//------------------------------// // Too Good To Be True // Story: Light in the Dusk // by AlphatheGriffin17 //------------------------------// For the next few days, Dusk had stuck by his promise that he had made after he had visited Fluttershy, to not become involved with anything to do with the rest of the girls, due to his own personal reasons. For the most part, it had worked... though he couldn't help but feel awful about it. Now and again, he had met one of them and they'd attempted to ask him along to something. Pinkie Pie asked him if he wanted to help make cupcakes with her, but he'd managed to get out of that. Applejack invited him down to the farm, but he'd told her he would be busy. Rainbow Dash asked for more help with flying practice, but he'd said he didn't want to risk further injury, and that he'd be busy anyway. Everytime he said no to them, they all looked disappointed for a brief moment, before smiling and wishing him well. It still made him feel bad whenever he saw it though, but he knew it was for the best and, soon enough, they'd realise it was too. The worst was when Fluttershy had asked him around to her house again. When he'd said no, she apologised for bothering him a dozen times and left the scene sadly. She would learn too... Today, however, he'd received an urgent message from Twilight at the library, the only one he truly considered to be his friend, simply because she was the one that knew him best, though he even kept a few secrets from her too. Today, she said in her letter that she and Spike needed his help with something in the library and he needed to get there as soon as he could. This had arrived while he was eating a late breakfast, which he had now quickly eaten, brushed his teeth and was now wrapping his scarf around his neck, picking his saddlebag and tossing it over his shoulder, he hurried out of the door. He prided himself on, at least, being quick at this kind of thing, as well as reliable when needed. He had to admit, he was looking forward to spending some time with Twilight, and Spike too. Even if he would be doing work on his supposed winter vacation, if Twilight needed him, he would be there. "Why, hello there Dusk." He spun around to see Rarity, who was levitating a few shopping bags, filled with fabrics. "Um... good morning, Rarity," he greeted, inclining his head. "How er... how are you?" "Simply splendid, thank you. And yourself?" "I can't complain..." He gestured to the bags that she was carrying. "For the store?" "Indeed, yes. I'm planning on bringing out a new series of slim-line evening gowns for spring. I have a feeling they'll catch on quickly, once I get the designs underway." "Interesting, but..." He hated to point out problems, especially to somepony he liked, but she motioned for him to continue. "Um... isn't it a little early? Spring is still a few, er... months away." "Exactly. If I get the designs and sewing done now, start advertising around December, then I should have several orders in for them by the time spring comes around." She smiled in satisfaction. "I never misplan when it comes to fashion, darling." "Of course, I should have known..." He blushed a little from the affectionate name she used. He tried to excuse himself, but she started again. "Anyway, enough about what I'm doing. What have you been up to, Dusk? I haven't seen you for ages, it seems." "True enough, heh... yes, anyway," he started, "I've been busy at the library and, right now, I'm just enjoying some time off..." "How lovely. Well, if you're not busy, do you fancy popping over to the Boutique for a bit? You can see some of my new designs, and we can have a nice chat, perhaps some tea." "Um, actually, Rarity," he put in, beginning to move away, "Twilight just contacted me, I'm needed at the library. Sorry, I've got to get going..." "It's fine, I understand. It seems you can never truly escape work, can you?" She tittered a little at her joke. "Well, I shall see you later Dusk. My regards to Twilight and Spike, ta-ta." "I'll pass them on. See you er... soon." With one last inclanation, he set off again. At least he had a genuinely good excuse this time, for shrugging off Rarity. Something told him she wouldn't have taken no for an answer otherwise. Arriving at the library, he opened the door, to see the same books he had sorted out a week ago, well some of them anyway, in piles with boxes nearby. Twilight and Spike were just finishing a discussion as he arrived, turning to face him. "Dusk, nice to see you," his friend greeted. "You got here fast." "I've always been kind of speedy, when I need to be." He placed his saddlebag in the corner. "I would have been here sooner but, I got held up..." "It's alright, you still got here quickly. Kinda like Rainbow Dash," she compared. Dusk's eyes flickered to the floor a little at the mention of the pegasus. "Anyway, I'm sorry we disturbed you, but we need your help." "Yeah," Spike said, taking over. "We need to sort through these older books, we're gonna try and sell them off to collectors. Not only that, all this dust is making me- ATCHOO!" Dusk had to duck as a ball of green flame soared over his head and outside the door. Thankfully, it didn't hit anything or anypony. "Right you are," he agreed, smelling a little burning. The fire had just singed the tip of his mane. "The sooner we move these books out of here, the sooner we aren't in danger of Spike burning the good ones. No offense." "None -ATCHOO- taken." That last one was smaller, thankfully. "Let's get started with- ATCHOO!" "Uh, Spike," Twilight said quietly. "Maybe it would be best if you went outside for this. Dusk and me can handle it." "Alright, alright. Have fun you gu- ATCHOO!" He cringed a little as it singed the floor, quickly making his way out. As he did, Dusk notice him exchange a fervent, almost concerned glance with Twilight. At first, Dusk thought it was by some way of silent apology for almost burning the good books. But... he couldn't help but feel that something else motivated that look. He glanced at Twilight, who was giving him a slightly more soft expression