8
Teach
Dusk was told to sign a bunch of documents with the bearers being sent out of the room shortly afterwards. Apparently they were there primarily to serve as witnesses for what turned out to be a bunch of simple things. Like his name, cutie mark and meaning, date of birth, relatives, birth parents-
The quill on his hoof stilled and he found himself starting blankly at that particular line. After a moment had passed, he decided to skip it and instead continued to fill in the others, though something had clearly changed. A gnawing feeling dug into his gut when once clear writing turned shaky, nearly indiscernible the more he continued.
He abruptly flinched when a dark blue hoof took hold of one of his trembling ones. A small tune struck his ears, a lil humm that scratched a part of his brain and his body relaxed with habit.
It was frightening, just how easily he had gotten into a routine long forgotten. If he were to close his eyes it would almost be like he was back in his world, casually signing papers that Prince Solaris gave him while listening to the humming of Artermis but he knew the truth. He bit the inside of his mouth hard enough to draw blood and moved his hoof away, sharp enough that it could be considered rude.
Memories like those needed to be buried. If he kept on digging it up then he would become a liability. Emotional, like a foal fussing over his ice cream.
"I'm alright," was his answer to an unsaid question, his eyes still trained on the nearly finished packet of papers in front of him. Atermis or Luna, or whatever his counterpart is named seemed to disagree, but as moments past with nothing else happening, she finally left his side. The little brush of air that escaped with her caused his fur to bristle as he became all too aware of how alone he is from his side of the table.
A stranger in front of royals. A murderer in a court. Was this his judgement? Would they turn him away if they knew of the atrocities he has committed?
Dusk was a criminal, yes but he meant well. He could cry that he was coerced, forced to become what he is now but those were excuses.
Meaning well, doesn't hide your actions and he knew that deep inside.
Just thinking of it deeper made him nearly slump in his seat and he longed for the weight of somepony by his side. A simple brush against his hoof brought back memories that he dearly missed and if he pressed his snout against his leg he could think of it as somepony else other than himself. He grimaced at that thought. It seemed that no matter where he wound up, he still found himself hoping for companionship no matter how much he wished otherwise.
Pathetic...
Dusk froze and with a Snap! The quill he was writing with broke into two.
His eyes flicked to the two pieces and he quickly sputtered out an apology as the bitter feeling in his gut grew almost immediately, almost making him sick as he spoke. "I- I'm sorry! I haven't written with a quill for such a long time that I must've accidentally-" he was cut off by a laugh from Solari- Celestia and he couldn't help but tense as he sat still. He could feel the blood rushing to his face immediately, making it warm to the touch.
The sickness in his stomach curled and Dusk has never wanted to punch himself so hard until now. Where was his composure? his training? He had made a fool of himself! And in front of Solaris and Artermis, as well as his counterpart no less.
He has snapped bones with the control and finesse of a pony willing to do what is done, yet he fumbles over a simply quill?
Pathetic, he truly is pathetic. Breaking such a feeble thing, just how weak was his self control?
"It's alright Dusk," was she placating him? he wondered. What a kind monarch, he bitterly thought. "It's just a simple quill. It’s nothing to worry about." Dusk didn't believe her. Simple quill his flank, creatures had grudges for less and quickly casted a quick -Reparo- spell on the quill with his newly grown horn. A few more moments passed as he finished all the papers he needed to sign with a flourish.
As he looked up from his fifth recheck, he had to back away at the crazed look on his counterpart's face when she abruptly appeared in front of him, a hoof around his as she grasped the quill. His heart lurched at that and his horn sputtered with charged magic once he realized who it was.
He flinched, hard. Like so hard that he ripped his hoof away, somehow dragging his counterpart closer to him and causing him to still immediately.
The flapping of wings caught his attention and his eyes cleared as realization dawned on him.
A princess is touching him, an alicorn.
He nearly assaulted an a l i c o r n.
No one in the room seemed to have noticed his sharp movement and he couldn't stop the relief he felt at that as his eyes dragged to his counterpart. She sat in front of him as she continued to look at the quill -formerly held in his hoof - with a keen eye, doing all sorts of perspective experiments.
What the fuck, just who does that!? He kept his words to himself tho, a fighter he may be but he had dabbled in democracy before.
"Fascinating..." He heard her murmur and Dusk didn't know what to do, opting to move his head to the side and stare at the Sun and Moon as if hoping for an answer. All they did was simply shake their head with exasperation, a fond smile on their faces. Insane, these ponies are insane. Where was the tact? the control?
Dusk couldn't stop the pang of longing when he saw how they reacted -was that how his teachers would react to him?. As he turned back to his counterpart, he had to move his head away from familiar purple eyes. It made his skin crawl, to has such focus on him.
"How did you do that!? I've never seen a spell like this before, did you perhaps repair it with some kind of glueing spell?" The other purple alicorn didn't seem convinced with her guess as she brought the quill much closer to her face. "I don't see any crack that showed that it was broken in the first place though! This is fascinating! Can you tell how you did this?" She smiled and Dusk couldn't help but give her his own in courtesy, though he was sure that it looked like a grimace.
