risk a surprise attack simply because of his pride.

Taking a breath, Dusk shifted his position. His voice quiet, his magic began to thrum in excitement at the prospect of being used once more. 

As he finished his chant, a small silver magic circle appeared directly below his horn. In the centre was now the symbol of a crescent moon. With a blink, his once darkened sight was then blanketed in a light green. The owl tilted it's head when it noticed his companion's eyes glow faintly before returning to their original colour with a tinge of grey. 
Dusk brought out his coat and wrapped it around himself, deciding that it was chilly enough down here to warrant it and that he'd rather have it on just in case. He hadn’t spent hours enchanting it to help defend against abrupt attacks for nothing, after all.

He made his breathing careful, noticing that the place was blanketed with a thick coat of dust, clearly unused for a long time.

How long is the question.

As he continued to explore the chamber he’d found himself in, the stallion noted that it was attached to a long and sparse corridor. There wasn’t much to be seen in the new corridor other than some extra rubble and a metric ton of dust. 

Dusk clicked his tongue in disappointment before he realized something and his eyes narrowed into his surroundings. The place looked like it was barely held together. Barely, and yet despite that when the pony shifted a pile of rubble a little bit, it hadn't moved. An illusion? It was certainly possible, but he hadn't felt anything drape over any of his senses nor affect his magic in any way. Just as he was about to make another move, he halted and focused his sight on the floor.

Tripwires were everywhere. From high up on the ceiling to the lowest corners of the floors, Dusk immediately shuffled backwards cautiously. He may have shifted back a bit too eagerly as he felt the ground crumble beneath him, his hindleg sinking into the floor slightly. His ears flicked around the moment the sound of gears long old starting to move, the crushing and grinding caused the already paranoid stallion to tense. The dust in the walls started to fall as green magic began to pour out of the cracks in the wall.

'Buck, I screwed up.' Dusk gritted his teeth. If these were anything like the traps in his world then this was really bad. He brought his cloak forward and wrapped it around his muzzle, his eyes flicking around. 

He needed a quick way out but his eyes couldn't seem to focus, was it that green magic? Dusk flinched the moment something bright flashed into his eyes. Buck that hurts! The stallion brought a hoof to his eyes and quickly cancelled the night-vision spell, knowing that bright light mixing with such a sensitive spell could injure his eyes 

After blinking away the resulting spots, Dusk found himself with a spotlight on him.

'Okay, i need a way out but-' Dusk’s ear twitched just before he rolled to the side, a low whistling that flew past the only indication that he’d been attacked. His head shot towards where it came from and he had to duck again as another whistle rang above him. The alicorn clicked his tongue when he noticed just how slow his reactions were. He was starting to get rusty and he didn't like it. Another whistle and he quickly threw his coat in front of him, holding his ground as the weapons continued to attack.

Fwoosh! Thud! Thud! Thud!

The sounds continued for a long time. Enough time that Dusk no longer knew how long he’d been hunkered down behind his cloak. Could stand for a watch… The stallion mentally noted before his ears flicked again as the faint whistling noises finally died down. But what was that green magic? It hadn’t seemed to do anything. Perhaps it was simply excess magic? But if this room holds excess magic… an absorbing chamber perhaps? Or a ceremonial place?

He did see the circle stand just a few feet from him.

Well, if the room just wanted to offer extra magic then Dusk would just have to use it to his advantage.

Getting into position, his hoof quickly moved in front of him as he chanted his incantation. As the stallion continued to speak, the magic around him began to condense and float around him. His ears would twitch occasionally when a sudden large 'CREAK!' was heard. A low rumble roared around him and he gritted his teeth as a pressure settled over him. 

He was already nearly done and if he were to stop now then the magic would implode on itself and damage both him and his surroundings, possibly excessively.

As Dusk finally finished his chant, the finished magic circle beneath him glowed a light purple before bursting into a bright light, blinding anyone potentially peeking in.

Owlowiscious was concerned. Very concerned. He flapped and flew around, pacing as he searched around. The scarred purple one was reckless - a clear opposite to his first - but he was sure that the scarred one knew what he was doing. 

As the bright light died down - a particularly difficult annoyance to his sensitive eyes, he was so going to scold the stallion when this was all over. Owlowiscious quickly tried to find where his charge had gone. After flying through the large and crumble opening the scarred one made and gliding down to where he knew the stallion went, the owl was rather confused.

He couldn’t see his charge and that was especially confusing, given the scarred one was traditionally rather easy to find with his bright orange lining but now the scarred one was nowhere to be found.

After a bit more time spent flying around and trying to call out, the owl still received no answer. That is until he heard his charge start shouting. The scarred one was always annoyed when he was saved. Owlowiscious still didn’t understand why. 

Wasn't it a good thing to be saved?

Questions and inquiries for next time, the small bird decided. He has already located his charge and he needed to go and meet him.

What he saw and heard the moment he managed to focus on his charge's usual orange silhouette concerned him. 

The pony was accompanied by his usual shouting, except it wasn’t directed at Owlowiscious as it traditionally was, instead it was now at the second silhouette standing next to his charge. This was somewhat worrisome to the brown owl until he realized that his charge could very much handle himself.

It still didn’t stop him from being concerned however.

"WHO THE HELL-" The scarred one was angry, extremely so and it was obvious with his gritted teeth and furrowed eyes. His magic pulsing, so ready to lash out. The look immediately vanished when the scarred one saw him and the look of relief that quickly appeared was obvious. 

The bird wondered if he should come close because despite his rather calming deposition, the stallion was still mad as one can see with his volatile magic.