in return. He couldn't help but feel they were... up to something... Twilight must have seen him looking, as she replaced it with a smile. As such, Dusk dismissed the look the two had exchanged. It was obviously something private, so Dusk decided not to pry into it. Spike left outside, giving one last sneeze and shut the door behind him. "Well Dusk, shall we get started? I'll show you all of the boxes we need to sort the books into..." "Right you are." "Dusk, just so you know, I've received an urgent note from Princess Celestia. Me and my friends need to investigate something in the Everfree Forest tomorrow. We should only be gone for a few minutes, but could you come in and watch the library with Spike? Just until I get back?" "You need only ask," he assured her, smiling confidently. Once she directed him to all of the boxes for different genres, history, science, classics, they set about sorting through the large pile of old books that Twilight had gathered up. From what Dusk could tell, most of these would be valuable to collectors and would make them quite a bit of money. As he sorted through them, Dusk couldn't help but notice that Twilight seemed a little preoccupied with something else. Three separate times, he had to re-sort three books she had placed into the wrong boxes, because she hadn't checked them first. She was acting distracted, distant almost, like there was some fierce debate in her head. He was about to ask her if anything was wrong, when she tried talking to him, trying to sound casual: "So Dusk... how's your winter vacation been going?" "Um... fine, thank you." He decided to go along with it. "Not too bad, I've just been relaxing, catching up on reading..." "Great." Silence followed. "Do you... have a lot of reading to do?" "Quite a bit, I suppose..." "It must be, because-" She stopped herself suddenly. "Actually, never mind." "No, go on," he urged. He was anxious to know what she had to say. "It's just that..." She paused, trying to find the right words. "Well... Rainbow, Pinkie, Applejack and Fluttershy have told me that they... invited you to join them for activities, but that you told them that you were busy." "Oh." At that moment, Dusk wished that he hadn't pressed on the matter. He tried to just return to work, hoping Twilight would too... but she persisted. "Must be an awful lot of reading to do. Not that that's a bad thing." "Yeah... I guess..." "So... if you're not too busy then, would you like to join me and the others later? We're just going to meet up, catch up, it'll be fun." "I uh... I'm not sure, Twilight... I don't know..." Please, he thought desperately, just drop it. "Dusk." He stopped and turned to look at her. She wasn't angry, but she looked worried. "Is there something wrong?" "No!" he replied, a little too quickly. "I mean um... no, nothing's wrong at all." "Are you sure? You can talk to me if you need to, you know that right?" "I know, and no... there's nothing wrong..." "Then, what's going on? You seem to keep making excuses, to avoid the rest of my friends." So, they had noticed, that he'd been rejecting them. "I could be wrong, but I just want to know why." "There's nothing to know, because there's nothing wrong..." "Then why don't you want to see my friends? Why are you avoiding them?" "I'm not avoiding them..." "But-" "Twilight! Please, just drop it!" He was rather shocked to have raised his voice like that. So was Twilight. "I'm sorry... I... didn't mean to snap like that..." "It's okay," she said gently, "I suppose I should have just stopped. It's just... me and my friends, we're worried about you. If there is anything wrong..." "There isn't..." He turned away from her, heading back towards the door. "I'll be right back I... I think I left something at home." "Alright, take your time..." It was like she knew. He couldn't bare to look her in the eye, as he hurried out, past Spike and back home, slamming the door behind him. As soon as he did, he stamped the floor in frustration, trying to fight back the tears that were threatening to take hold, feeling angry, sad and perhaps a little guilty at the same time. Why did she have to ask him about that, he thought angrily. Didn't she understand, that they could be friends if they wanted, but that the others...the others would want nothing to do with him, soon enough? That he was just doing this so that it would be easier on them, and him, when they eventually just left him alone? But as the minutes passed, and he thought more about it, his anger began to alleviate, his common sense breaking through, making him think rationally. What had happened the last time he had been thinking like this? It had turned out that he'd been worrying and fussing over nothing, that they hadn't minded at all. He had just overreacted. He supposed that... they might genuinely care about him, perhaps a little. Twilight said that they had been worried about what he had been doing. It had been rather rude of him, to just turn them down like that, without even giving an adequate reason as to why he was doing it. Some gentlecolt you are, he could hear Rarity say... What had he said to Applejack? That he wouldn't forget again who his friends were, even if they might not stay that way for long. All things considered, he at least owed them all an explanation for his behaviour. Maybe he could try to make them understand his way of thinking, as to why he had been rejecting them. Considering how kind they'd all been to him, it was the least he could do. He allowed himself a few more minutes to calm down, wiped away his tears, grabbed his quill so he might have a good excuse lined up, and began to make his way back to the library. Dusk was still going over exactly how to explain himself in his head when he reached the door. He stopped, to go over the final details, when he could hear voices on the other side. More than just Twilight and Spike. It sounded as if the others were there too. He hadn't planned on this, to explain to all of them at once. Had Twilight called them all around after he'd left, or had they all just arrived here as the arranged meeting