Polite, Dusk. Be polite. This is a princess, royalty and power in form. It would be rather unfortunate to him if he started throwing hooves like a hooligan.
Calm.
"It's..." He couldn't help but feel an odd sense of confusion as well as something else. It was such a genuine and normal question that he didn't know what to do but answer. When he realised that he had trailed off, he cleared his throat and continued. "It's called -Reparo- and it's usually a low charge spell, but the amount of magic used mostly depends on the size of the object that needs repair." Dusk placed a hoof on his chin as his brain churned with what to say, partially talking out of his flank. "For the best results it’s ideal to have all the pieces along with good concentration-"
Celestia couldn't stop the fondness in her amused expression showcase on her face. She was certain that she would've needed to step in the moment Twilight got a bit too close for comfort but something had changed her mind.
It was such a simple thing, Twilight tending to forget a simple thing called 'personal space' whenever she was interested in something. Normally this would only happen around mares, given Twilight mostly spent her time around them and they didn't particularly mind. Only very rarely was she ever around stallions she didn't know.
Then again, considering how he reacted with Luna, maybe she saw it as a go ahead sign?
With how jumpy Dusk is, she had expected that she'd need to explain to Twilight why she couldn’t just go and invade a ponies -especially Dusk's- personal space unless they knew each other well enough to be comfortable with such proximity, but it seemed like she wouldn’t need to. Before she knew it, they were sitting side by side, with a hyper focused Twilight -along with tons of paper and quills- and Dusk, who was now explaining the ins and outs of the spell he’d cast. Just two purple alicorns, the latter being a shade darker, sharing what they loved most: knowledge.
The solar diarch’s rose coloured eyes narrowed onto Dusk. She had known they looked similar, but side to side? They were practically clones. The only differences that were glaringly obvious were the scars that littered the large purple stallion and the sheer size difference between him and his unscarred other self.
To see a stallion in such a state made her stomach churn but in the end, it gave her another reason.
Celestia turned to look at her sister and her smile grew exponentially when she noticed that Luna was trying to look like she was 'accidentally' eavesdropping. When the dark blue alicorn saw her gaze she couldn't stop the raising of her brow as her sister continued to try and look like she wasn't caught. The higher her brow was raised, the more she could see the barely hidden embarrassment freeing itself from her sister.
"Shush Tia! This is actually interesting." Luna stage whispered as she gave her smug sister a side glare and a small frown. Aforementioned mare just smiled innocently and turned back to the pair of purple alicorns where it seemed that Dusk was now enthusiastically -it was nice to see that he seemed to come out of his shell when he was teaching, she would need to keep that in mind- explaining, now with examples in the form of being surrounded by different packs of paper, seemingly summoned by a still writing Twilight.
"Wait- So while it is highly advised against, it can still be used on creatures?" Twilight asked and she could see that Dusk looked kind of - alot of - uncomfortable with that question, given how he rubbed his crest with a hoof.
"Its, highly advised against for a reason," Dusk gave a short laugh, dry and forced. Celestia winced and wondered if she should step in. "It's not... exactly good to use on anything alive. Reparo helps repair things sure, but you need to understand the composition of what you're using it on. On living things, especially ones who's flesh is living and constantly moving will result in massive scarring because of the almost forceful way of healing.." he trailed off and his hoof fell to the side of his neck and Twilight seemed to take the hint, given the flash of realization that seemed to come into being in her eyes.
"Sorry..." Twilight softly stated. All Dusk did was let out a small awkward smile, placatingly polite. Celestia's eyes narrowed and she leaned closer to a sorrowful looking Luna.
"Can you check up on him during his dreamscape?" Celestia -actually- whispered lowly. While most would think that she was playing favourites given her focus, this was far from the case. At the end of the day, he was an alicorn who had the potential to be wildly unstable. As much as she wanted to help the stallion, she would also need to keep an eye on him to make sure they won't have another Sombra-esque problem on their hooves.
She watched as Luna carefully nodded and then turned back to the chatting pair of purple alicorns. It seemed that she would need to shift her plans for a bit, but she wouldn't lose sight of her original idea. With a smile, she clapped her hooves together and said joyfully, “Speaking of check-ups, how about we go to Ponyville Central Hospital for your medical check-up Dusk? We need to see if you have a clean bill of health.” and see whether or not those scars were what she truly thought or simply fur shaven off.
“Checkup?” Dusk asked hesitantly, a hoof raised as if he was in a classroom while Twilight nodded in response to her mentor’s statement. The sunbringer of Equis couldn’t stop the small grin that grew from the wave of nostalgia triggered by that move.
“Yes, a checkup.” She repeated the statement and her smile shifted to one of concern as Dusk turned a bit paler than what was considered healthy.
“Buck.”