The annoyance quickly came back as he flew closer but Owlowiscious wasn't fooled. The scarred one was concerned - he seemed to hide it but it was probably because of the orange winged one with him - and he would definitely show his appreciation to him later.

"That bird yours?" questioned the orange one. Owlowiscious was a bit confused because she looked rather similar to the rainbow blue winged one but with some kind of circular hat. He decided to ignore it as he landed on his charge, his wing lightly rubbing against the crest of the scarred one and he could feel his tense muscles relax on touch, though not fully. The scarred one was still clearly guarded.

The scarred pony clicked his tongue - a clear sign of annoyance and irritation - and spoke, "Yes and no. He's a free bird that can take care of himself." The passive aggression was clear in that one sentence and he didn't really know what to do about it. The scarred one was always explosive in expressing himself as was his way, but he knew that his charge could control himself.

Somewhat...

The owl hoped so anyways. He'd rather not attempt to break up another fight.

When Daring Do found out about the chamber underneath the Castle of the Two Sisters, she was excited. It meant that she would be able to find more history about the tired old structure, something that not a lot of ponies could claim nowadays. She was far less excited when she found a stallion about to be skewered when she finally unlocked it.

After quickly checking her surroundings and seeing that the place was about to crumble  -was that the stallion's doing? - She had to act quickly and get him out of there. After a particularly stressful situation which involved her flying him out of there, - no easy feat, the winged stallion was heavy! - something made infinitely hard as he kept on struggling, she’d finally settled on knocking him out before carrying him to freedom.

She had expected gratitude, fear or even awe when he woke up but she got none of those from the colt across from her, instead receiving only a hard right hoof straight to the face.

Daring felt her head snap to the side as pain flared at the side of her muzzle. She stood there, agape as she held her cheek. 

"Who. The. Hell. Are you!?" Those were his first words, his teeth bared and form guarded. She didn't even know how to respond. Why was he acting like that? Acting so cautious? Daring Do's eye narrowed onto the stallion. She hadn’t been able to fully observe him with how much he flailed before but now that he was simply upright in front of her...

Daring Do's had to place a hoof over her mouth to stop a gasp at what she saw. If she were asked to describe him, she could do so with one word, scars. 

Dozens of them littered across every inch of the purple stallion's body. It wasn't readily obvious with his coat, but they were there. The most obvious examples were the long and jagged one running alongside his jugular, as if one tried to drag a rusted blade through and the two resting on the other side of his muzzle. 

Claw marks, her mind noticed. Rather deep too.

There was no doubt in the pegasus mind that there were more, but those there were the most readily apparent and obvious ones in her view.

It was.. horrifying.

"Oi, stop staring."

Daring's eyes flicked back to the stallion and she realized that he looked similar to somepony else she had met.

Her eyes narrowed as she focused on his colour scheme, trying to recall who the resemblance was and yet no matter how hard she thought, it escaped her. 

The snarl on his muzzle was still there and her eyes widened at the slightly elongated canines right in front of her. 

Was he a Thestral? He didn’t seem to have the attributes of one, other than the teeth and rather aggressive behaviour.

The sounds of flapping caught her attention and her position shifted to the one flying closer to them. 

Is that an... Owl? What was an owl doing here? 

"Is that bird yours?" She asked awkwardly. Her question was answered by the bird when it landed onto the stallion, a wing wrapping around his crest. A clear sign of comfort, with the way the stallion tensed before lightly relaxing. Sadly, it was obvious that his guard was still up. She would need to try and establish a bit more trust before she could ask what he was doing in the long-forgotten ruins...

He clicked his tongue - he seemed to have been doing that a lot, something the mare knew she would keep in mind - and answered her, his voice gruff as he spoke: "Yes and no. He's a free bird that can take care of itself." She flinched at the hidden meaning in his words. 

She had no doubt that the stallion could take care of himself but with how he looked… it certainly didn’t seem that way. 

She was just concerned, same as any other mare would be in her situation! Stallions like him should be cared for, not be stuck in some hidden chamber in ancient ruins.

Especially with his ruffled fur and the specks of dust and dirt that dominated his messy mane. 

It was like he’d been living in the wild... 

Her posture shifted upright at that thought, her eyes wide as everything began to suddenly click. No wonder he was in there! If he’d been living in the forest then he was probably looking for a home, which would explain what he had been doing in there.

A determined look crossed her face and she nodded, no longer doubting that she needed to get him out of here. No stallion deserved to live in the awful conditions the forest would provide. 

The look of determination turned into one of contemplation. Where was she going to take him? She definitely couldn’t bring him with her during her exploration, nor could she let him live in her stink of a house. Honestly, with how she tended to keep on moving… no stallion wanted nor needed that.

Most Stallions weren’t particularly keen to keep moving. It didn’t allow them to feel safe. The constant traveling prevented them from marking a room with their scent and truly making a home.

Daring was definitely off of the list. She’d need to try and see if someone else could take him in. Her eyes drifted back to the colt in front of her, and it finally struck her as to who he so readily resembled. 

He was reminiscent of the newest princess, Twilight Sparkle. 

The ramifications of such a thing settled in and Daring’s eyes quickly went to work.

The mane and tail were both similar and so was the coat. The only readily apparent difference was the light yellow streak in his mane and his gender. It was no stretch to say that they could be twins.

Daring Do nodded when she finally decided on where the stallion was going to go. Pointing a hoof to his face - he reared back and snarled at it, further reinforcing her train of thought that he needed to be somewhere safe - she gave voice to her conclusion.

"You're coming with me to Ponyville!"

"What!?"