point for their activity today? Curiosity took over him, he needed to know what they were saying... Realising this was becoming a bad habit, he put his ear to the door and listened. Twilight was the one currently talking: "... tried to ask him about it, but he wouldn't say anything. He got upset again, so I let him go home for a bit, to let himself be calmed down." "That pony really likes ta keep himself bottled up, don't he?" That was Applejack he could hear now. "Ah mean, we've barely seen him at all since he got here." "Not quite true," Pinkie piped up, "he was at the Running of the Leaves, and he went to see Fluttershy." "Yeah, but Pinkie, it's been days since the race," Rainbow pointed out. "Plus, if he did go and see Fluttershy without being asked, then why'd he say no the time she did ask?" "He said he was busy... I didn't want to bother him, if that was the case..." Luckily, Fluttershy was standing closest to the door, or else he wouldn't have heard her. "But Fluttershy dear, that's what he's been saying with all of us too," Rarity said delicately. "He makes excuses, usually poor ones, to not spend any time with us." "I'm not sure about this girls," Twilight said again. "There's something he's not telling us. He's a nice pony and a good friend, to me at least, so I think we should give him a chance to explain himself." "I suppose so," Rainbow said doubtfully. Then, more confidently. "I say we make him tell us, set Pinkie talking until he cracks." "Ooh, ooh, I love talking! Whatdya wanna talk about? Let's talk about cakes, I love cake 'cause it's so sweet and yummy and there's so many kinds. There's chocolate, lemon, coffee, carrot, vanilla, vanilla with chocolate, blue-" Her voice became muffled, and she stopped. "Hold yer horses there girl," Applejack pacified. "Ah don't think we need to go that far. Ah agree with Twah'light. When he gets back, we ask him ta tell us why he's been avoidin' us, if he has. But gently mind, we know how sensitive he is..." "I'm sure that, whatever it is, won't be that bad," Twilight said encouragingly. "Everypony deserves a second chance." Dusk's suspicions were confirmed: they had started to notice his behaviour towards them, and they certainly sounded offended. He hadn't meant to do that, but he felt rather guilty now it was the end result. This gave him all the more reason to walk in there and explain himself to them all. But he was stopped, by what Rarity said next: "Twilight, I do understand and I think you're right as well. While his behaviour has been rude, I think he means well. I'm rather glad that Princess Celestia instructed you to make friends with him." "Rarity, that's not right at all-" Dusk didn't hear the rest of what she would have said, because at that point, he stopped listening, as something inside him plummeted and replayed those words over and over again. "Princess Celestia instructed you to make friends with him..." All of this time he thought Twilight genuinely wanted to be his friend, that the others wanted to be his friend, had all just been because that Princess Celestia had told them to do it. How could it have possibly been genuine? How could they have actually wanted to be his friend? More importantly... why had he been so stupid to not realise it before? It all made sense now: why they had been so friendly to him, acting like his friend when they had barely known him, being kind and appreciative of what he did, trying to include him in things they did. They were just doing it because the Princess had told them to... it had all been a lie... and he'd been stupid, naieve enough to believe it. Suddenly, Dusk just felt... numb. He wasn't sure if he was sad, angry, or deppressed by this realisation. He just knew that, right now, he didn't want to see any of them for a while. He just wanted to be alone. He trudged off back to his home, the snow crunching beneath his hooves, aware of how dead and lifeless the trees actually looked. When he had closed the door and locked it, he lay on the couch, trying to make sense of it all, but in the end just staring blankly into space. To try and organise himself, and to ease his growing pain, he decided to resort to his own pathetic methods. He weaved them all out of colour, slightly fainter than usual and placed his own avatar at the centre. He depicted him as happy, jumping around and smiling at them all, the illusion of acceptance. As he jumped and bounced, they all remained still, like statues, smiles fixed on their faces. His puppet realised something was wrong, investigating the Rainbow puppet. She vanished, fading into nothingness. Alarmed, he moved to Applejack. She vanished too. One by one, they all did. Finally, he dashed to the Twilight one, trying to desperately keep a hold of her. She stayed the longest, but in the end, she faded away as well. His puppet was the only one left, hanging his head, for shame of looking like such a fool. Alone. He didn't know how long he sat there for, how long he watched his form just sit there. Finally, he erased his puppet too, resorting to the only thing he could do, to let out his emotions. Dusk Noir, now reflecting his puppet, hung his head, buried it in his forelegs and wept. Sobbing, with nopony to hear him... In the dark depths of the Everfree Forest, in the harsh world of its cave, something was laughing. A hideous, horse and empty sound, with no warmth or joy in it. Well, perhaps a little. It had done it. It had successfully mimicked those... letters his most hated enemy sent to her pathetic little student, and, using the magic it had stored, had now sent off its forgery to the unicorn Sparkle. Its plans were finally in motion, after all of these years. Soon... soon she would come, with her little friends. It would separate them, make them helpless, powerless. It would start with Sparkle, with her great power she would surely feed it best. Then, the others. Then... Celestia and Luna. It would be... delicious. "At lasssst," it hissed. "After all of thessssse yearsssss..." It laughed again, in evil satisfaction. And the creatures of the forest shuddered to hear it.