//------------------------------//
// Reunion 
// Story: A Two Pony Trick 
// by BubblesOnMyButt 
//------------------------------//

	"Dusk! How have you been?" Poly glistened with excitement and her enthusiasm reached out to Dusk in turn. As much as it could at least, "I've been fine, thanks." Poly's flank glowed green, he was telling the truth somehow. Poly could have sworn he was constantly depressed. Dusk honed in on the source of the glow and stared quizzically. "That's... new..." Poly looked back and realized that Dusk did not know what her cutie mark was. "Oh, I completely forgot. This is my cutie mark, it turns out I'm a living lie detector!" Dusk smiled, "I always knew that...", his voice still reflected how shy he was really feeling. He had never spoken so much for so long in such a long time. It was nice to feel accepted again.
Dusk began to lower his head again, he remembered the status of his own cutie mark. Poly was not as receptive as he was and had not noticed Dusk's flank yet, possibly because it had not glowed. "What about your cutie mark? I'm really curious to see what you have!" Dusk blushed and moved away a bit. "I, um... well..." Poly was still too excited to notice the signs of fear in Dusk's behavior. "I bet you got some sort of scholar mark, or astronomy, or art, or...", as she continued her delusions of grandeur Dusk began to feel as though he had failed to live up to her expectations. 'Dusk come on, if you black out now her opinion of you will turn for the worse.' Dawn's voice was weak but meaningful, Dusk had learned to trust Dawn a bit more than he had before. 'Right, thanks for the heads up.' Dawn breathed a silent sigh of relief, the truth was he could not allow himself to come to the surface near Poly. She knew too much.
"Um, Poly..." Poly ended her speaking for a moment and awaited Dusk's response patiently. She smiled and awaited the response even if Dusk wasn't excited to share it. Dusk sighed and turned to show his blank flank, the embarrassment almost burned. Poly stopped smiling for a moment. The very thought was one of the saddest things she could think of, a blank flank in high school. 'Poly, it doesn't matter if he is blank or not. You know him as a person and that is all that matters.' She smiled again, now reassured by her own thoughts, and began cheerfully, "Oh Dusk, it doesn't matter anyways. Cutie marks aren't all that special anyways. I know that you are way better than most ponies anyways! So don't worry about it." Dusk smiled and raised his head, that was the nicest thing he had heard in a long time. The bell rang and the students began to move laterally across the halls. Poly gave one last hug to Dusk and Dusk hesitantly returned the embrace. He didn't want to be creepy or anything, but... he had to admit that her mane smelled heavenly.
They split in order to go to their respective classes and the pain of separation hit Dusk on a small scale. It had been a long time since he had seen Poly and the familiar face was so welcoming that he felt like he could reach out a bit more. He almost felt like answering a question in class, but then the thought of social interaction became to much and he decided that keeping his conversations to Poly would be best. Dawn analyzed the situation carefully, he had just joined Dusk once again and he would prefer if he wasn't kicked out. 'Wow, Poly... It had been a while hasn't it?', Dawn pointed out feigning sincerity. Dusk took it as a sincere question, he had tried to read for signs of anger but he found none. 'Ya, it has been a while hasn't it. I really do hope that you have changed Dawn, I don't want you hurting her again. Promise me that you will be on your best behavior.' Dawn was glad he was able to produce the effect that he was sincere and he hoped to keep it that way, for now he would just have to avoid Poly. 'Don't worry Dusk, I've changed... a lot.'
Poly felt a horrible melancholy as the bell rang, she had just found her long lost friend and a measly bell was tearing them apart again. For the moment at least, that thought kept her going yet she felt an emptiness in her heart. She had finally met her friend from long ago, a friend she had refused to forget about for years, yet she felt as though there was no bond between them. There was a space between them and she felt it widen as she realized that she knew nothing of her old friend. She didn't even know that he still didn't have a cutie mark, she didn't find out how Morning was doing, and she didn't know why she registered Dusk saying he was alright as the truth. She had seen him around many times before and she knew something was not right. Maybe she had lost interest in him, maybe... maybe they had grown apart. Yet, there was an inexplicable attraction between them both. It was like their destinies were intertwined... 'Nah, that's just silly', she thought to herself and she moved on into her class.
Dusk went to his first class and sat down. He was in AP Senior English and was clearly dwarfed by all of his non-freshman classmates. "Oh look, a runt of the litter." One pony who was particularly brawny moved over with his cronies over to the desk Dusk sat in. "I don't know how you got into this class, after all you obviously can't read." Dusk tilted his head to the side and observed the face of this offensive pony and his posse. "Look my name is right there...", the large one said as he tapped his hoof on the desk. Dusk looked down and saw no name, he kicked his mind into a hyper sensitive state and prepared for the worst. Bullying was nothing new so it hardly fazed him as he watched the hoof move upwards towards his face in slow motion. The only difference between now and then was that he used to accept it... now he had a secret weapon.
'Dawn?'

...

"Gladly." Red eyes turned to orange in a split second and a sadistic grin stretched across his face.